No disrespect on how things happened there Bobble. Maybe I'll ask a question though. Do you think a Canadian RHP throwing 88 mph at the end of his Jr summer, would receive much attention in todays world, without participating with a travel program or doing a showcase, would garner much attention by just sending in a video? I'm saying somebody in the 90th percentile - not the 95th.
You're right when you say, "unless you are prepared to pay thousands". Liner pointed to a solution that was basically a tiered system getting to a point where it would be like THOUSANDS.
Even if the OBA were motivated to develop an elite system, I dont think they could actually pull it off and I dont think they could do it for less money than the PBLO's (same-program-for-same-program).
Certainly, Ontario's baseball credibility plummetted when they banned the PBLO's. Clearly the PBLO's made an impact when they were allowed. A few years back I did some analysis of about 200 players that attended Try Outs for I think Jr Nationals at Pearson. 90% of them were from elites. Maybe one OBA player makes the final team.
Certainly there are teams that play well beyond their centre size - Tecumseh comes to mind at our age group. Our team this year intends to move up from AA to AAA. How about Woodslea Bantam down in the Sun Parlour? A tiny community forms a team and draws the best players from Riverside, the Stars and Tecumseh. I bet less than 2 guys are from Woodslea. A class D centre that will probably give everybody a run for Nationals this year, let alone trying to qualify for AAA. Worse yet, you wont see it coming, cause if I were them I'd be playing all my strengthening games in MI.
I'm not really sure what the answer is.