I don't post much about baseball

[camlock]

or at least my involvement in it here on this website, and I'm not putting this in the Sports forum b/c my post is for parents and not sports fans...please take a moment to watch this video. I am involved with this group, although I spend most of my time with HS upperclassmen and college players, and I am a father of a 5 and 3 year old and as fathers of little boys that want to be ballplayers, I hope you take something from it...it's dead on and very insightful into where I hope youth baseball will begin to trend.

http://wafb.videodownload.worldnow.com/ ... 2660AA.mp4

[Bullet]

I agree completely with this video. I think young kids play way too many baseball games and its definitely different these days.

[edub20]

Burnout is why I never pursued college ball post high school. After all of the time I dedicated to baseball from 13 up summer/fall and year round pretty much I was done. It wasn't my parents forcing me to do it though.

[mshunter77]

I agree 100% that is too much for most kids. My daughter has been asked to play on travel softball and soccer teams but we have not done it for several reasons. I think it can easily burn them out and also takes it till on them physically. Put them in clinics in the summer for a week or two here and there to keep them active and learn some skills. The worst part though is how the parents act at games. You would think it is the MLB World Series. I coached my daughters softball team last spring and we had a great team. We went undefeated and blew everyone out but there was this one team we played 2 or 3 times and every time they would accuse us of cheating some way of another. The worst one was this old women that did not even have a kid or grand kid on the team she just followed that team to all the games like you would a high school team.

[maverick21]

I hate how much time American legion took up in the summer in high school. Still loved playing baseball but traveling every weekend led to getting tired of it. It was required of us so there wasn't much of a choice but my nephew travels more and longer distances at 10 yrs old.

There's no doubt the talent at the ages is light years ahead of back then. Allstars was fun after regular season because it was with kids from other teams you didn't get to play with during season and lasted 2-3 tournaments. The travel was fun, new towns, hotels, etc but it wasn't every weekend. I imagine there will be a generation that gets burned out on it with the current travel teams situations but the ones that stick with it will be really good.

I do know my nephew is already complaining about never getting to fish much anymore.

[jacksbuddy]

This video reminded me of the comment my baby brother said to his football coach at the end of his Senior season. When asked if he wanted to play college ball, my brother said, "No. I've been playing for twelve years. It is time to move on. I am going to play my guitar."



And he has, ever since.

[Deltaquack]

I agree completely with this video. I think young kids play way too many baseball games and its definitely different these days.

Amen brother

you don't see mine out there playing that much yet.

[jbs38654]

I played 80 plus games a year from the age of 10 til I was 23 years old
You didn't love it as much as me then if you got burnt out
Yes my body is wore out now and I hurt daily.
Would I do it all over again knowing what I know now?
You're damn right I would and twice on Sunday. I wouldn't trade that part of my life for anything

[duckter]

Great video - thanks for sharing. The external forces (overzealous parents) and the need for the "trophy" has left a bad taste in my mouth in regards to Little League baseball. I grew up playing YMCA ball (maybe 15 games/season) and then a cheap motel for All-Stars. Then, it was swimming with the girls for the rest of the summer.

Today, it's money driven. Parents fighting for scholarship opportunities and "World Series" champion bragging rights. Speaking of these "World Series", does each state have like 4-5 different "World Series?" The marketing and exploitation by these "World Series" tournament hosts has got to be huge. Panama City, FL will host 600,000 people (including athletes and family) each Summer. Fightin' over the trophy. "Daddy Ball".

Since my son is now Senior in high school, I would love to go back and coach a little-league team. But…on second thought, nope, don't want to deal with the parents. When I was a kid, many of my coaches (football, baseball, basketball) didn't even have a kid on the team. They coached because they loved to coach. Not once can I ever remember a confrontation between a parent and a coach. It's different today, way different.

[mshunter77]

Not many coaches doing it for the love of the game now. They do it so they can control what their kid plays or for money. On the soccer team that asked my daughter to play the coaches got paid $500 a month. The league softball team my daughter played on two years ago really put a bad taste in my mouth for youth sports today. The coaches would only work with the players on that team that were also on their tournament team. My daughter actually regressed that year instead of getting better as you should each year at that age. The coaches played their daughter ast short stop even though she was horrible and had her hitting third in the line up even though she never hit a ball all season. Then the coaches and the coaches and several players did not show up for the league fun day when our team was scheduled to play 3 games. So we switched leagues the next year and I volunteered to coach. I never had my daughter in the top part of the line up and had her switch out playing 3rd with another girl just to make sure I did not show favoritism. I actually had a good group of parents that never complained about anything.

[SWAG]

Mine has played since he was 3 or 4 years old. Started doing the travel team stuff when he was seven. He just turned 17 and is a junior in high school. He broke his ankle in practice Tue afternoon sliding into 3B. It is different with every kid and every family. I can tell you he is crushed. I always have known he loves it, but until you see it taken away from someone you never know how much. He bawled like a baby when Dr told him he would not be playing this season. Told me on the way home he had taken baseball for granted, always assuming he would be playing. I have seen the pushing of parents and burned out kids. There are plenty of them. There are also a few who are talented enough to hang around but really do not enjoy it everyday. Then there are those regardless of talent who just want to play, and play as much of it as they can. Not even sure how to describe them...they know if they are patient they will make a perfect pitch...or see one they can barrel the bat up on...or make a SportsCenter type defensive play....they play the game over and over for those little moments when the game is just that. I have thought often as mine got older and other things such as a truck, hunting, girls, dating, etc, etc entered into his life that priorities would change. That really has not been the case. The one thing that has remained constant is baseball..........except this spring.

[levi127]

I played 80 plus games a year from the age of 10 til I was 23 years old
You didn't love it as much as me then if you got burnt out
Yes my body is wore out now and I hurt daily.
Would I do it all over again knowing what I know now?
You're damn right I would and twice on Sunday. I wouldn't trade that part of my life for anything

I was the same exact way except started a little younger. Like ive said before, your either 120 % dedicated or you wont handle it. Sometimes its harder on the parents then it actually is on the kids. Nothing new with playing 4 games on saturday then 2 or 3 on sunday in august!

[gps4]

here's how it went at my house last year-

Me: Son, do you want to play baseball this year?

Kid: no, sir.

Me: Alright. Y'ever want to play catch or go to the cage, just let me know.

It was hard to do it, but i just can't stand seeing him spinning around at second or standing with his hands behind his back, or asking the coach to sit out an inning so he can drink gatorade and eat sunflower seeds. its just not his bag, and i try to support him in his other interests.

Personally, I would have loved to play 80 games a year when i was a kid, but now I look at parents who drive their kids all over creation and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars a year to do it and wonder if maybe they have more money than sense....

[Odis]

Like someone mentioned, I think it depends on the kid and yes I am one of those parents with a child playing a bunch of ball. Mine is now 13, when he was really small after playing about 10 games in rec. ball, on the way home from the last game, he said "Daddy is that ALL I get?" "No more till next year?" I said yep, that's it, hope you had fun, look forward to next year. A few weeks later a guy called and asked him to be on "Select" team, and did my son want to extend his season? He was all over it, he loves the game and refuses to play any other sport. I don't push him in the least, never would because it is too big of a commitment. I don't discourage but always encourage if he wants to play, if not that's fine. Since he was about 6-7 he has started playing in late Feb. and ends with some kind of World Series or big tournament usually in July. When he's not playing, he's working and getting ready to play. I think the video is exactly right, travel ball or select baseball does involve too much baseball for some kids. Mine may "burn-out" next week, I hope not, but it could happen, I understand and if it does that's fine. The biggest problem we've encountered is Parents, some of those folks are crazy! Those types of Parents take the fun out of it. As long as the kids are having fun and not hurting themselves, what's the harm in it?

[gps4]

if it feels like i'm pointing fingers or stepping on toes, this isn't directed at anyone in particular so don't get all butt-hurt over it. this is just one fella's point of view, and it might not even be reasonable.

i used to know lots of girls that were into beauty pageants. they'd get real defensive if you called it a beauty pageant instead of a "scholarship pageant." they'd argue up one side and down the other that they were competing for scholarship money to help them with college. for those that didn't win, i've often wondered how much money could have been saved for college instead of buying all the gowns, swimsuits, pants suits, high dollar face paint, jewelry, and traveling all over creation for those pageants. same goes for rodeo girls. seems like $3-$5k a year (plus interest) for 10-12 years would be a pretty good start to a decent college education.