No doubt there are exceptions, but I havent personally witnessed one. Many of the families on our team actually make it a family affair. As recently as the 1990s, travel baseball was a niche experience limited mostly to elite players in baseball-rich areas like Texas and California. Other parents might be emboldened to speak up. RELATED: Basketball Classes and Leagues for NYC Kids PSLL plays its home games adjacent to the Con Edison Factory at the aptly named ConEd Field. But they have more similarities than you think there are. The answer to this question depends on the reasons for joining the program. I understand that now I may be bringing up an exception to the norm. . However, they are much more severe. I do not feel we will ever look back on our decision to say no to travel ball. Once we knew about travel ball there was no going back. little league field, killing 1 . Additionally, every local Little League program in the United States with a team that travels 150 miles or more per one round trip to a section, state, and region level tournament receives a reimbursement from Little League Baseball of $1 per mile for one round trip to each tournament site, to help offset travel expenses. We have commodified the play of millions of children into. Thankfully, we have a great group of players, coaches, and families. As a result, many children don't get the opportunity to play and develop their skills,. Peter Stuyvesant Little League offers coed baseball for ages 4-16; girls softball for ages 5-17 and a Challenger Division for ages 4-18. It was time for him to play real baseball! Batting cage time and sessions with the pitching coach came with additional costs. The Fall baseball/softball season includes league play at all division levels. I am coaching a 5-6 yr old team and can already feel the pull of private instructors, out of season ball, travel squads, etc. As a follower of Jesus, this consideration is the most important one for me. Voddie Bauchams Family Driven Faith. Christians are Christians because we worship what is true. For decades, NASCAR was a working class, southern sport. If I was in the big leagues, my summers (and falls, and springs) would be dominated by an unrelenting schedule leaving no opportunity to coach my kids teams. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Non-Christians exist because what they worship is false. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Is it any wonder that race sponsors like Goodys and Virginia National Bank have been replaced by Bluegreen Vacations, Ally, or Bank of America? I had to pay a sign-up fee of $750. While my son made a ton of new friends and had fun, I felt he needed more. re: Travel Ball/ Little League Coaches leaving work Posted on 8/20/22 at 6:32 pm to philly444. D.A.s or District staff are encouraged to work with the leagues in their district to provide combined district travel teams, establish player pools, and find ways for all players interested to have an opportunity to . I dont normally respond to blog posts, but I wanted to respond to this one because I respect you. And something that we will continue to do playing baseball, watching baseball, playing catch, playing wiffle ball, etc. If youre in Louisville, come check us out at www.KenwoodBaptistChurch.com. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); on Dont Play Travel Ball: Stay in the Rec League, Great Books Selections for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016. In fact, most experts believe that if your goal is for your child to go pro, the worst thing you can do is overplay them. Learn from others short comings and honor God with your precious time on the field. Part of the argument for travel ball is the appeal of better competition. So, teaching them the core baseball concepts is more important than competing. You need the church, and the church needs you. I was forced to purchase team-designed cleats and helmet. My arm hurt all the time, and I wasnt a pitcher. On each weekend, a team will participate in at least four games or even more if its a three-day weekend. We dont have Sunday games and Id venture that shes in the lower end of competitive teams. Travel ball is expensive but studying for class is free, and an SAT book is like 20 bucks. Probably the biggest advantage of travel baseball is the exposure young players get. Do I think you are sinning if your kid plays travel ball? They also have T-ball divisions. We decided to engage in travel ball because the coaching was better. He told us last week that he is glad that we have taught him to focus on his eternal future. Im sure that's true for some but once kids get to high school, travel ball. Id bet if you polled the MLB players the vast majority of them would agree. It is evangelism that is not solely dependent upon our efforts, but on the power of the Word being preached, loved, and then given to others. Educate them. You all make very good points to consider. They use evangelism as a spiritual reason for not being in church. Gallatin WAVE Baseball League This is a travel baseball league for teams only. I want your son to love baseball, to have the opportunity to be a kid, and to play the game as a kid. We've sort of discussed this topic in the past on LTP, but I'm seeing Travel Ball continue . Thanks for sharing them. And thats a problem for baseball at every level, all the way up to the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. If the ultimate goal is for the kid to get to the pros, then joining a travel baseball program is definitely a better choice. But most of them still play, in one way or another. What will travel ball mean for your other kids? In volleyball and soccer, maybe cheer, but most other sports they don't. FieroCoug. But a story did cross my timeline about something near and dear to my heart: baseball. The low-end travel teams can be local teams going to a few tournaments outside the region. You played in some tournament, and then district. The group that split from us is the same group that has ruined our little league. The nature of sport is that participants will learn in the course of their play, practice, games or meets, all about discipline, perseverance, punctuality, teamwork, goal-setting, how to handle disagreements, disappointment and failure, as well as success and recognition. Its not the uniforms, its not bat flips or the lack thereof, its not the shift, its not the pace of play. We enjoyed Upward for what it was and knew that it wasnt hugely competitive (for the most part). Sabathia and the Upton Brothers have become big league players. I wrote about this for Camden Chat in 2016: Orioles baseball will not be the most important thing that we teach our daughter about. Northern Virginia Travel Baseball League. As expected, my son got limited playing time during the season. Kids are smarter than what we want to give them credit for. We will be staying with rec from now on. Because COVID, America sold out Little League through the widespread adoption of high-dollar travel baseball, Major League Baseball has its RBI Program, providing year-round instruction in the game, I wrote about this for Camden Chat in 2016. Little League - Character, Courage, Loyalty. Fun for all, talent levels not seen before. Member since Aug 2014. For others, it can wreak havoc. You explain it t the tee for me and cant thank you enough . via Facebook. Often, teams participate in the tournaments that take place in a city other than their own or even in another state. There is another very sad thing that often happens as a result of a familys involvement in travel ball. Think brands like Mercedes-Benz. I stayed with the Little League program because I was told that for my sons 7-year-old season, there would be kid pitching. Listen to article. I agree, there are a ton of options. Little league teams have pulled out of the North Carolina state championship tournament after gunshots erupted during a weekend game, their organizers said Monday in social media posts. This is going to be a big temptation for me because I love sports and am competitive by nature. Kids may start playing in the Little League from as young as age 4. In general, most of the Little League tournaments are organized in the local area and involves teams from the same city or community. Keep him in rec ball, where he wont get burnt out because hes a kid facing the demands of a profession. Now, the league has grown a bit but has 190 kids playing travel ball, with multiple teams at 12u, 14u, 16u, and 18u. Ive alluded to this somewhat above. Articles like this help. I think this is an important topic that needs to be discussed. It will look different for each family and each child. Prep is for 6 and 7 year olds. . Thank you for this. I think it does need to be approached carefully and prayerfully, especially with the demands on the family and commitments that call us away from the church. I had worked with him quite a lot prior to that. It was good for us a s a family although the wallet didnt think so. On the contrary, travel baseball is pure commitment! Listen to baseball experts'. The best outcomes were consistently when we stayed in the local rec leagues. If anything, there are more youth sports options for people to pick what works best for them, even though there are. LL was the emphasis, there were only a couple of travel teams. Several thoughts on that: Their chances are greater for continuing their sporting lives, whether at college or recreationally as adults, if they arent burnt out on competition by the time they turn 18or 13, as Ive seen occur far too often. The biggest problem I see is the fact that there are too many marginal players who should be. God makes it pretty clear when Paul says, Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus We represent Him, so we will want to do our best and want our kids to understand why. Additionally, they will probably have fewer injuries and enjoy the competition more. As more and more kids get involved in travel ball, the best players are taken out of the rec league. Travel-ball costs are more substantial. Focusing on winning games is short-sighted and ignorant. As Little League has declined, travel baseball has grown. Our children assume that Sunday morning is time to worship with our church. Little League, international baseball organization for children and teenagers, started in 1939 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, by Carl E. Stotz and brothers Bert and George Bebble. 2021 featured all American teams. All Rights Reserved. So we are playing upward thru our church. I have also read some of your other works and have learned much from them and enjoyed reading them. And that can, partially, explain Major League Baseballs lack of investment in the game in America. Falls Church Klwanis Little League. | GWG Clips #2 from GWG episode #1| Daniel Otero and Ty Osborne - YouTube Blessed to have Tyrone on with us for this episode! If the ultimate goal is for the kid to get to the pros, then joining a travel baseball program is definitely a better choice. I had worked with him quite a lot prior to that. I had my schedule back. foster a love for the game. Teen suspect in shooting of 15-year-old NYC boy caught upstate after months on run: sources 12-year-old NYC boy was shot while playing with other kids in apartment lobby Harrowing video footage. Having coached both my sons in travel an rec ball, and being on the board of our local rec league, serving as president for several years. There are rules and considerations for exceptions and of course fall ball has its own set of rules as there is no rec ball at that time. And it certainly does nothing to address the issue of middle and working-class suburban residents and the expense involved in playing the game at a high level. For more information, please see our It also has a successful 18u rec program. Hopefully it will make us parents pray, think, and analyze the motives behind our kids activities. But, the worst part of it all was that my son was clearly not having the same amount of fun he had in Little League last year. Thanks for the great article I can share with the parents of my students. Below are just a few stream of consciousness suggestions as readers consider their views on how they encourage their children in sports. When my life ends, I will have to give an account to my Lord as to whether I obeyed the command in Matt28:19 that says Go. The travel baseball vs Little League debate has been a hot topic in US youth baseball for quite some time now. There doesnt have to be a life lesson constantly pointed out. As parents, however, we can sometimes unknowingly pressure our kids to continuing pursuing things at a higher level because we want it for them, not because they want it, and we proverbially try to put a square peg into a round hole. Until more teams see value in helping the game at home, this problem for the entire sport will continue. Besides traveling to tournaments, this baseball format also includes harder and more frequent practices. He politely said there wouldnt be. As a pastor, I require my daughter to be in church every Sunday, which means that she misses all Sunday games that interfere with worship. Small towns breed professional athletes, and the reason seems to be that kids in small towns arent over-coached, over-organized, and over-specialized by the travel ball opportunities found in larger cities. Our daughter played travel softball for 9 years. You are spot on with all your assertions, and I wish Id been able to absorb something like this when my oldest two were starting out. (He never would have been able to do this had he continued playing in college as all of the players were expected to play in a summer league each year.) Baseball exists not just because of the community's love of the game. Growing up I loved baseball. Build this league and you will have travel on the decline. Tha KS alot for all your insight!!! Don't cause the rec league to dry up. For millions of American families, paying private for-profit clubseuphemistically termed "travel teams"thousands of dollars a year to organize athletic games for their children is now an. But this, which I encourage you to read in its entirety, is a very damning piece about the state of baseball in America. Plenty of top high school and college programs have their scouts regularly attend travel baseball tournaments. When I was a kid, I played baseball under the Little League umbrella from age 8 through age 12. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Made a ton of options problem I see is the appeal of competition. Even though there are exceptions, but I havent personally witnessed one that for my sons 7-year-old season, are. 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