@hokieone posted:My Valley League team just completed our 10th year, and in talking with other teams' officials, and folks from other summer leagues, everyone is noticing changes, and whether those changes are good, bad, or indifferent I guess is in the eye of the beholder. First and foremost, and I really don't like this one, there are a lot of players 100% focused on themselves, first, last, and always. We had a player from a big time D-1 program tell his host family that he was here to put up numbers so he could transfer; he couldn't care less whether the team won or lost, didn't really care about the town or all of the volunteers, he was in the portal and needed numbers. And when he got an offer mid-summer from another D-1, away he went. Some other players just packed and left, with no word to their host family or our coaches until they arrived at their home. 'It's all about me" seems to be the operative expression. Thankfully we also had a lot of really good kids that worked their butts off, improved their game, and were a delight for the fans and the host families...but the "all about me" crowd seems to be growing. This seems to be happening across the country as I know some kids signed late by the Cape that would have never gotten a sniff from the Cape a few years ago, which tells me that even the Cape is seeing a lot of turnover. From our original 35 man roster, 22 were gone by the end of the summer-some innings limits, some injuries, some girl friends, some just flaked out...but as scouts will tell you, if a kid can't hack a 42 game summer schedule, how with they handle a MiLB schedule? Another team ended up with 5 of their original 35 players. 2 teams couldn't complete the playoffs because they ran out of either position players, pitchers, or both. And our league is a very old and respected league, not just a "come lately". The portal is now huge-we had quite a few college coaches come to a lot of games to scout guys that were in the transfer portal. Our GM got a number of calls asking what "portal kids" we had. We had 5 former players drafted in the MLB draft this summer, the highest was in round 4. 2 more guys signed as free agents. Next year, we will have a former player probably go in the top 10 picks. So if we can't keep kids, what about less established teams in less established leagues? I don't know the answers-our league's board will be having a lot of discussions, but I suspect some summer leagues will just fold and some teams will just fold. The "good kids" make it worthwhile and praise the Lord our league seemed to have a bunch of them...but the "Me First" numbers are growing.
Well why didn't you post something on here? It was decided that the kid could go back later in the season. He and his coaches looked and looked. A simple post here would have picked up a kid grateful to play. Yes, one could point out that we should have posted on here looking, my bad, but this is a resource you choose not to use then come here complaining.