Hi TPM:
BHD emailed me and we've been PM'inghere and there since 2006.
His son did play for a team way back then for little money that is now somewhere between $5K and $7K.
There was an article on PG about our 18U team back in October - it said something like they were on the road 90 days a year. That's where a lot of the money goes. At 6 am tomorrow, 3 highway coaches leave with five teams for Vero. The program goes where the competitive baseball is played - in the south. As soon as your high school season ends, our program drops everything it's doing here, and they are on the buses.
I may complain about the burden of the cost but, I know why it's there. These are fairly well-planned events with games along the way - it's a system now. In truth, it is a pretty unique life experience even at this level - a taste of the minor leagues maybe.
Last night, we drove an hour each way through some pretty messy weather with partial white-outs for this session:
http://s910.photobucket.com/al...current=P1030836.mp4
Some of the pitchers in this video will arrive at 8:00 a.m. Saturday and take the hill at 10:00 a.m. in their first game after a 20 hour bus ride.
There have been times already after a night like last night where my son got home at 11:00 and worked on homework until 12:30. I gave him a six hour window to sleep and then prepared him for a morning test. Stuff he didn't think he could do at one time...