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Little league and peewee ball


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One of the coach's on my older sons travel team is of the opinion that when kids are 10 or younger just let them play. No need to act like it's a college program. Once the hit junior high,if they are serious then start with formal coaching( good coaching). That is what we did with him. He played two years at a juco and is at a d1 program now, so it worked for him. I have seen a lot of kids burn out on baseball. Sorry for the long post 

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Arizona, Phoenix area, had the best youth baseball programs I have ever seen  ....  they play a lot longer season there because of the weather .... Parents have to decide up front it they want their kids in the competitive leagues or the fun leagues  ....  the competitive leagues are very instructional starting at 5 years old ....  they don’t play tee ball at all ... they start the 5 year old kids in coach pitch to develop their skills at hitting a moving ball on different planes .... by the time the fun league kids merge with the competitive league kids in little league where they are batting against pitchers trying to strike them out there is no comparison in their development ...  

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14 minutes ago, Destry said:

What about the arm development of a 7-8 year old trying to throw the different pitches. I can see that leading to elbow and shoulder problems as the arm structure develops later on .

That's too young for kids to put that much torque on their arms. At that age they shouldn't be working on anything other than accuracy and straight pitching strength ... just my opinion ....

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22 minutes ago, KirtFalcon said:

That's too young for kids to put that much torque on their arms. At that age they shouldn't be working on anything other than accuracy and straight pitching strength ... just my opinion ....

Totally agree. Keep Garrison rolling. 

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I thought this summed up the travel ball “industry” pretty well:

Man, the youth travel baseball industry has changed.

The weekend you’ve been waiting for is finally here! That’s right…it’s almost April and the “Southeast Elite Spring Easter Spring Break Peach State Select Showdown Slam Showcase” is upon us!!!! 

Arrive at the park nowhere near your house at 6:45am for your 8am Saturday game while it’s still dark out and 43 degrees. That’s totally normal and disregard the fact your son will never play an 8am baseball game at any other level in his life other than “travel ball”. Can’t they just start the first games at 9am and move back the last games an hour? No, that makes too much sense they tell me. Sleep schmeep!!!! Kids are resilient they say.

Pay to park. Oh main lot is full? No problem…just pay to park in the overflow parking lot a mile away. Notice the other patrons in parking lot loading up their folding wagons with enough gear to equip a small army. Are they going on a two week European vacation or to a youth baseball game? Am I in the right place??? 

Pay to enter the “complex”…day pass or tournament pass? So many options! On the half mile walk to the field at this sterilized “complex”, don’t forget to enjoy the many merch opportunities! I mean, who doesn’t want a $25 t-shirt that costs a nickel to make that says 6+4+3= 2?!?!? Along your walk, you luckily heed the numerous “heads up” calls from the other million games going on and manage to dodge the mine field of foul balls being launched between the fields that are closer together than an enclave of cluster homes in New Jersey. You are starting to think this is more about making money than it is about baseball?!?!? 🤔

You eventually make it to field #27 where your son will be playing. You are a little hungry so you hit up the concession stand since no outside food or drink are allowed. You are starting to feel glad you hit the ATM last night. 

Finally, the game starts! What’s the count on the hitter you ask? Well of course the scoreboards aren’t on you silly rabbit! Why would we want to add that competitive element for the kids and coaches and fans when you can just download our custom app to track all the action?!?!? Daily, event, monthly, bi-annual, and annual subscriptions available!!!! You can track your 10 year old’s velocity, pitch count, exit velo, launch angle, BABIP, WAR, frame rate, and so much more…oh and the score of the game and the count on the hitter of course. 

Once you download this very convenient yet completely unnecessary app, you notice that your son’s team is playing the Jack City Prime Select Scout National 13U team. Is this a baseball team or are we ordering meat at a butcher shop you wonder??? It’s weird though…the overly detailed profiles for these players in the app show that most of the pubescent Jack City players are almost 14 years old and their roster has players from eight different states with an average weight of 180lbs! That’s weird…your son’s team is all local kids who haven’t hit puberty yet. You can’t imagine that Jack City would be putting together older, over-qualified players to trophy hunt and dominate a level of baseball they have no business playing right? Surely these rational-thinking, levelheaded parents know that the physical maturity gap is never wider than at 12/13 years old and that by age 16 this won’t matter…right???? You even notice on this app that one of the Jack City players is ranked #7 in the nation (whatever that means) and is going to verbally commit live to a college he probably won’t attend via livestream on the app next week. You start thinking that this could be a long morning for your son’s team. 

After getting run ruled after 3 innings by this physically superior youth team, you begin to make the long trek back to your car…but all is not lost. Your son’s team secured the #6 seed in the bronze bracket which begins play tomorrow! All they have to do is win 6 games in the next 24 hours to bring home the bronze “ship”. Nevermind that your son will never play that many games in a day at any other level of baseball.  So what if it ruins your kid’s arm because he pitched 2 innings yesterday, 1 inning the day before, and played SS and Catcher at all the games in between. He will be ready to roll tomorrow and available to come in and close out game six with some high stress, max effort pitches to bring home the ship and flash that hardware!!!

Can’t wait to do it again tomorrow at 8am….and the next 19 weekends in a row. “Heads up!!!!”.

It’s all disgusting and absurd what the industry has become…end of rant 😉

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12 minutes ago, trueblue82 said:

I thought this summed up the travel ball “industry” pretty well:

Man, the youth travel baseball industry has changed.

The weekend you’ve been waiting for is finally here! That’s right…it’s almost April and the “Southeast Elite Spring Easter Spring Break Peach State Select Showdown Slam Showcase” is upon us!!!! 

Arrive at the park nowhere near your house at 6:45am for your 8am Saturday game while it’s still dark out and 43 degrees. That’s totally normal and disregard the fact your son will never play an 8am baseball game at any other level in his life other than “travel ball”. Can’t they just start the first games at 9am and move back the last games an hour? No, that makes too much sense they tell me. Sleep schmeep!!!! Kids are resilient they say.

Pay to park. Oh main lot is full? No problem…just pay to park in the overflow parking lot a mile away. Notice the other patrons in parking lot loading up their folding wagons with enough gear to equip a small army. Are they going on a two week European vacation or to a youth baseball game? Am I in the right place??? 

Pay to enter the “complex”…day pass or tournament pass? So many options! On the half mile walk to the field at this sterilized “complex”, don’t forget to enjoy the many merch opportunities! I mean, who doesn’t want a $25 t-shirt that costs a nickel to make that says 6+4+3= 2?!?!? Along your walk, you luckily heed the numerous “heads up” calls from the other million games going on and manage to dodge the mine field of foul balls being launched between the fields that are closer together than an enclave of cluster homes in New Jersey. You are starting to think this is more about making money than it is about baseball?!?!? 🤔

You eventually make it to field #27 where your son will be playing. You are a little hungry so you hit up the concession stand since no outside food or drink are allowed. You are starting to feel glad you hit the ATM last night. 

Finally, the game starts! What’s the count on the hitter you ask? Well of course the scoreboards aren’t on you silly rabbit! Why would we want to add that competitive element for the kids and coaches and fans when you can just download our custom app to track all the action?!?!? Daily, event, monthly, bi-annual, and annual subscriptions available!!!! You can track your 10 year old’s velocity, pitch count, exit velo, launch angle, BABIP, WAR, frame rate, and so much more…oh and the score of the game and the count on the hitter of course. 

Once you download this very convenient yet completely unnecessary app, you notice that your son’s team is playing the Jack City Prime Select Scout National 13U team. Is this a baseball team or are we ordering meat at a butcher shop you wonder??? It’s weird though…the overly detailed profiles for these players in the app show that most of the pubescent Jack City players are almost 14 years old and their roster has players from eight different states with an average weight of 180lbs! That’s weird…your son’s team is all local kids who haven’t hit puberty yet. You can’t imagine that Jack City would be putting together older, over-qualified players to trophy hunt and dominate a level of baseball they have no business playing right? Surely these rational-thinking, levelheaded parents know that the physical maturity gap is never wider than at 12/13 years old and that by age 16 this won’t matter…right???? You even notice on this app that one of the Jack City players is ranked #7 in the nation (whatever that means) and is going to verbally commit live to a college he probably won’t attend via livestream on the app next week. You start thinking that this could be a long morning for your son’s team. 

After getting run ruled after 3 innings by this physically superior youth team, you begin to make the long trek back to your car…but all is not lost. Your son’s team secured the #6 seed in the bronze bracket which begins play tomorrow! All they have to do is win 6 games in the next 24 hours to bring home the bronze “ship”. Nevermind that your son will never play that many games in a day at any other level of baseball.  So what if it ruins your kid’s arm because he pitched 2 innings yesterday, 1 inning the day before, and played SS and Catcher at all the games in between. He will be ready to roll tomorrow and available to come in and close out game six with some high stress, max effort pitches to bring home the ship and flash that hardware!!!

Can’t wait to do it again tomorrow at 8am….and the next 19 weekends in a row. “Heads up!!!!”.

It’s all disgusting and absurd what the industry has become…end of rant 😉

I love it. Sounds like you been there done that.

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