League Ball Participation

LL Increasing the MPR from 2 innings and an AB. Kids will quit because they're bored sitting on the bench and not being part of the team. Too many daddyballers in it just to make sure their kid plays up the middle and sticking the spazzes (for lack of a better word) in RF. That may be the biggest turnoff and where you lose potential ballplayers just starting out in LL. Having good people run the local leagues and coaches who teach the game and keep players interested is the key. It's not gonna work for every kid but it will for those kids who love the game that just need a fair shake to find out if baseball is for them..

Also, LL has too many regulations and restrictions regarding all-stars and most of the better players are looking for more baseball to play. Travel fills the void.

What league ball has in it's favor is it's still the cheapest way to play organized baseball where some travel leagues cost a lot of loot.

As for high school, Travel hasn't taken over the high school season in our area but it has changed the landscape of summer baseball. Top HS players are moving away from American Legion to the various travel teams around the state. There's also a newly formed summer high school coaches league which is only for players entering grades 9-12. They play in a summer league for their high school coaches and the top players from the coaches league play in U-17/18 showcases. Graduating seniors and college freshman play U-19 Legion and younger players from high schools who's schools don't participate in the HS coaches league. This coaches league I see as a good thing because it keeps more high school players playing summer ball and they don't get squeezed off Legion rosters by the return of college freshman. I would imagine this has some negative affect on Babe Ruth baseball because of the available summer leagues now open to high school players. I'm guessing, but this also probably leaves more spots open for local rec league players who don't make the summer Babe Ruth team in favor of the underclassmen high school players who now have a new league to play in.

My son had played travel ball all the way through Little League years. When he was 13 he decided he would like to play with his friends from school in Little League Seniors (13 - 15).

He had not played all the way through so he had never been on the local "ALL STAR" team. Well at seasons end he batted over .700 (no kidding, more a statement of the level of league ball than anything else). He played SS very well in comparison to the rest of the league. After the season one of his friends called him to ask if he was going to All Star practice. This was how he found out he was not asked. He told me "I will never play for them"... I tried to tell him all the right things.

A year later the league called and asked to speak with him about playing "All Stars"... he politely declined telling them he had other committments, then hung up and told me he had said he would never play for them.

3 years later only one of theose "All Stars" is playing High School ball in our area. My son played Varsity last season as a Sophmore at a 6A school.

Little League has plenty of Daddy ball; lower level play in this area, and prepares players for the next level much less than a quality travel ball team here in Florida.

I tell my friends with younger players that are good to find a good travel ball team and let the other kids play little league.

Sorry if my question was misunderstood, I was just stating that I have noticed that a lot of travel ball players lack the fundamentals that were taught in the various leagues. We were never involved in Little League as my son only played Pony, and Connie Mack so I don't have much knowledge of L.L. itself.
As for "Daddy Ball" I have seen my share while being on the Pony boards for 9 years and even more in travel ball. In our area, I would guess, a least 60% of the travel teams were started because of a parent was not happy with their child's play time so they got together with other parents to start a team and as I stated before, most of them were middle of the road league players.
Personally, I have never coached my son on a team and always told him that he had to earn his right to play. This is how I dealt with my son from T-ball to college but I always told him if he decided to play for a team he could not quit whether he was playing or not. IMO this made him work harder to be a better player.

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Originally posted by Tooldforthis: As for "Daddy Ball" I have seen my share while being on the Pony boards for 9 years and even more in travel ball. In our area, I would guess, a least 60% of the travel teams were started because of a parent was not happy with their child's play time so they got together with other parents to start a team and as I stated before, most of them were middle of the road league players.

Yep. Travel was once an opportunity for the elite players to get out a few times a year against better/like competition. As it has become the norm the level of play overall has dropped and the politics and the daddyball aspect have come right along with it. And without a board of directors and community ties I can make a case that it is more unregulated and so more politically controlled...AND now you have to pay for daddyball and politics.

quote:

Originally posted by Tooldforthis:
Personally, I have never coached my son on a team and always told him that he had to earn his right to play. This is how I dealt with my son from T-ball to college but I always told him if he decided to play for a team he could not quit whether he was playing or not. IMO this made him work harder to be a better player.

Also makes them more adaptable to different persoanalities and approaches of coaches and bosses and more able to handle difficult situations outside their own circle of comfort.

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[quote]As it has become the norm the level of play overall has dropped and the politics and the daddyball aspect have come right along with it.[/quot

Pay your money Travel team

The value of travel is a player can pick his poison rather than be drafted by a rec coach that doesn't know the game. All travel is not equal. It's important to find the right team with quality coaching, that plays quality competition.