The State of Baseball

[skydogg25]

I agree with the "social status" paragraph Mr. Limbaugh. I also agree that Tennessee baseball is hitting an all time high in terms of talent output. I do disagree with your statment that players are born and not made. I think that may be more true in other sports, but not with baseball. You see a lot of guys that are no where near athletic, but can compete with the best because of their knowledge of the game. I don't have a child old enough to play any sport, just 7 months old, but I have experienced travel ball as a player, fan, coach and umpire and have never heard a more true statement than the one about the "social status".

 

It sounds like I'm the only that thinks travel ball may be limiting the oppurtunities of kids that come from less fortunate homes, or homes where the parents simply can't have their schedules revolve around the baseball team's. While travel ball be, in part, responsible for the talent boom, could it not also possibly blind us to some unseen talent at the local park?

 

All have made great points, keep it up. That post about Smoltz is very interesting.

and not true because Chipper played travel ball, not saying John didnt say it, just saying he has played with alot of pros who played travel ball

[skydogg25]

Here is my opinion on the matter, parents need to listen to their children and then they will know what extent should or should not be played. As a a coach I think traveling at 6, 7 and 8 years old is a waste of time you should be just playing having fun in a local league and playing and getting better in the backyard.

At 9-12 then its time, if the young man enjoys it to pick up the games they are playing because most rec league schedules are limited to around 16 games or so, so start playing in some local tourneys during the summer that don't cost too much and get better.

At 13-14, as a parent ask the tough questions to your son, do they love to play the sport or is it one of many activities that they enjoy, if its is the latter keep up the same schedule as before, if though they love it and want to become better then play off some but no more than a couple of hours and only a few weekends and let the remaining time played locally. If they answer they don't enjoy it as much LET THEM DO SOMETHING THEY ENJOY because there alot of great activities, dont try to resurrect your playing days, its THEIR LIFE!

Now they are in high school, and they want to mplay at the next level, then playing summer travel ball is a great way to increase your games and get exposure to schools you may not ever have thought of, so if you love it then PLAY IT, but if you just want to be a good high school player who most likely doesn't want to play in college then don't burn yourself out wasting your summers, go and enjoy yourself!

As far as getting noticed, tell your high school coach that you want to play at the next level, then work hard at your academics and he should be able to get you a look. I have put 47 kids into colleges to play this great game and its alot of phone calls and letters telling them why they should take our kids!! Its alot of hard work but any coach whos worth two cents WANTS to do this for their kids!!

 

Bottom line is if you love the game then you cant play it enough!! But if its not your first love then its okay as well, have fun and enjoy every minute because it doesn't last forever! And be honest with yourself, your parents, your son, and your coach!!

[davidlimbaugh]

and not true because Chipper played travel ball, not saying John didnt say it, just saying he has played with alot of pros who played travel ball

 

The list of local MLB'ers who played travel ball is long, from David Price to Brian Morris. Check out the Midland Redskins http://midlandredski...rg/players.html one day, they had some kid named Barry Larkin once and some kid name Ken Griffey Junior. Want to see some great baseball check out a Connie Mack regional one day. I have seen some great players over the years at those games...

 

Some kids I have seen over the years:

 

http://eastcobbyankees.com/home/yankees-in-the-majors/

 

http://www.eteamz.com/floridabombers/news/index.cfm?cat=343246

 

to name a few...

 

To clarify what I mean by baseball players are born, not made, I mean that the quick-twitch muscles, the hand-eye coordination, the ability to throw a ball hard and control where it goes, and a long list of other attributes may be improved, but the good Lord and mom and dads' genes provides most of the clay.... and yes, a lot of great baseball players are not athletic, but still great baseball players, from Mickey Lolich to Rick Reuschel, from Pete Incaviglia to Ron Cey. C.C. Sabathia isn't going to win any track meets, neither is Ryan Howard or Miguel Cabrera...

 

The problem with most young travel ball teams, in my humble opinion, is that the kids are not being taught the game of baseball, but being taught how the be good baseball players. Everyone takes hitting lessons or pitching lessons. No one takes baseball lessons. Kids get to high school and have no concept of a jab step on a left hander or gain ground at third towards the plate as the pitcher pitches and then hustle back to third inside the baseline. You ask a kid to take until he gets a strike when you are down 4 runs in the late innings and he will look at you funny. I have seen incoming freshman come in who have never heard the term 'play it half way'. And don't get me started on some of turns (or lack thereof) I see at first base....

Edited June 4, 2013 by davidlimbaugh

[skydogg25]

The list of local MLB'ers who played travel ball is long, from David Price to Brian Morris. Check out the Midland Redskins one day, they had some kid named Barry Larkin once and some kid name Ken Griffey Junior. Want to see some great baseball check out a Connie Mack regional one day. I have seen some great players over the years at those games...

 

To clarify what I mean by baseball players are born, not made, I mean that the quick-twitch muscles, the hand-eye coordination, the ability to throw a ball hard and control where it goes, and a long list of other attributes may be improved, but the good Lord and mom and dads' genes provides most of the clay.... and yes, a lot of great baseball players are not athletic, but still great baseball players, from Mickey Lolich to Rick Reuschel, from Pete Incaviglia to Ron Cey. C.C. Sabathia isn't going to win any track meets, neither is Ryan Howard or Miguel Cabrera...

 

The problem with most young travel ball teams, in my humble opinion, is that the kids are not being taught the game of baseball, but being taught how the be good baseball players. Everyone takes hitting lessons or pitching lessons. No one takes baseball lessons. Kids get to high school and have no concept of a jab step on a left hander or gain ground at third towards the plate as the pitcher pitches and then hustle back to third inside the baseline. You ask a kid to take until he gets a strike when you are down 4 runs in the late innings and he will look at you funny. I have seen incoming freshman come in who have never heard the term 'play it half way'. And don't get me started on some of turns (or lack thereof) I see at first base....

Very True, makes our job harder, but its the espn mentality now....we will be holding practice and have had kids tell us cant do that because my whatever coach says not to do it...makes coaching harder than ever!!

[cbg]

The main problems with travel ball at the younger ages is they play too many games (75+) and 99.9% of the time it is truly daddy ball.

[ksgovols]

The main problems with travel ball at the younger ages is they play too many games (75+) and 99.9% of the time it is truly daddy ball.

Whoa! I'm glad to hear you say this. I didn't think that was what I was going to read when I saw that you had posted. I agree 100%. Skydogg hit the nail on the head. Listen to your kid. Some of them want to just play with their friends regardless of whether they are good enough to play on a more talented travel team or not. I had to look that reality in the eye a couple of years ago. My youngest made the travel team after a tryout and then after a practice or two he told me he just wanted to play with his buddies in a rec league for another year. His older brother and I sat him down and talked through it and he wanted to enjoy his summer with his buddies. We had to respect his wishes. You lose them to burnout by pushing kids in a direction they aren't wanting to go.

[EyesWideOpen]

Whoa! I'm glad to hear you say this. I didn't think that was what I was going to read when I saw that you had posted. I agree 100%. Skydogg hit the nail on the head. Listen to your kid. Some of them want to just play with their friends regardless of whether they are good enough to play on a more talented travel team or not. I had to look that reality in the eye a couple of years ago. My youngest made the travel team after a tryout and then after a practice or two he told me he just wanted to play with his buddies in a rec league for another year. His older brother and I sat him down and talked through it and he wanted to enjoy his summer with his buddies. We had to respect his wishes. You lose them to burnout by pushing kids in a direction they aren't wanting to go.

[EyesWideOpen]

I agree entirely with this about having a kid that enjoys playing but would rather not give up his entire weekend that he uses to do "other kid stuff" like scouts, swimming, bike riding....etc. However, the problem is in the statement made earlier about travel teams being put together at an early age....then many of those players are the ones that play together on the H.S. team. More often than not it's their chemistry w/ each other that makes them look better or more comfortable with each other. It helps if you know where (fielding drills) other gut is going to be, what they are good at and what they are not good at....it's a trust issue. You bring a new kid into that....they won't look as good or as comfortable. Most coaches don't know how to pick up on that, especially if you are one of those MS coaches that hold one-day tryouts that last about 2 hours. The kids that have been playing together for years SHOULD look better playing together. Then again, they could and often do grow to not like one another as much.

[davidlimbaugh]

The biggest problem I see with little kids and travel ball is how dads were not happy with the Little League rules of no leading off first 'because that doesn't look like baseball we see on tv' so you watch 10 year old travel ball teams play a game that goes something like this:

 

BB

SB

SB

HBP

Double Steal

SB

K

BB

Double Steal

SB

P3

BB

Double Steal

K

 

rinse and repeat.... How is that helping anybody get better??? But Dads are happy....

Edited June 5, 2013 by davidlimbaugh

[davidlimbaugh]

You are absolutely right. People who say recruiters only come to travel games are sadly mistaken. This season alone I saw coaches from Maryville to Memphis, from UAB to Western Kentucky, Belmont to Trevecca, Austin Peay to MTSU, Alabama to Tennessee Tech. Not to mention our state's great Juco programs. Our annual Warrior Spring Classic has college coaches come from near and far. I know this because they come up to me to say hi!

 

What most parents do not understand is that it isn't what a coach sees on the field that does the most work. It is the 'network' of 'bird dogs' and high school coaches that help the recruiting process the most. A kid may run a ground ball out if he sees a certain shirt in the crowd. It is what he does when that shirt isn't there that counts the most. College coaches watch a game for the little things, like how a player handles some adversity. How he interacts with his teammates and coaches and the other team. Does he run out popups? Does he take a 2-strike approach? Does he take a pitch if his team is down late in the game?

 

College coaches talk with each other. An SEC school may not have a spot for a kid but may mention him to another D-1 school. A D-1 coach may mention someone to a D-2, NAIA or Juco coach. A parent may not see all of this taking place, but trust me, it does. On almost a daily basis.....

 

I forgot to mention Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt. He catches a lot of our local high school games... Seen him several times this year myself. His assistant coaches do as well....

[strongx]

I can only speak to the state of baseball I have seen in the area of ET I live in. Our youth leagues (primarily little leagues) are not very good. The local rules requiring every 12 yr old to be picked on a team and the rule that everyone must play were the first steps in the downward spiral of local leagues and the upward spiral of travel ball. It wasn't that way decades ago. You had to tryout and be good enough to be drafted. That made the quality of play in the league better. I know there are some bad points to travel ball, but here are the reasons I think it is growing: 1) being drafted in the local league by a horrible coach who don't know how to practice and therefore rarely practices; 2) playing only a dozen or so games in the local league with a majority in the cold and mud because the league must be complete early in June to begin all-stars; 3) generally the competition in travel ball is better meaning you can get into tourneys that fit the quality of your team/many local league games are complete mismatches; 4) because of these problems with the local leagues, the better coaches are taking their kids out so you have a better chance of finding a better coach in travel ball.

 

I think it's odd that I don't hear many kids complain about travel ball - only adults. As a kid, I believe I would have loved the opportunity to play 35-40 games during the summer. I may pi$$ off some of you, but my experience is that the travel ball haters are the moms' that don't want to miss a vacation or a weekend on the lake and the dads who don't want to take away from their golf game enough to haul their kids and/or now have to spend their precious time coaching because the old dedicated dads have gone to travel ball.

 

I do agree that there are too many travel teams. Many of these kids could be just as well off if there was some decent coaching in their local league. But why blame these parents for trying to help their kids be better baseball players when the kids say they want to do it. Again, I rarely hear about the travel ball kids not liking it. It is usually the "busy" parents.

Edited June 5, 2013 by strongx

[strongx]

The biggest problem I see with little kids and travel ball is how dads were not happy with the Little League rules of no leading off first 'because that doesn't look like baseball we see on tv' so you watch 10 year old travel ball teams play a game that goes something like this:

 

BB

SB

SB

HBP

Double Steal

SB

K

BB

Double Steal

SB

P3

BB

Double Steal

K

 

rinse and repeat.... How is that helping anybody get better??? But Dads are happy....

Same at our local league on most nights. Except bad practices and you are stuck on that team for a year.