What do you hate more: Mitch Williams or 10U travel ball?

So he will continue on and try to play varsity baseball or are his baseball days numbered?

And why is your story -- a good team wins a championship and then is gutted by adults and ego -- so common these days?

A team is good, then some of the coaches or adults want to change it and what ends up happening is it all gets watered down.

 

If you're asking whether there's talent that rises above the crowd at that age -- oh, yeah. Absolutely.

 

As for a 10U elite baseball player, absolutely. There is one team from a neighboring state that we'll see twice a year.

They're like robots. I think back to the 10U season two years ago, both games were blowout losses. Fastest velocity for their pitchers, clean defense on the infield and most of their players had warning-track (or better) power. But I looked at their schedule. They were "travel" to the extreme, hitting about 5 or 6 different states. I don't even think they played in their state tournament in June or July because they 500 miles away somewhere else.

My son probably will give varsity baseball a shot in four years but I've tempered any expectations. He's very skilled hitting and fielding but his interests are so varied now. Almost like Mox in Varsity Blues - the other kids only talk about baseball and video games where my son likes robotics, engineering, global politics and history. He loves to hit in the cages and we throw a lot but he also gets bored with all of the standing around in baseball. (He'd actually rather play basketball - but at a lower level - because of the constant action).

The funny (or messed-up) part is that I already know who will be on this team in four years and what positions will play, barring families moving or a kid rebelling. It's like hockey in Minnesota... all of the kids here seem to be already slotted in.

Yes, adults and ego ruined that team. It's a damn shame now when we're all playing each other on independent teams these days. They'll all, presumably, come back together for 9th grade in three years.

 

Shoot, we have people in our area who start forming up travel TEEBALL teams. Age 6-U. Mostly find tournaments around the state, but it's a decent-sized state so it's not uncommon to travel 200 miles to a tournament and spend the weekend there.
We've had a couple of those teams over the years who were amazing to watch. When the ball was hit, they knew exactly where to go with it, what they should be doing away from the play, backing up throws, etc. They were more disciplined in the field than a lot of high school teams I've seen. It was like watching a choreographed dance routine.

 

One note... but one I'm proud of.

This week, we walked away from travel ball. Our son has an outstanding weekend - hitting well, fielding flawlessly, leadership on the field. As we drove home, I looked at him and said, "want to take next year off?"

His eyes lit up. "Absolutely."

Now he will get to go camping with friends, vacations, math camp (yes, he wants to go to math camp), concerts.

Youth baseball/travel ball can really become all-consuming as we've discovered over the past four years. Maybe he comes back for his 14U season (two years) and maybe not. IF he wants to keep playing, we've agreed to do training only (cage work, pitching but none of these endless games).

In a way, I feel like we're leaving on our own terms and that's a positive.

 

You also gave him the wiggle room to make the decision, which is more than a lot of travel parents will do. It's not just about major-league dreams. Some parents get so tight socially with other travel parents, they don't want their kids to quit so their social lives aren't upended. Because they suspect -- and it's true -- that the other travel parents won't talk to them if their kid isn't on the team anymore.

 

Just finished Dohrmann's book, coincidentally, felt like I needed a shower after reading it. And I worked in junior hockey which has more than its share of lowlife agents and scumbags.

 

The player at the center of the book, called "The Next LeBron?" by SI (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1104412/1/index.htm) got dismissed this year from Grand Canyon -- his third college.

http://oncampussports.com/2013/12/cautionary-tale-demetrius-walker/

Better make that a Silkwood shower.

 

That book should be mandatory reading for anyone who has a kid gets mixed up in any youth travel team in any sport.

 

Bob, I wanted to wait until he had a weekend where he was playing at a high level before I asked him if he was leaning one way or another.

This year (12U), from the dugout, I have probably seen about half the kids we play appear to have no desire to be there -- including on our team. The first time I've really seen a gigantic number of kids who appear to be "pushed out there to play".

I've been fortunate in that most of my social circle is through work or outside kid activities but I think there's a lot of truth to the "social status" crap of travel ball.

Our son played six years of pretty competitive baseball - including four years on travel teams of varying levels. He has a room full of trophies, friends his age all over the city but his interests are evolving and I want to encourage that instead of standing at first base for 63 games a year.

 

In today's youth-sports jackass update, I went to an 8U softball game for my twin nieces last night (yes, the same twins from basketball).

In this game, the 3B coach for the opposing team (actually I think she was the head coach) spent first several innings giving defensive players for *our* team loud and specific advice as to position, where to throw the ball for force outs, etc etc. (Our coaches were in the 1B dugout).

The problem was, most of this advice was blatantly wrong.

Just for starters, in this league, a ground ball with the steam to make it to the outfield grass is a veritable rocket. The majority of grounders, if not picked up, will roll to a stop about 50 feet from home plate.

The first couple of innings, this mom coaching third base for the opponents was continually LOUDLY telling our defensive players (including my nieces who opened the game playing 3B-SS) and hand-waving at them to back way way up, all the way to the fringe of the grass.

Problem is, most 8-year-olds are not normally cynical, rebellious or combative; they will usually do what an adult, especially a 'coach,' tells them to do.

Shockingly, the opponents got about five straight hits on piddling grounders which rolled dead about 40 feet from home plate, too late for the infielders to come running in from super-super-deep position to make any play.

After about three hits, **I** stand up in the 3B bleachers and start waving to my nieces, "move in."

They do, and then Helpful Mommy Coach tells them, "back up, back up." This Abbott-and-Costello routine continues for a couple of batters:

HELPFUL MOM, waving hands: "Back up."

ME, waving hands: "Move in."

Repeat on next batter. Oh, and once there are runners on base, Helpful Mommy starts giving all sorts of bullshit wrong advice as to where to throw the ball for forceouts (or not).

For an inning or so you could chalk it up to 'well-meaning mom doesn't really know any strategy,' but by about the second inning it became clear this bitch was telling our players precisely the WRONG thing to do on just about every play.

I went over and informed our coaches in the dugout (opposite side of the field) of what was going on, and at first they didn't believe it: "oh come on, nobody cares about winning these games that much, I just think she is mistakenly giving them wrong advice."

By the middle of the next inning -- when she shouted at our SS, "just hold the ball!!" when there were runners on first and second, they were convinced, and our players were told to respond to any advice from her with "put a sock in it, lady; coach your own team."

There were a few huffy moments in which she took great offense at the accusation and demanded our players be told to be more 'polite' on the field (i.e., don't mouth off to grownups).