Aparent: If the parents and player have a say so in the selection of which team or organization to play for they should really do their homework and try to learn who the "jerk" parents are and who the "jerk" coaches are. It certainly is true that in some regions the number of teams to select from may be slim and your ability to choose a desirable team may be limited. For most,though, this is not the case. This past summer our family had four players in travel ball and we have been participating for over six years now. We have learned the ropes well and now when choosing a team we focus primarily on the quality of the families and the quality of the coaching staff. In the early years we focused solely on whether the team was a "winner" since this is what we thought was most important. We were wrong. Some teams loaded with talent were also loaded with problems (huge egos, unrealistic expectations, poor politics, selfishness,etc.). Life is too short to spend cherished baseball time with a lousy crowd and the game deserves better. Good organizations, top to bottom, are the successful ones. Hitch your horse to one of those! Which would you want to be assciated with? An organization that may very well win most often yet is riddled with bad behavior... or an organization that also wins often but does so with civility and class. Different strokes for different folks. The choice is yours!