Starts younger and younger.
What once was rec/intramural evolved to community travel teams with three ages wrapped into one (i.e.13-15) wirh a limited number of teams in those elite travel leagues. The young ones learned from the older ones and often sat while they learned and became the stars as they developed.
This was a critical component to travel ball at the time. Could a player weather the storm of learning and growing while playing against better, older players?
Community travel teams popped up with 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 dual age leagues and produced good local rivalries that flourished for a time (most often sponsored by the rec councils) ultimately feeding into legion ball as the top of the food chain...again with multiple age groups, together.
Good local tournaments, community-based, and pretty good baseball.
The biggest change came with the advent of single age group leagues, which allow a kid to be a big fish ALL OF THE TIME. It actually fueled participation in travel baseball and arguably kept more kids playing longer instead of giving up the game at 12, 13 years old.
Age specific travel is primarily sponsored outside of the local rec programs and also begins at very tender ages--independendents playing in the Baltimore Metro and the like with leagues for 9's,10's, 11's, etc...and daddy ball becoming the "law of the land", starting new teams where junior can be the feature player, etc, etc... Now there are tons of age specific travel teams starting as young as 8 years old!
And coming full cycle...the whole travel thing is not much different than having motivated rec players because of the numbers of teams and the single age bracket is severely diluting the experience.
Naturally, there are kids who are the best in these watered down travel only, single age group leagues who are seeking (through motivated coaches and parents) higher ground.
And "showcase" baseball is born....probably here to stay, too because there is a profit motive that fuels this very expensive choice and before you know it, you are budgeting the baseball season the same way you do the mortgage payments.
We did it all and it worked out...all the perks -national and regional summer championships, high school accolades and awards, D1 southern college player today -- but it was through a thin gateway that this all happened. A lot of luck and a lot of money (and that was WITH great and generous team sponsorship and a ton of acquired knowledge along the way.) Thank God we have just one son!
Absolutely that fall showcase is the best and certainly most productive of the showcase models. Keep your son's love of the game alive and that will help him go as far as his talent will take him. Really, that's all you can expect, so find the right model for energizing his passion and follow that path...