I gusss your kid didn't make the travel ball team. Because you sure have a axe to grind with those people which has absolutely nothing to do with the nil mess.
btw, it isn't about status. There is a number of reasons people participate in travel ball. One is that rec horribly bad for numerous reasons. Two, and important, their kids want to play at a higher level and with friends. Also for me, we played for those reasons and it was about having fun. Period.
Agree. Travel ball is a must now simply because rec ball isnt any good anywhere. The last rec ball team we tried to play on and support. No score was kept, umpires didnt know the rules, and you were combining 3 age groups to get enough people to field a team. They were begging adults to coach, some of the adults didnt even understand the rules/game. Even then.. there might have been 3 players that could throw and catch without having to worry about them being hit in the face.
Travel ball destroyed rec ball. However now days, if you even want to resemble playing the game of baseball, its a must you play. And i think most parents hate it, and dont do it to keep up with the joneses--- they again do it so their kid can actually enjoy playing the sport
Blah blah, I know all this bullcheet, that's old news. I did it too. And I admit it was fun, for me. I would argue that most parents actually love it, not hate it. It's en vogue middle class America small talk to sit around and act like you don't, and that you have somewhere better to be, but it's nonsense. Your money shows your priorities, and youth sports is high dollar entertainment. But it begs the question, why is it the sports with the smallest return on investment (baseball and soccer, specifically for boys) are the ones that cost the most? Football and basketball are much cheaper, paid for by other sources. It's just an interesting phenomena that I have noticed.
It's causing baseball to drop in popularity, or at least it may be one of the factors. Most of the best athletes are playing other sports. The ones that stay and grind through travel ball are the ones that want it badly, and often over coached. Obviously there are some good athletes there too that love baseball, so this isn't a catch all, but I'm trying to be broad here. Bottom line, the 'economy' of baseball is pricing people out and the sport is ending up with less talent - THUS, you see MLB trying to dip into the inner cities and the DR or wherever to try and find talent....and ultimately additional fans. It's just not in a good spot, and it's not the best way to promote baseball. The 'economy' is taking advantage of the sport.
So, in this day and age of athletics, what's the best overall bang for the buck? We know that are going to have to specialize to an extent, even the best athletes have to do that nowadays, unless you live in a very small town. I'm talking about the average athletes, which most kids fall into. Kids that aren't super athletes, but may could get some college opportunities. If you're big - football. If you're tall - basketball. But I would lean more towards golf or just overall individual fitness or self defense classes (BJJ, TKD, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, etc.), over team sports for the rest, at least after middle school. Because the problem with club/travel is that it's not about the TEAM at all.....it's about the best ones, and the rest subsidizing. Nothing about weekend tournaments teaches kids anything about hard work over the long haul. It's all immediate gratification, and transactional in nature.
This is also why I don't see the MLS ever really getting too big. You aren't getting the best athletes and you're pricing out the rest.
And both of those sports are hard on knees and arms, as we know, in addition to the small return.
I want to see this turn around for baseball, because that's what I'm most invested in, mainly at MSU. I just think there are better ways to do it, but I'm off that wagon. It would take a collective effort, and it's not happening. So I no longer waste time with things I can't change. Unfortunately &tate appears to be one of those things, but that's another topic for the dead horse beating some other day.
Considering all that, I actually 100% agree with you guys on the necessity of travel ball at this time, 2024. Another funny thing to me is seeing a lot of the parents who held out on travel ball (we started early) finally get into it and a year later they are posting all these memes justifying it and being as gungho as the OGs.
Just know that it's not about scholarship and future payoff - that's my ultimate point. Treat it as entertainment and fun and it's all good, so again, we agree. I actually think most people know this deep down, but for whatever reason (go back to my first paragraph about it being en vogue) they claim they hate it and they are only doing it so he can make whatever team, showcase, get a scholarship, etc.). These words are uttered all the time, every weekend.
