Primetime travel baseball scumbags

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poster asking for training recs has an 8th grader so not trying out for HS until next year.

Best option we’ve found near-ish to Bethesda is Primal 1 Baseball in Gaithersburg. It’s not affiliated with any of the travel teams so guys from tons of teams train together. Instructors are great and focus on helping players figure out how to correct/adjust their swing etc.

I don't know about Montegomery county, but a lot of counties let 8th graders try out for HS if the middle school doesn't offer the sport. It's common in Arlington for 8th graders to try out for baseball.

Yes common to try out but very few make it.

Not true. A good number of 8th graders make JV, especially at W-L and Yorktown.

Yorktown coaches told the kids that they would take 2 8th graders and that they won’t play. I know it’s a huge honor to be selected, but wouldn’t it be better from a development standpoint to stay with your travel team for the spring and actually play in games? I can think of about almost 15 8th graders trying out. Very few for w&L and Wakefield isn’t strong so the 8th graders trying out will probably make it.

Why wouldn't they be able to play with their travel teams on the weekends?

Because that’s not how it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poster asking for training recs has an 8th grader so not trying out for HS until next year.

Best option we’ve found near-ish to Bethesda is Primal 1 Baseball in Gaithersburg. It’s not affiliated with any of the travel teams so guys from tons of teams train together. Instructors are great and focus on helping players figure out how to correct/adjust their swing etc.

I don't know about Montegomery county, but a lot of counties let 8th graders try out for HS if the middle school doesn't offer the sport. It's common in Arlington for 8th graders to try out for baseball.

Yes common to try out but very few make it.

Not true. A good number of 8th graders make JV, especially at W-L and Yorktown.

Yorktown coaches told the kids that they would take 2 8th graders and that they won’t play. I know it’s a huge honor to be selected, but wouldn’t it be better from a development standpoint to stay with your travel team for the spring and actually play in games? I can think of about almost 15 8th graders trying out. Very few for w&L and Wakefield isn’t strong so the 8th graders trying out will probably make it.

Why wouldn't they be able to play with their travel teams on the weekends?

Because that’s not how it works.

It can work if the travel team is ok with it. The player may miss practice during the week, but can play on weekends. My son’s 14U team had an 8th grader who would play with team like this. It was great to have him ready to pitch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poster asking for training recs has an 8th grader so not trying out for HS until next year.

Best option we’ve found near-ish to Bethesda is Primal 1 Baseball in Gaithersburg. It’s not affiliated with any of the travel teams so guys from tons of teams train together. Instructors are great and focus on helping players figure out how to correct/adjust their swing etc.

I don't know about Montegomery county, but a lot of counties let 8th graders try out for HS if the middle school doesn't offer the sport. It's common in Arlington for 8th graders to try out for baseball.

Yes common to try out but very few make it.

Not true. A good number of 8th graders make JV, especially at W-L and Yorktown.

Yorktown coaches told the kids that they would take 2 8th graders and that they won’t play. I know it’s a huge honor to be selected, but wouldn’t it be better from a development standpoint to stay with your travel team for the spring and actually play in games? I can think of about almost 15 8th graders trying out. Very few for w&L and Wakefield isn’t strong so the 8th graders trying out will probably make it.

Why wouldn't they be able to play with their travel teams on the weekends?

NP: in my area, it is is prohibited to play travel during the high school season. My 8th grader has two freshmen on his travel team and they will be absent until the high school season has completed. Not sure if they are allowed to practice with travel team but they have not been. They left right before HS tryouts and will return for summer ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

It's not so much about the money as it is about the time. Maybe there are other things your family could do -- other experiences they could have together or individually? Travel? Other sports? Other interests? Maybe it would be nice to have family memories that don't all center around baseball. It seems insane to make your lives so narrow for so long when there is so little payoff in the end. The kids that I know who stayed dedicated all the way through the college recruitment process ended up worse off because they had such tunnel vision about baseball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

Doesn't sound like the kids had all that much fun and seems like at least one of the kids in PP's example is now a college flunked out loser.

My kid is playing varsity baseball in college but we made it clear you only play for a college you wanted to attend even if baseball wasn't an option. We kind of "struck gold" in that both baseball and one of our kid's top college choices aligned.

It helps to also know kids that play club baseball in college and very much enjoy it. If the varsity team didn't work out, my kid would have been fine playing club team for a large university (which has a top 10 ranked D1 baseball program).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

Those people are delusional. When was the last time Yorktown, WHS, TC/AC, West Springfield, etc sent a kid to the majors? Maybe two kids in 15 years? Out of the thousands and thousands and thousands of kids playing baseball in the DC area. My son is now a sophomore in college playing low key club and loving it. I sure don't miss sitting next to loser dads like this going on and on about how Tyler is going pro. Tyler isn't going pro. Tyler will be lucky to ride the bench at Gettysburg. And then he graduates (if hes lucky) with some crappy and worthless sports management degree. You just dunked $100,000 and 12 years of your life in the trash.

Look- if your kid is having fun, that is one thing, but you aren't grooming him through Prime Time or Reds to be a star. They just want your money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

Those people are delusional. When was the last time Yorktown, WHS, TC/AC, West Springfield, etc sent a kid to the majors? Maybe two kids in 15 years? Out of the thousands and thousands and thousands of kids playing baseball in the DC area. My son is now a sophomore in college playing low key club and loving it. I sure don't miss sitting next to loser dads like this going on and on about how Tyler is going pro. Tyler isn't going pro. Tyler will be lucky to ride the bench at Gettysburg. And then he graduates (if hes lucky) with some crappy and worthless sports management degree. You just dunked $100,000 and 12 years of your life in the trash.

Look- if your kid is having fun, that is one thing, but you aren't grooming him through Prime Time or Reds to be a star. They just want your money.

There's truth to this. Going pro is a dream but it happened for 3 young men that my son played with. Most of his cohort went on to D1 and D3 programs and are now gainfully employed. Companies value college athletes for their discipline, time management and competitiveness. I'd much rather my sons belong to a college team than a frat.

The benefit of travel baseball is that it provides a productive outlet for young men. They lift weights, exercise, belong to a community and tend to avoid substance abuse. They strive to reach goals, learn to operate as part of a team and have relationships with non-parent adults who (in the best cases) leave lasting impressions. My son's college coach is a real builder of men. I'm so grateful for his presence in my son's college experience.

Without sports, teen boys fill those after-school hours and weekends with wall-to-wall video games and Snapchat. Many don't exercise or develop any fitness, it's really a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

Those people are delusional. When was the last time Yorktown, WHS, TC/AC, West Springfield, etc sent a kid to the majors? Maybe two kids in 15 years? Out of the thousands and thousands and thousands of kids playing baseball in the DC area. My son is now a sophomore in college playing low key club and loving it. I sure don't miss sitting next to loser dads like this going on and on about how Tyler is going pro. Tyler isn't going pro. Tyler will be lucky to ride the bench at Gettysburg. And then he graduates (if hes lucky) with some crappy and worthless sports management degree. You just dunked $100,000 and 12 years of your life in the trash.

Look- if your kid is having fun, that is one thing, but you aren't grooming him through Prime Time or Reds to be a star. They just want your money.

There's truth to this. Going pro is a dream but it happened for 3 young men that my son played with. Most of his cohort went on to D1 and D3 programs and are now gainfully employed. Companies value college athletes for their discipline, time management and competitiveness. I'd much rather my sons belong to a college team than a frat.

The benefit of travel baseball is that it provides a productive outlet for young men. They lift weights, exercise, belong to a community and tend to avoid substance abuse. They strive to reach goals, learn to operate as part of a team and have relationships with non-parent adults who (in the best cases) leave lasting impressions. My son's college coach is a real builder of men. I'm so grateful for his presence in my son's college experience.

Without sports, teen boys fill those after-school hours and weekends with wall-to-wall video games and Snapchat. Many don't exercise or develop any fitness, it's really a waste.

You are a unicorn if 3 of your son's teammates went pro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

Those people are delusional. When was the last time Yorktown, WHS, TC/AC, West Springfield, etc sent a kid to the majors? Maybe two kids in 15 years? Out of the thousands and thousands and thousands of kids playing baseball in the DC area. My son is now a sophomore in college playing low key club and loving it. I sure don't miss sitting next to loser dads like this going on and on about how Tyler is going pro. Tyler isn't going pro. Tyler will be lucky to ride the bench at Gettysburg. And then he graduates (if hes lucky) with some crappy and worthless sports management degree. You just dunked $100,000 and 12 years of your life in the trash.

Look- if your kid is having fun, that is one thing, but you aren't grooming him through Prime Time or Reds to be a star. They just want your money.

There's truth to this. Going pro is a dream but it happened for 3 young men that my son played with. Most of his cohort went on to D1 and D3 programs and are now gainfully employed. Companies value college athletes for their discipline, time management and competitiveness. I'd much rather my sons belong to a college team than a frat.

The benefit of travel baseball is that it provides a productive outlet for young men. They lift weights, exercise, belong to a community and tend to avoid substance abuse. They strive to reach goals, learn to operate as part of a team and have relationships with non-parent adults who (in the best cases) leave lasting impressions. My son's college coach is a real builder of men. I'm so grateful for his presence in my son's college experience.

Without sports, teen boys fill those after-school hours and weekends with wall-to-wall video games and Snapchat. Many don't exercise or develop any fitness, it's really a waste.

You are a unicorn if 3 of your son's teammates went pro.

1 from the high school team and 2 from travel teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

And most importantly it’s no one else’s business how families choose to spend their time. If the kid loves it while it lasts it would seem like a pretty awesome childhood, even if some folks feel it’s a “waste” if kid doesn’t go pro someday.

Maybe I should stop letting my kid play with Lego so much, too? I don’t see much of a future in it for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

Doesn't sound like the kids had all that much fun and seems like at least one of the kids in PP's example is now a college flunked out loser.

My kid is playing varsity baseball in college but we made it clear you only play for a college you wanted to attend even if baseball wasn't an option. We kind of "struck gold" in that both baseball and one of our kid's top college choices aligned.

It helps to also know kids that play club baseball in college and very much enjoy it. If the varsity team didn't work out, my kid would have been fine playing club team for a large university (which has a top 10 ranked D1 baseball program).

Yeah, no one needs parenting advice from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

Doesn't sound like the kids had all that much fun and seems like at least one of the kids in PP's example is now a college flunked out loser.

My kid is playing varsity baseball in college but we made it clear you only play for a college you wanted to attend even if baseball wasn't an option. We kind of "struck gold" in that both baseball and one of our kid's top college choices aligned.

It helps to also know kids that play club baseball in college and very much enjoy it. If the varsity team didn't work out, my kid would have been fine playing club team for a large university (which has a top 10 ranked D1 baseball program).

Yeah, no one needs parenting advice from you.

I guess your kid is the one that flunked out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t tryouts next week? I mean this kindly, but if your kid doesn’t play travel, don’t they have almost zero chance of making a public high school team?

He's in eighth grade and doing eigth grade tryouts right now. He says it's going well. He may not make the HS team, but baseball is not his primary sport. He's a good player, he just likes other sports better and so doesn't do travel. He could probably play travel if he wanted to put in the time to do it, but honestly it has always seemed like a waste of time and money if it's not your kid's passion or primary sport. I've seen 3 families that we are close with dedicate every weekend of their lives for years and years to baseball in order to support a really passionate and seemingly talented kid who was a star on their travel team. Those kids ended up going to really marginal colleges to play baseball with the hope, I guess, of MLB or transfer to a D1 school. Two of those kids (one is my cousin's kid) left the sport altogether when it was clear they weren't going to MLB or a D1 program. Those 2 kids ended up transfering to a better college after having wasted 2 years at the marginal school. The other kid got injured and ended up not even graduating from the marginal school or any college. I have to think those families wonder whether having their entire lives dicated by baseball schedules for like 8 years and spending their kids's entire childhoods at baseball tournaments was really worth it in the end.

Honestly, I don't get it. Youth athletics are out of control. It's ridiculous that preteens and teens have to specialized to the point of neglecting all other aspects of their lives if they want to play on their school's team. Money and time wise, baseball (and a lot of other travel/club sports) seem like a long con run by a bunch of grifters preying on the fears of parents that their kids won't get into college or won't otherwise succeed unless they follow the travel sport bridge to nowhere.

The kids have fun and the money is not important so I don't see an issue.

And most importantly it’s no one else’s business how families choose to spend their time. If the kid loves it while it lasts it would seem like a pretty awesome childhood, even if some folks feel it’s a “waste” if kid doesn’t go pro someday.

Maybe I should stop letting my kid play with Lego so much, too? I don’t see much of a future in it for him.

Do Legos cost thousands and thousands of dollars? Require you to take short, expensive, overnight trips all across the country a dozen or more times a year? Disrupt your care and attention to any other children you have? Put thousands and thousands of miles on your vehicle?

What an absurd analogy.