Oh there’s no issue with softball players, I was just speaking about boys, because they all have that push to make it to college and the pros.
My argument is they'd probably be better off with the rest. If it works for the guys making tens of millions to perform their best, it makes sense for the the kids too.
I, for one, am wholly supportive of charging the shit out of middle and upper-middle class parents for their kids to play whatever. None of your kids are going to amount to shit and it helps those that can’t afford to pay. If you want to do some highbrow travel team shit, that’s on you. The only sport I can think of that is incredibly dependent on a pay to play sort of system is hockey.
As a school coach, it’s had a pretty pronounced effect on our seasons. Have to regulate their innings very carefully to avoid fatigue and there’s a lot more wear and tear type stuff than I ever encountered as a player.
*can’t play in the gated community, trying to figure out next Rolex purchase, travel league for kids that aren’t very good at sports, but darn it, they sure are special league*
Not sure if this is some kind of burn directed at me but accessibility to youth sports is a well documented issue in this country.
This is the missing component. Someone needs to figure that part out belt everyone is to self involved who enter this space to think of solutions. And that’s why we’ll never win the World Cup.
Yes the sport or Ivy League schools is well inundated with travel clubs and it's also super expensive
i know a guy who sent his teenager up to VA for a camp last summer and he's going back again. I am not sure there is a more expensive team sport than Lacrosse.
True but tbh going pro in hockey is prob pretty easy you’re competing against a bunch of Canadian bozos who couldn’t make it in figure skating
I will selfishly spend whatever money it takes to keep my kid into golf if it means he isn't playing travel baseball
my kid had to pick between summer baseball (6 weeks, ends first week in june) or golf and he chose baseball. going to get him out a bunch in june and july
at least golf is a sport where it could, in theory, actually pay off Nobody in the MLB is there because mom and dad spent enough money when they were 14
My 4 year old loves to dance and twirl a baton. Dude has legit skills. He also loves soccer and basketball IDK which way I'm rooting right now. Flag Man in the band or AAU hell
It was after one of those player-for-hire trips that Sheri began to understand that her son was really special. Bryce, then 12, was playing in a tournament in Alabama on a field with 250-foot fences. It was a trip Sheri could not attend. When Bryce phoned home, Sheri asked him how he'd done. "I did all right," he replied. ADVERTISEMENT Later one of the coaches called Sheri. "Did he say anything to you?" the coach asked. "No, not really," Sheri said. "He went 12 for 12. Eleven home runs and a double." "That," Sheri says, "is when I knew." Nearly every chance they could, the Harpers had Bryce play against kids two or three years older than he was. "I love playing against the older guys," Bryce says,"because I love showing up the older guys." Bryce Harper is the product of a travel baseball industry that mushroomed, just as he himself was growing up, into big business. There seems no end to the tournaments, all-star games, showcases, wood-bat leagues, USA Baseball youth teams, "scout teams" sponsored by major league clubs. Premier players such as Harper can end up playing more baseball than minor leaguers, which can quicken baseball's traditionally long development process. This summer, for instance, Harper will play two weeks for a travel team in Oklahoma, participate in an 18-and-under all-star tournament in North Carolina, go up against college players in a wood-bat league in California, compete in Yankee Stadium for a scout team sponsored by the Yankees, play in Fenway Park at an all-star benefit game, attend the USA Baseball 18U team trials and, assuming he makes that club, play in the Pan Am Championships in Venezuela in late September.
It’s genetics, but travel helped his progression with playing against the best competition, and development
lol stunned that the dude who is really really really into travel sports to the point where he thinks it’s cool to take his kids out of school has Bryce Harper travel baseball articles at the ready
He’s really just one example to counter your argument of Nobody in the MLB is there because mom and dad spent enough money when they were 14
Guys, if you don’t make your kid throw all year, he will later in life break his arm in an adult softball game when he tries throwing a runner out from third on a fly ball.
He is really good, nobody is disputing that, but the travel market is what made him a phenom and on the cover of si at 16. Scouts don’t want to see him slaughter local competition, they wanted to see him play the best of the best, which cost his parents a fortune to travel the country while he played up in 16u and 18u.
can totally see how the bigs would've overlooked Bryce's ability to hit balls into orbit had it not been for all the tourney's he played in
Complete bullshit, you've bought into it fully I watched Jeff Mathis play at a shit HS in sneakers, dude had a scout for every team at every baseball, football, dairy farm event etc.
I think if your kid is a legit phenom in high school it's not crazy to do travel. I would hate it. but if he really has the juice it's not crazy to spend money in 16U and 18U. where it gets stupid is when you are traveling around the country and pulling kids out of school before puberty. 7U, 8U, 9U travel is a money suck grift.
I’m not saying scouts don’t come to school ball games, I’m saying they weigh travel a lot more heavily because that’s where your more elite ball players are going to be.
One of the other downsides of travel sports is you’re hanging with a lot of parents who named their kids baydyn etc
"Your son will have the best coaching and play vs elite talent which will help him realize his dream.......of playing against some kids who will actually make it to the show"
JJ Wetherholt is a top 10 pick and didn't do all the travel stuff. Said he just didn't want to. Still ended up at D1
Scouts will always find elite talent, you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars a year so your kid can get a 25% scholarship to a $50,000 a year private school
Yeah was going to mention him. He didn’t play travel or go to show cases, but when you hit .500 as a freshman in HS you’re going to get noticed
See… I can somewhat agree with this, because there are different levels to travel ball. In the girls world, there’s A, B, and C class ball. C class ball is nothing more than ball dads that got upset about little Susie’s playing time in rec and went and started his own team, and couldn’t coach or develop his way out of a wet paper sack.
I also just think this discussion is hilarious because my brother in law is DDB level when it comes to his kids playing sports. My nephew is 12 and every time their family is asked to do anything they always have some sporting event that day.