expensive baseball teams

do you have to make the team in a tryout?

Smalltown, it is 6 times more expensive due to all the travel or is it just 6 time more expensive because of the the neat uniforms, paid coaches, tournament fees, etc?

yes he had to tryout. The expense includes more games, cool uniforms, winter workouts, more tournaments and farther away, and some fall games so it's a bargain in total if your kid and family are into spending all their spare time on baseball as ours is. You also have hotel expenses Legion did not have, the downside I saw is some of the coaches appear to be no fun to play for, very boot camp like atmosphere for warm ups, etc. Might work for some and we got lucky, great dudes.

I know there are parents out there like me who knew nothing of the travel team experience so I thought I would share my observations, the most surprising thing being the level of play, I had heard about some of these teams for years, lots of D-1 recruits, big time reputation. Cool websites, I guess you can only get so good no matter how hard you practice or how much time you put into it, and clearly D-1 coaches are rolling the dice more than I would have thought when they make on offer as the players on these teams seemed no better or worse than a lot of others, Legion or not.

Well hopefully the cool uniforms are worth it! But seriously, travel ball is expensive but hopefully he gets out of it a higher level of experience by playing different and better competition, good coaching, playing with new team mates and the experience of traveling around and playing at different sites. More importantly, they do well and get some exposure that they may not have received playing locally.

Good luck!

It doesn't get any cheaper, as your player move's on to college or pro's.
If you want to watch the game's in person like we do.
You will Pay. LOL

Down here in Florida, "Cool" uniforms take on a whole new meaning.

If your son wants to play college ball and the team does important showcases, then it's worth the money.

My son plays on a 16U team. He's a 14U eligible freshman. Rec ball here is brutal. The travel players are usually more ready for high school varsity sooner. His team fee is $500. For ten tournaments it's another $800 in gas. Seven of our ten tournaments are forty-five miles away. Three will involve hotel bills. There's another $600. This doesn't include food. We bring food for the local events so he eats well. When my daughter played 18U softball it was $700 to be on the team and another $3,000 in travel due to travel to showcase events.

The biggest thing I don't like about travel tournaments are three, and sometimes four games on Sunday in a two day weekend tournament. The championship usually looks more like a war of attrition than baseball.

smalltown,
Sorry for your costly, less than great experience. However I don't think it's fair to paint with such a broad brush. My son started playing travel ball when he was eleven and continued until he was 18. After progressing up through the "levels" of youth baseball I can assure you the team cost had NOTHING to do with the level of play. "Cool" uniforms or a team bus have nothing to do with hitting mechanics or the pitcher's velocity. A good coaching/management staff is the key to a successful "travel team".

GREAT Recruiting, coaching, facilities, and scheduling and plus other administrative functions are essential for a successful team experience. There are teams today that focus on external "appearance" of the team and ignore the most important aspect ---- the "internal" workings of the team. These are nothing more than a recreational team that travel in expensive style. Parents need to do their homework when selecting a team.

Successful teams do travel and do have good equipment and good facilities. Charges sometimes increase when parents have to contribute to the team's operations but not always. Many successful teams have corporate financial backing that helps reduce the parent's costs. In the 7 years that my son played travel ball I paid very little in the way of team fees. Our coaching staff obtained corporate backing which helped tremendously. Yes I paid gas money, hotel bills, air fare but these went directly to those that supplied the services and not to the team. There are many that gave much more than me in helping these teams (including my son) compete on the highest level possible.
Fungo

Sorry fungo, I did not mean to imply it has been less than great, after all this was the first tourney, what I was trying to get at is after my kid playing 12 years of ball I had never seen the top travel teams before. For those looking at this sort of thing I thought a neophyte impression might provide some insight. that after seeing 22 teams play 3 days of baseball which I feel is a pretty good sampling of what probably is out there. this were my impressions;
that hyped programs are probably just that, a lot of kids weren't having fun, and it appeared to be more like a job than a game on some of the teams so you better vet the personalities involved if you are thinking about this for your offspring. , and more importantly, guys like my kid and another who this was their first year of this top level ball and were nervous as to whether they could compete played as well or in most cases better than those that had been through years of these sorts of programs and were "names" in the area. and in fact the skills displayed and baseball instincts were ordinary or less than much more than I would have thought. This was also true about some of the players who were in their first year of JC ball that were on some of the rosters. This was more surprising to me than anything. I assumed this would be amazing ball, not just ordinary baseball.

I didn't get th impression you were unhappy with your experience. BB is full of hype.
I thought that was a godd perspective on elite travel teams. I certainly agree that they are not all so elite. Oftn drivn by th nd for funds to survivE.
Our team budgets were all in the 100,000 + range. 25 players x $4000. to break even and that was a few years ago. I have noticed that many teams are struggling to gt a full roster lately.

quote:

I assumed this would be amazing ball, not just ordinary baseball.

I thought the same thing watching some minor league games.

You don't say what tournament you went to. It could be you were not playing in an elite tournament or
I some times wonder with all the travel ball that is out there maybe the talent is spread out a little thin.

Smalltown I admit I did "read between the lines" on your post. I wondered why I felt as if you were not happy. Maybe it was your wording. I looked up expensive and it says: 1: involving high cost or sacrifice <an expensive hobby>
2. commanding a high price and especially one that is not based on intrinsic worth or is beyond a prospective buyer's means.

You also said lots of players per team and --- level of play about the same All of these indicate things are not good. I would not be happy if that is the way it was.

I don't think this is "top level ball" as you indicate. My son's team (I think was a top team) had many players drafted and every player on his 18u team had a D-1 offer except one (JUCO because of grades).

quote:

I thought a neophyte impression might provide some insight

I appreciate you sharing your impression but I'm a neophyte too --- I think most of us are

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
If your son wants to play college ball and the team does important showcases, then it's worth the money.

My son plays on a 16U team. He's a 14U eligible freshman. Rec ball here is brutal. The travel players are usually more ready for high school varsity sooner. His team fee is $500. For ten tournaments it's another $800 in gas. Seven of our ten tournaments are forty-five miles away. Three will involve hotel bills. There's another $600. This doesn't include food. We bring food for the local events so he eats well. When my daughter played 18U softball it was $700 to be on the team and another $3,000 in travel due to travel to showcase events.

The biggest thing I don't like about travel tournaments are three, and sometimes four games on Sunday in a two day weekend tournament. The championship usually looks more like a war of attrition than baseball.

Only $500 and $700 for team fee? Wow.
Most teams that I know of charge $1900 to $2800 right off the top.

Smalltown,

Not sure where you’re from as your profile lists “anywhere”. You did mention the NW so I suppose you’re from that part of the country. There are some very good “travel” teams in the NW.

Good hitters need to face the top pitching available. Good pitchers need to face the best possible hitters. If that happens, exposure takes care of itself. Scouts and recruiters show up to see exactly that!

If the competition is not that good, you are wasting your money. The vast majority of high draft picks and those recruited by top college programs are players playing at a very high level of summer baseball. They are playing with and against the best competition. It makes it easier to pick them out when they standout against the top level competition.

Fancy uniforms are nice, but they alone mean absolutely nothing! Good coaching and good competition mean everything. Traveling means nothing, where you travel to means everything. If the competition you face is no better than legion ball and it costs you much more, you’re wasting your money. IMO Legion might even be better!

What is a neophyte?

neophyte: a beginner or novice

I know when my son played on one of the "Big 3" in the Houston area (also considered one of the top national teams) the fee for the summer was only $700 as well (two summers ago.) We had to pay our travel expenses as well of course but went to good tournaments-several out of state-top competition and well worth the, obviously, minimal team fee.

We are paying $800 plus travel expenses for our summer team. Just got back from the 16U BCS qualifier in Ft. Myers - our first PG event. It was a blast. We saw some fantastic pitching, some great hitting and defense, and the quality of play was overall very good.

Our record wasn't very good(1-1-2) but this team is going to be. They had only practiced together once, and at any one time we had six or seven different area high schools represented on the field! They got better with each game. Along with one other smaller tournament and some weekend double headers, we are also going to Jupiter, to the BCS championship back in Ft. Myers, and to East Cobb. Granted, we live in Florida so our travel expenses aren't nearly as much as some, but seeing the mental effect on 2B after just one event, I can see that it's going to be worth every penny, and it would be at twice the cost. At only 14, 2B isn't going to stand out just yet, but he played every inning of every game, and proved to himself that he did belong there, no question. Even though he wasn't satisfied with his performance, it was still a huge confidence builder. Definitely worth the money.

The cost to be on a team often doesn't have a relationship to the quality of baseball that team plays. I live in California, and we have some very fine travel teams in our region, and some that aren't worth the cost regardless of how great or modest that cost is. Costs range from a low of about $700.00 or so up to around $4,000.00, not counting travel. One big difference in the cost is whether the people running a club do it for their livlihood, or as a hobby.

From my perspective, running a travel club as a hobby(we have five teams ranging from 13/14s all the way up to college players) I think there is nothing wrong with the guys who do it for a living, even though that isn't how we do it. It's another legitimate business providing a service to customers who are willing to pay for that service. What matters is the caliber of baseball your son gets to play.

My belief is that parents and players should look for a program that plays a relatively large number of games during their season and has quality coaches who like to teach the game. They should play in larger tournaments against the best competition they can find, where the players are more likely to be seen by college coaches/recruiters. There should be someone in the organization who has an active interest in helping the boys move along to the higher levels of baseball if that is their aspiration. Ideally, you'll find a program where they care about more than just baseball, and want to help your son develop into a better young man.

there has been talk about the popularity of baseball and the participants. does anybody on this site think there are kids that want to play but when told it will cost them x amount for the experience then some tend to stop. I hear of all these traveling teams and showcase teams etc etc costing large amounts of money yet I see young kids in the minors and in the majors from poor countries like the dominican republic who might have started playing barefeet in the street. Go figure

If the had money to spend a whole culrure of expensive teams would sprout up.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
I hear of all these traveling teams and showcase teams etc etc costing large amounts of money yet I see young kids in the minors and in the majors from poor countries like the dominican republic who might have started playing barefeet in the street. Go figure

Not really a fair comparison. The kids in the US actually go to school whereas 75% of the kids in the DR drop out of school to pursue their dream; a MLB career.

Actually, in some ways the Dominican Republic has more opportunities for excellent training and instruction at a very low cost than most players do here in the states.

There's a lot of money spent on developing young Dominican players. That money is not coming from their parents, either.

quote:

Only $500 and $700 for team fee? Wow.
Most teams that I know of charge $1900 to $2800 right off the top.

For my son's team it's about $650 per tournament, ten tournaments divided by fourteen players. It doesn't include travel. All other fees are supported by the sponsor including access to an indoor facility. The coaches are all former college and/or pro players who are also dads coaching free of charge.

My daughter's program (four age groups/seven teams) was heavily subsidized by a very nice rich lady whose daughter once played college softball.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Actually, in some ways the Dominican Republic has more opportunities for excellent training and instruction at a very low cost than most players do here in the states.

There's a lot of money spent on developing young Dominican players. That money is not coming from their parents, either.

I agree PG and I've actually been to one of the facilities in the DR. The problem though is that if they don't make it in the MLB (and most don't) they have no education to fall back on. It's a shame and you'd think the MLB would change the policy.

A minor leaguer that we know told us about a Dominican player at spring training that broke his ankle playing pick-up basketball. Compound fracture. He broke team rules, so they sent him home. No insurance, no education, no nothing. Bye.

I don't mind spending the money I earn in this gloomy office on my own player's development. I choose when and where to spend it. Baseball or no baseball, with an education and the opportunities that brings, he has a good future ahead of him.

A baseball academy's record can be misleading. A player on my grandson's HS team told him that he had been invited to play for a local baseball academy team that was being put together to play in a big tournament in Marrieta, Georgia. The team is not the academy's regular travel team but a team of ringers put together to carry the academy's name. This team of recruited players played in a tournament this past weekend and easily won most of their games. Players and coaches familiar with the academy's regular travel team (that looses the majority of their games) told my grandson that the team is really good and the players really big and the majority not from the local area. If I were a parent of a player that trains at the training academy and paying about $3,000 per year plus travel costs to be on their regular tournament team, I would find somewhere else to train.

quote:

If I were a parent of a player that trains at the training academy and paying about $3,000 per year plus travel costs to be on their regular tournament team, I would find somewhere else to train.

There are plenty of baseball academies with "pay to play" teams regardless of ability. The players couldn't make good teams. The parents get hit for a package that includes the team and thousands of dollars in lessons. We've almost always kicked the pants off these teams.