Question about youth baseball

[Anonymous]

I know basically nothing about youth baseball as my son has zero interest in it. But I am seeing so many posts on my Facebook feed from parents of boys who are playing. Based on their posts it seems like all of them are all stars winning games and heading to some major championship game or tournament. Am I just friends with people whose kids happen to all be amazing at baseball or are there just a ton of leagues and championship/all star type games in this sport? It seems like every post is about how their kids' team won the championship or if they just win this one game they are going on to play in some major championship. These are all teams in the state of VA. Surely there can only be one champion at the state level? All these parents' posts make it sound like their kids are on the verge of winning something really prestigious. My son and the kids of people my age are just getting to be old enough for semi-serious youth sports so it's interesting to see all the social media posts about baseball.

[Anonymous]

All stars is an extension of recreational Little League- basically they take the top kids per Little League l, put them on a team and play against the top kids from neighboring little leagues (districts). The winner of the district (usually 10+ teams) advances to the state tournament and plays against other district champion teams. At the 12u level (the last year of little league) there are also regionals etc with the top teams advancing to the little league World Series that they show on TV.

Travel ball is completely separate. There are a million different tournaments, and teams at all different ages and levels. Not only do tournaments divide by age (10u 11u 12u etc) but also by skill level (AA, AAA, Majors etc). Teams play against similarly skilled teams, and there is a tournament winner for each level (so 11U Majors, 11U AAA, 11U AA etc). Some even break it down further and have different brackets with a “gold winner” “silver winner” etc. This gives most teams a reasonable chance of success to win a “championship” against kids the same age and skill level.

Championships don’t mean much, without context. It is really just for fun. For example, a champion 12u AA team would get stomped by a losing 12U Majors team. My kid is playing on an all star team that won our district and is headed to the state tournament- this team would be stomped badly by his travel ball team (which is a good team but not outstanding).

So- pretty much any kid can be on a championship team at some level or another. It doesn’t mean a whole lot without context. There are many winners and championships teams at various levels.

[Anonymous]

The above poster summarized it well. It is all star season, so I’m sure a lot of the posts are about that, as teams all over Virginia win their district and move up the ladder toward the state tournaments. They make a ridiculously big deal out of this, like the kids are superstars. That’s probably what is coming across in the many posts you are seeing. In our experience a lot of these kids quit or discover they aren’t as good as they thought they were once they are out from under the Little League dadball nonsense.

Travel is also overblown with each organization that puts on tournaments having a “state championship” or “nationals” or some other thing. Some tournaments will even name all stars for the tournament, and invite those players to another event. All of which is just a huge moneymaker, of course. Plus there are normal tournaments every weekend, mostly with 8ish teams, and they’ll name a champion for each of those events.

Certainly an accomplishment for all of these teams, but likely not as impressive as parents make it out to be.

You’ll see the herd thin out when they move to the bigger field at 13 and again when they start facing good pitchers regularly (HS). In the meantime, lots of big dreams without the requisite dose of reality. The posts should slow by then

[Anonymous]

It's the same with soccer. Every tournament has at least 5 divisions per age group. Some have 10+. You can be a "tournament champion" at any skill level.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for explaining! This all makes sense now. LOL @ dadball nonsense. Im pretty sure most of not all of the dads posting are coaches of their kids’ teams. My grandfather was actually a really good baseball player many years ago. He played on a AAA minor league team and I believe he was called up to the majors for a very brief period. But I bet it was all much simpler back then.

My younger son seems to have a little more interest in T ball/baseball so maybe we will be entering that world one day. Though I kind of hope not because it seems very time consuming especially in the summer which I prefer to leave more open. I’d rather he follow his brother’s footsteps with rec soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for explaining! This all makes sense now. LOL @ dadball nonsense. Im pretty sure most of not all of the dads posting are coaches of their kids’ teams. My grandfather was actually a really good baseball player many years ago. He played on a AAA minor league team and I believe he was called up to the majors for a very brief period. But I bet it was all much simpler back then.

My younger son seems to have a little more interest in T ball/baseball so maybe we will be entering that world one day. Though I kind of hope not because it seems very time consuming especially in the summer which I prefer to leave more open. I’d rather he follow his brother’s footsteps with rec soccer.

Sounds like the baseball genes run in your family! Just as an FYI, baseball generally doesn’t run in the summer. It typically ends before the school year does. Only the kids playing on the tournament teams (All-Stars or Fun Tournament) play into the summer, and it’s really only the 12 year old LL World Series-eligible All-Stars teams that would potentially play all summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for explaining! This all makes sense now. LOL @ dadball nonsense. Im pretty sure most of not all of the dads posting are coaches of their kids’ teams. My grandfather was actually a really good baseball player many years ago. He played on a AAA minor league team and I believe he was called up to the majors for a very brief period. But I bet it was all much simpler back then.

My younger son seems to have a little more interest in T ball/baseball so maybe we will be entering that world one day. Though I kind of hope not because it seems very time consuming especially in the summer which I prefer to leave more open. I’d rather he follow his brother’s footsteps with rec soccer.

Baseball is wonderful and I wouldn’t trade our experience with our sons (now playing in high school) for anything! Just keep that dadball thing in the back of your mind and keep it casual until they age out of little league Plenty of time then to spend summers at dusty ball fields!

[Anonymous]

My DS (age 10) was not initially interested in baseball so never played on a team but based on the hype he hears from his friends and soccer or basketball teammates, he now feels left out. But he now thinks he is "too old" to join a little league team because his friends have a few years head start and he won't know how to play or be good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS (age 10) was not initially interested in baseball so never played on a team but based on the hype he hears from his friends and soccer or basketball teammates, he now feels left out. But he now thinks he is "too old" to join a little league team because his friends have a few years head start and he won't know how to play or be good.

10 definitely is not too old to start rec baseball!

I’d sign him up for fall ball at your local little league. Fall ball is developmental and non-competitive, and generally fewer kids play (some kids play other fall sports, and some baseball kids play travel/club in the fall). Fall is the perfect time to start as a beginner.

I’d email the league and ask what level they recommend for a beginner 10yo. Typically they might recommend playing one level down (in our league most 10s play AAA, but there are always at least a few who play AA with the 8-9s) This would not be considered that strange or unusual (some kids play down a level to play with friends, with a particular coach) and also little league age is not always the same as grade level so it isn’t weird for classmates to play different levels.

This summer, try to play catch every day (even if for a few minutes). After awhile, take him to a LL field and let him practice throwing the ball to 1st base etc. If you have time, hit (or even throw) him some grounders and low pop ups and let him try to catch them. Make sure he knows the basic rules (outs, balls/strikes, and where all 9 fielding positions are). Throw him some balls underhand and have him try to make contact. Once he’s doing that well, take him to the batting cages and let him hit (40s cage probably). If you can afford it and have extra time, would be even better to get him a few batting lessons. They aren’t all that expensive.

He definitely is not too old! Not at all. My son has a friend who started playing last year at 9 for the first time ever, and is on the 10yo all star team this summer already (decent team too, they win districts etc). Just a really athletic kid who caught on quickly. Not that unusual.

[Anonymous]

Love LL Baseball. I agree that there’s an “everyone gets a trophy” mentality in the sport right now and that’s not good. That said, I love that my boys play and continue to want to improve. It’s a great community.

[Anonymous]

You can’t tell a lot of things from FB posts. For example, at the end of the season - our little league has playoffs and there is a winner’s bracket and a loser’s bracket. I know someone who posted about their kid winning the championship on FB but because I knew more about the playoffs - I knew it was the “championship” of the loser’s bracket.

I mentioned this to my husband and he said I should not worry about things like this

[Anonymous]

I’m proud of my rec-only son making a travel-dominated all-stars team, but depending on the number of teams a league is fielding (or not) and who you get put into pool play with, it’s possible to only win a small number of games and be district champion. My son’s level only had 7 teams playing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above poster summarized it well. It is all star season, so I’m sure a lot of the posts are about that, as teams all over Virginia win their district and move up the ladder toward the state tournaments. They make a ridiculously big deal out of this, like the kids are superstars. That’s probably what is coming across in the many posts you are seeing. In our experience a lot of these kids quit or discover they aren’t as good as they thought they were once they are out from under the Little League dadball nonsense.

Travel is also overblown with each organization that puts on tournaments having a “state championship” or “nationals” or some other thing. Some tournaments will even name all stars for the tournament, and invite those players to another event. All of which is just a huge moneymaker, of course. Plus there are normal tournaments every weekend, mostly with 8ish teams, and they’ll name a champion for each of those events.

Certainly an accomplishment for all of these teams, but likely not as impressive as parents make it out to be.

You’ll see the herd thin out when they move to the bigger field at 13 and again when they start facing good pitchers regularly (HS). In the meantime, lots of big dreams without the requisite dose of reality. The posts should slow by then

This is all true. But teams that win at the District level in the DMV area are all highly skilled and work their tails off. With the amount of games the kids play in the LL summer tournaments the teams have to be stacked with talented pitchers and hitters. There are few if any extra roster slots to hide the coaches kid if he can’t play at a high level. And the teams that win at states are the best of the best. Most of these kids will never even play in college, but their dedication to the sport and many years off sacrifice are to be commended in this era where most of their peers play video games all day.

[Anonymous]

Okay I am laughing at this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay I am laughing at this.

Says the parent from the video game camp.