quote:
Originally posted by Estone28:
I am not for this.
I dont want to be percieved as negating your opportunity, I hope it works out well. I really do.
Having said that, I have honestly never seen a 12 y/o who is physically or emotionally ready to play with 18 year olds.
Please be aware, your son is going to be faced with some social situations, innuendo etc. that he is unfamiliar with. Please make sure and educate him in advance. There is a big difference between a 12 y/o and an 18 y/o.
I hope it works, I really do. There are just a lot of red flags that go up for me.
There are situations that come up with 17-18 year olds in the dugouts, on the bus and locker rooms that most 12 year olds should not be dealing with.
That is experience speaking, we let our son at 13 play on a 18U team summer rec ball (HS daughters friends from Varsity football team going away to school) this past summer. He had a great time and they should not have won a game instead they swept the league.
On the field our son could compete and he was overjoyed to be able to razz these 'men' that the only game they lost was the one our son was absent from. He did pitch a some, he was pitching 70+ then & he did hit.
It's just different.
With that said there is a huge difference in language,
conversation topics, physical attributes etc.. Not to mention that scantly clad girls at 13 look a lot different than scantly clad girls of 18 flirting & hanging out(both ways
)with/for the boys. A big wad of bubble gum is much different than a big wad of chew. When a play or an at bat goes wrong an angry boy of 13 is far less scarey than an angry man of 18
. What about base running or home plate collisions? Yes when the 'men' go to there cars and go to a party
it is much different than your 13yr old getting in your car to go for a pizza with the team.
We have let our son play up before this closer to his age and this was fun for him. It wasn't his school team, it was a park league for fun and we were there every minute. We would not have allowed this if we had not been able to supervise this every step of the way.
We feel play up within reason.
Please check the rules just because you move now and again later may not change the fact that he already played 3-4 years of high school ball, transcripts go with you. You don't want him to be ineligible his Senior year. It would crush my son if he only could play for school til he was 16.
Very hard choices - Best wishes for your move and to your son!