aau or travel ball

Unless things have changed over the past few years we don’t define baseball teams as AAU teams in this area. We simply call them travel teams. We looked at AAU as an affiliation much like AABC. My son played on the 18u Dulin’s Dodgers the year Dulin’s won both the 18u and 17u AAU National Championships.

Are the players good because they play travel ball or do they play travel ball because they are good? This is a very good question and a very misleading question too. The answer SHOULD be --- they play travel ball because they are good and they get better because of playing travel ball --- But that is not necessarily true anymore. The TRAVEL BALL label has now become VERY misleading! While I think it is a great experience for all involved, we have to understand that anyone can play travel ball and anyone can coach travel ball. There are players and teams that play travel ball that are NOT good and they don’t get better because the country is flooded with teams that are nothing more than recreational teams that have dubbed themselves a “travel team” that go around playing other recreational teams that have dubbed themselves travel teams. Good teams (which we used to call travel teams) are made up of talented players coached by talented coaches and compete against other talented teams. We parents have to do more homework to find the better teams. I have seen travel team so weak they took the first 20 players that showed up that had $500 --- or is it a $1,000 now?
Fungo

Ditto what Fungo said. In our area we just call it travel ball. And, yes, anyone can have a travel team and they're not all "elite."

I'd like to think my son's team plays at an elite level. He'll play 14U in 2007. We played Little League through his 11 year old year. Then we got to a point where Little League isn't real baseball anymore. No leadoffs/steals, 60' bases are too short.

In addition to that, if you have 12 kids on your team, only 2-3 can really play. And the coaches...God bless them for volunteering...but real baseball coaches are hard to find (and I lump myself in there too.)

Little League-type baseball is great. For 90% of the youth players out there, it's awesome. But for those players who have the potential and desire to play at a higher level, you have to find a quality travel program.

Our team offers my son much better coaching, and a much better atmosphere in terms of teammates (playing ability) and competition. Plus we've been able to play all over Northern Illinois and even played in Omaha against teams from all over the country.

It's expensive...$750 to get in + travel, food, etc. But for my son, who wants to play in High School, College and maybe beyond, it's worth every penny.

To end, please don't let me sound like Little League is bad. It's just that travel/aau/elite whatever you want to call it has done a better job at helping my son develop as a baseball player.