article - travel baseball. I had no idea.

[Amy in AZ.]

Moneyball Jr.: Baseball for minors looks a lot like the Majors - CheckSwing

I am really out of it, I guess. I had no idea that this is going on in baseball. I think it is rare for a girl to fly every weekend to play on an out of state team - and unheard of for a 12 yo.

 

[Mylil32]

Did you watch the video of the "highly recruited 11 year old" ? That kid will be finished before high school.

 

[flarays]

I didn't read the article - but at the older ages in softball it isn't as rare as you think. This summer we will have 3 kids from Ohio and one from Montana on our team. I might be located in Florida but we travel basically every weekend. Even most of our Florida kids are over a hour away. Is it ideal? probably not. Is it crazy? Probably. But in certain parts of the country it isn't rare.

 

[JAD]

If there are no competitive teams in your area, you may have to travel a good distance to find the right team. Some of the marquee teams in GA have kids from multiple states. They accomodate them by only practicing on weekends - usually for 5+ hours. Some teams have players that just show up for tournaments - the players practice on their own during the week with a batting coach, pitching coach, mom & dad, ect.

My DD's pitching coach played on a 'superstar' team when she was in high school. Girls from all over the place, and she said there was never any "bonding" with the other players. Everyone just showed up, played, and went home. They were a very good team, but she preferred playing on a "regular" team with girls who became lifelong friends.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

But are these girls paying there own way? The boys are not. (The dad's flights are pd. for, too.) I know of no 12 year old girls flying every weekend and acting as a "professional."

 

[lstorie1971]

Mr. Boyer should watch The Marinovich Project just to have an idea where this can lead to.

 

[David Carter]

Yeah you see the one 11/12 yr old kid that is 6 ft tall (or looks it anyway) 9 times out of 10 once everyone catches up they end up being average. Just find it hard to believe that somewhere like Florida you can't put together a competitive team.

@Amy that is my biggest thing where is the organization coming up with all this money to pay for plane tickets and hotels...surely not from the kids parents that are now on the bench because Johnny superstar just showed up, my guess is some guys that are wanna be millionaires and have tens of thousands of dollars in disposable income every year sponsor these organizations so they can feel like they are big league owners (and take a tax write-off).

 

[coach james]

Wow... This is crazy. I've got some parents bitter because I scheduled a tourney that's a 2 hr drive away! Lol

 

[David Carter]

Wow... This is crazy. I've got some parents bitter because I scheduled a tourney that's a 2 hr drive away! Lol

But the point is would they be up in arms if you chartered a bus and put them all up in a hotels and gave them food money for the weekend.

anyway it does just seems silly at this age I could almost understand if you were in a rural area and it was hard to find players and tournaments to play in that you might have people drive in from different areas but the plane tickets is probably where I think most of us would draw the line.

 

[softballmom77]

I wish I had that kind of disposable income...I would let my daughter go play all over!!

Instead we choose to play one state over which cost alot.

Between pitching coach once per week, practice one state over 2 x's per week, and tournaments one state over and then some....almost every weekend till July!!! Which includes hotels, gas, food, gate fee's, etc.......I might need a second job!

I still wouldn't trade these memories for anything!