Iowa tourney

http://www.worldwoodbat.com/TournamentDetails.aspx?id=354

Nails, with football games and homecomings and high school visits; its up for grabs. It could be the Racine Hitters for three straight years.

looks like alot of clubs have hand picked some kids and I am sure some programs have alot of kids in their fall leagues to make some competitive teams.

quote:

Originally posted by Tuzigoot:
...homecomings....

Baseball first!!!

Looks like most of the local 09 teams will be in Iowa except for the Seminoles .

I don't think the Racine Hitters won it 3 straight years. They won it last year and one other time a few years ago. Midwest Blazers have finished second three straight years.

If there is a confict, I'm sorry but homecoming has to come first...

I only see 6 teams from Illinois going. Where are all these high profile teams at? Blazers seem to recreut kids just for the fall and this event, similar to the summer end of the year tourney. Surprised Bergen Beach isn't in this for the fall.

I looked at some of the rosters.. These teams are LOADED with talent! I wish I could see some of these games. This should be a great tournament.

What local team do you like the best?

I like the Midwest Blazers and RJ's Hitters, both solid squads. Todd has a nice team put together for the Prep Baseball report, but I can't see any of them getting past the McHenry County Hurricanes - My pick.

What makes the Hurricanes stand out in your mind?

Nails, I'm not trying to start a fight here but many of your posts seem to show displeasure for all of these travel teams, i.e. they're never good enough, they're too good because the recruit (is this wrong), where are all the "good" teams?

Just curious as to why you seem so down on these high school travel teams?

Not sure if they have the hitting, but the St Louis Pirates Black Team has 4 D-1 pitchers, (Belew-Austin Peay, Powers-UIC, Flett and Mullins are making D-1 visits and have received offers)

Should be a great tournament!

I love travel ball, i think it's a great way for these kids to get year round instruction, get better and help being seen by colleges. I don't like the one's that recreut and do no teaching of the game at all, they just try to recreut the best players. I also think alot of them have alot of false messages and stretch the truth to get these players on their teams. I think there's a ton of politics in it and a ton of garbage associated with alot of them. And I see alot of you guys on here praising one or the other or first loving one, then when the kid didn't get what the parent wanted going to another one and praising that one. Or a kid played 1 game with a travel team and commits to a D1 school or already was committed, next thing you know it's posted all over the travel team website when they had nothing to do with it probably. Then a nieve parent thinks that that club got the kid into that school, when it actually had nothing to do with it. Very misleading stuff.

I wonder if you guys have seen alot of the players on these teams or your just saying they are good cause you heard of the travel team name? How many of the same kids are on multiple rosters? that's another thing that strikes me as weird with travel baseball. Midwest Blazers are throwing good pitchers out there but with wood anything can happen.

The teams from IL with the best shot IMO would be Cangelosi Blue or DG Longshots.

I am sure that you don't know anything about any of the other teams from Illinos. I would also bet that nobody knows anything about any of these teams from Iowa or Minnessota, even the hitters. There is no way you guys know who they have on their team from Wisconsin, your just going on the fact you know their name. And with Cangelosi or Longshots you might know a few kids on that team. Why is Crowley on the longshots roster but scheduled to pitch for the Midwest Blazers? Figure that one out.

Nails-

There is a lot of truth in what you describe. I do think though, that the travel coach, as well as the high school coach would probably both agree, "If you don't want to be here, then go somewhere else." Maybe harder to do in a high school scenario. Yes, I have seen imperfections in both...but no one ever promised me the rose garden either.

Nails, recruit a dictionary.

Anyone know if this tourney will be scouted by many colleges?

If so, who will be there?

Pitching, RR. How goes the recruiting?

JKENNEDY, as far as the pitching you must be assuming all those pitchers will show up and since a couple of them are playing football or s****r I am not sure that will happen.

of course the best part of the tournament is the winner gets an automatic bid to jupiter.

some teams don't even have to win and they are automatic bids. Why are they even in this one I ask. Jupiter is good but wonder how much overall cost it is to get down there for the weekend. Lots of money spent traveling on some of this stuff.

not speaking for everyone but my son is going to Iowa and Jupiter because he loves playing the game, even more so against the best competition out there. its not for everyone (and many don't understand the high level travel circuit) but some do appreciate it and for those people its great fun.

I'm sure it's fun, I understand it. Stating my opinion. Not everyone is fortunate enough to afford all that. I sure it cost money for Iowa, let alone Florida. On top of if they went to Georgia during the summer. I think there's a big contigent of people that think just because a team is from another state they must be a high level team and that's just not the case. There's alot of average out of state teams just like the one's you'd see in Illinois tournaments.

I will say though, Iowa looks like it has some very good teams in there, some that stacked up particularily for this tourney.

no question there's some cost involved. i gave up golf a couple of years ago so I guess this is my hobby for this part of my life. The ROI in baseball is not great; you spend tens of thousands of dollars to hopefully get a small scholarship but the joy of the game and memories remain forever.

How expensive would it be if your kid wasn't doing something productive (baseball) & got in something that wasn't (illegal activities)?

Rehab ain't cheap & neither are lawyers.

I am not saying that kids who don't play baseball all get into trouble. However, when my kid is practicing at 500 AM in the spring, he don't have the energy to do ANYTHING at night.

Go baseball.

JKennedy
The recruiting has gone very well. Thanks for asking! My son is very happy.
I also agree with you. I think that the Hurricanes have enough pitching even with football and the S word.

RR, Glad everything is going well. Have we picked a school yet? And NC - I knew there was a reason for the 200+ game seasons.. (I have three boys playing) It's to keep them out of rehab!

Actually I think it's more likely kept ME out of rehab! Great for family togetherness (even though we don't sit together at the games, we still ride there and back in the same car), lots of social interaction with other baseball parents (and someone to talk about in the car on the way there and back), AND a great excuse to leave work on time (OK, sometimes even early!) 4 or 5 days a week!

The reality though is plenty of kids who are heavily involved in sports still get in all kinds of other trouble - there are parents on this site who can tell you some sad, scary stories - so don't assume anything. The pressures are still there and sometimes for our boys the pressures are magnified by the added pressure to do well on the field - it can be tough to handle and unfortunately some do choose to deal with it chemically. And it sure doesn't end in high school.

The Top seed going into the playoffs tonite will be either Cangelosi White or Midwest Blazers . Top seed gets a bye and wont play until tomorrows semis. Cangy white team only given up one run so far ( 4-0 ) . Blazers ( 3-0 ) and playing right now ..given up zero runs.

Blazers --4-0 ..top seed . given up goose eggs so far .

Cangy white ( 2 seed ) is top scoring team in this tourneys pool play --36 runs ...given up only 1 .

McHenry Hurricanes , longshots , pbr ( tt ) , racine hitters all failed to make playoff round.

Cangy Blue team ( Copp ) is in the playoff round as well .

Side Note ..both Cangelosi teams are missing some notable starting position players this weekend. Both teams playing extremely well despite that .

sulli how was the competition at this tournament. In the past it seems like pg put in many of it's fall team that got killed by the stronger travel teams.

JKennedy, the Hurricanes pitching lived up to your expectations. Only four runs allowed in four games. Just not enough hitting in the last game, as they only scored one run, losing 3-1.

I see the Hurricanes are going out to the AZ Fall Classic. Do they usually head to Jupiter, FL?

Lineshot

Im not there myself ..getting second hand info . The pg teams that i have seen myself this fall are decent ..but will struggle against the better teams . PG Iowa team is one of the teams in the playoffs . They won the pool that the hurricanes were in , so they must be pretty good. Go to the pg website and you can check out all of the results from this weekend .

Nails,

An awful lot of vague negativity.

These teams aren't as good as you think they are.
You only like them because you've heard their name before.
These teams recreut/recruit.
It's too expensive.

Whatever.

Reputation means a lot but they still have to show it on the field.

Teams recruit...so what? Baseball isn't the main fall high school sport so I'm sure there are some players that you'd 'rather' see here but they're playing football.

It's too expensive. Yeah. So you either figure out how to do it or you don't.

All I know is my son's team got to play on some nice fields against some of the best competition we've seen all year. That includes the high school and summer seasons.

In our last game, we got one-hit by a senior reportedly going to Creighton next fall. Yes, we lost and it doesn't get any better than this!

I think that if you don't like something, that's fine. You don't necessarily need to let everyone else know that.

I think this tournament was awesome and can't wait for the next one.

To nc42dad: I know for sure that the MC Hurricanes aren't going to Arizona anymore this fall, and if my memory serves correct i don't think they are going to Florida either. One thing is for sure though, the Canes have a lot of unknown or "lesser known" players on that team that are pretty good.