Is it just me or .....??

Your son didn't get his first ring until he actually won a championship? What a loser!!

Cute kid.  I hope he keeps playing ball. 

In a true liberal "everyone wins" fashion, they probably also give rings to all the losing teams

Everybody can win a "national championship" at all levels. They just need yo keep going to tournaments, there's probably 10-15 "national championships" in most age groups. 

A ring is no different than a trophy.  Typically older ages have always done rings because HS, college and professional players don't want a trophy and kids younger than that typically don't wear big gaudy rings.    I don't see why a 6 year old getting a ring that costs $1.00 is any different than a 6 year old getting a $3 trophy.  Ring or otherwise, it's still just a trophy.   You win a tourney, you get a trophy.  I'm 48 years old and it's been that way since I was 6. 

Eh - rings were always more special in my view.  Signify something 'bigger' than your average trophy.

YGD - Never really thought about this but I once coached a 10-year old AS team that won a 'state championship' in CA in USSSA/SuperSeries/something(?) and they got rings AND a trophy.  The kids thought that was just about the coolest thing maybe, because it signified something bigger?  Or something they could show off easily at school?  Not sure.

Anyways, our two boys won 'real' rings in HS and the minor leagues like yours.  I didn't really think the little kids rings took away from that - but I kinda get your point if its that these rings won't seem too special anymore if they get overdone beginning at 7/8...10 years old.

BTW, if anyone's son on here goes to Stanford under the current coach, the only thing they can earn a ring for is winning the national championship.  Medals and trophies for other things, but rings are only for winning it all.

My son got a similar ring this weekend.  The tournament is billed as "The Champs Wear The Rings" and is run by USSSA.  They are flimsy rings, and my son now has 3 of these and one from Cooperstown, he plays 14u.  Frankly, I'm thankful they take up less room than a trophy

I don't think anyone will ever confuse kids tourney champs rings with real rings! 

Interesting they r getting ring so young, even if they r cheap. When sons HS won state champ in football we learned the players had to BUY rings. They were big, really cool but sure they cost a lot like Sr. Rings.

OT- watching Kelly/Michael and she said at her sons HS they r telling Sr. Not to discuss w others what colleges they got excepted to because others may not have heard yet, or may not have gotten in and they would feel bad.  W T H- that's life, learn to deal w disappointment. Not everyone wins, or gets job, etc.

reminds me of everyone get a trophy. Don't want little Johnny feeling bad. 

In our tournament, we give each player a "crackerjack" box with a decorder ring which tells the player his BA immediately.

Bob

YGD - That SP on his shirt looks like Signature Park out of Hoschton.  

The OP seems to be built around the premise that a high school or older kid can't understand the difference between the USSSA ring he won in a 6u tournament and any ring he wins for a championship when he gets older. It's just a cheap memory of winning a youth tournament. It doesn't cheapen, for example, a state championship ring. I think they will understand the difference. Let them enjoy their accomplishments now. They will be completely competent enough to put it in perspective when they are older.

I don't think I wrote my OP with that premise in mind at all Mr. Roothog66. lol. I do possess 1/2 a brain just so you know and been around the block here on a few occasions. But I do believe that when you begin "spoiling" (for lack of a better word) the young ones in (name  your sport) with such lofty things that should hold perhaps a more special meaning then as time elapses where really is the "near and dear to the heart" feeling for him? I know, for you and a few others it's nothing more than a trophy at the end of the day so I get it. Maybe it's because my son is older and having missed playing for any LL and/or travel teams that winning trophies was all he was accustomed to. I'm not closed minded enough to realize this could possibly be the case. Maybe the ring is inexpensive and the more I think about it who gives a 5-6 yr old boy a RING to wear? I mean, where would he wear it that he wouldn't lose it within a 24hr time span? lol. At least a trophy/metal can be displayed to be seen by those who enter his baseball cathedral, er, his bedroom! 

I'm as happy as I can be for this young man and can't wait to see him Sunday as I certain he will be wearing this ring with mom and dad there. He brought his Super Bowl trophy for us all to see and he couldn't get the grin off of his face all morning. 

I don't know. Maybe I am from the old adage that slow is good and that sometimes rushing things that can wait seem to pay far more future dividends when something (whatever it may be) just has that magical and special meaning. 

YGD

Much ado about nothing. "Participation trophy" whining seems like its own sport these days, maybe they should give trophies for most absurd complaint about it.

For as long as people have been alive, people have been whining about recognition or lack thereof for any number of things. Extrinsic motivation doesn't work like that anyway, and the kids who are still competing at 16u and beyond will almost universally be doing it for intrinsic reasons regardless of whatever extrinsic doo-dads have been "earned" over the years.

After the championship game of 8/9 basketball the same trophy was given to every participant if the league. My 8yo son threw his in the trash by the door. He said, "We didn't win anything. We were eliminated last week." I told him to take it home and give it some thought. He decided to use it for a BB gun target. See, participation trophies have value.

Over the years my kids came home with first, second, and third medals from various sports. There were so many hung over their bedposts it looked like a mess. When my youngest headed for college I sold the house. When cleaning out their rooms my kids discovered all they had on their bedposts was a huge knot of years of medals. By the time they were teens they had tossed all the participation trophies. My son's had a short lifespan before execution. He once asked if he could see what it looks like to see a participation trophy shot by my Glock.

We lost the Sate Championship game a few years back. A rep for a company called us trying to sell us on the idea of getting "State Runner-Up" rings. I'm not kidding.

ironhorse posted:

We lost the Sate Championship game a few years back. A rep for a company called us trying to sell us on the idea of getting "State Runner-Up" rings. I'm not kidding.

I have not gotten a ring for the 3 times we lost the state championship game (just the ones we have won), but I may be getting softer in my old age as I reflect back on my career because I am not 100% against a state finalist getting one. 

As for the OP, at least he won the tourn.  That is not the same as a participation trophy/ring. As for what the reward is for winning....well, that is irrelevant to me.  My daughter rodeos, and in one association they are divided up by age much as youth baseball is.....anyway, the 6U season winner won a $1,200 saddle.  Big award? sure, but he won. The other contestants got much smaller prizes. I am ok with that.