Wow. Agreed - great article. This rang especially true:

 

"Even despite all the breaks I got with baseball, I probably wouldn’t be a Major League player right now if I didn’t tear my ACL when I was 15. I thought I was going to play college football. Why? Economics. If I could’ve been a wide receiver for a D-I school, I would have chosen that path because of the promise of a full scholarship. The University of Florida offered me a baseball scholarship, but it only covered 70 percent of the tuition. My family simply couldn’t afford the other 30 percent. The fact is, no matter how good you are, you’re not getting a full ride in baseball."

I'm surprised the author is not encouraging kids to do well in school and earn scholarship money from high test scores. I'm also surprised he would downplay the cheating of the Jackie Robinson West team 

 

 For all the backlash around the Jackie Robinson West team “cheating,” most people are ignoring the truth of how these 12-year-old kids make it out of their towns and onto a national stage.

 

The fact is that I couldn't afford travel ball for my kid until recently because I was the only income earner.   I might as well been dirt poor.  

 

I do know of a father of a D1 baseball player who made a youtube video of his sons pitching performances and sent it to about 50 schools.  This is an inexpensive way to get noticed. 

Lot if truth to this article. Title could be changed to include middle class families left behind also. Lots of money goes into getting kids in places to be seen by college coaches. Whatever part of college not paid by baseball & academics will be a struggle. Not the same for football & basketball.

Puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of travel ball. Lionsball is correct about the cheating going on in Chicago.

Agree.  It's not just the low income, but the middle class as well.  My son was fortunate enough to play on a travel team where we did an extensive amount of fund raising to pay for the tournaments.  If I had had to pay $2,500-$5,000 a year, it would have been a no go.  Not happening.

 

As he hit high school, we began to get flyers and such for camps, etc.  Simply couldn't do it at $400-$500 a pop (not including travel expenses).  He ended up going JuCo and he has made the most of it - getting a nice scholarship offer from a D2 after his sophomore year.   Still even with the scholarship, it has been a struggle.  Not easy coming up with the parent portion of college expenses.

 

In some respects the path to college baseball (let alone the pros) is fast becoming a rich kid's sport.

Exactly my first thoughts after reading this article.  Mentioning the Jackie Robinson West LL team did nothing for me in terms of making the case for how low income kids get left behind.  There is no excuse for adults cheating, deceiving, covering up something they know is wrong and will negatively effect their team and players.  To bring this JR LL topic into the article was a miscalculation.  I'm not buying it.  

 

However, I'm buying everything else .  Great article by McCutcheon about his journey to "the Bigs".  I absolutely love watching that guy play.  It is true their are economic barriers in all levels of baseball today..absolutely no question about it.  The baseball system is tilted to those who have more disposable income.  MLB has its RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program but I'm not sure if that has enough horsepower to really be driving more baseball opportunities & exposre for low income kids.  A program like this is a little more than window dressing on a larger problem that needs to be addressed systemically. JMO.

I'm not sure it is our responsibility to make sure poor kids have a chance to play in the MLB. If you want more hard working middle income Americans to dig deeper into to their pockets to help people they don't know, let's talk about something other than sports like education. Everyone on this forum knows that the chances of making a living in baseball is a lottery contest for most talented players. I understand that McCutchen is a MLB player so his example refers to poor kids playing baseball, but don;t forget that poor people have less of more important things than just baseball. Safe neighborhoods, food, fathers, education.

There's a deeper point here.  We like to think of our society as a meritocracy.  And in sports one might like to think that this is especially true.   But baseball is a loud and clear testament to the fact that it takes more than sheer individual talent, drive, focus, etc  -- which McCutcheon has in spades -- to succeed.  You have to have the right social infrastructure in place. You need infrastructure that enables those with drive, talent, and focus to make the most of their talents. You need infrastructures that enables them to display those talents to those who are in a position to reward those talents. In baseball, as in many other spheres,  that infrastructure is in place, but access to it comes at a pretty steep price. It is accessible to those with means, but largely inaccessible to those without.    What goes in baseball, goes in life at large.  In many different spheres the poor in our society have very limited access to adequate social infrastructure of the sort that all people need to make the most of there individual talents and capacities.  Why that is,  I won't try to say, cause that gets us deep into politics.  And one shouldn't mix contentious political issues with sports, probably. 

@Billy & Lion

Great points

Must say, McCutcheon tries hard all the time and is a pleasure to watch,

No question, financially lower-class families have a challenge.

 

Totally agree that the effort and expense to middle-class families gets less notice than it should.

If your son is very lucky he gets invited to free invite only events, though you still have travel and lodging costs as McCutcheon mentions.

We've seen wealthier families go to many more $500/600 events, camps, and switch to expensive private schools to go back a grade. 

 

At about every event attended, the coaches, scouts &/or organizers (PG, NTIS, Under Armour & professional) told the players to make sure to thank your parents for the time, money & effort in bringing you here. 

Forget about missing a day on the couch, etc.   

Most middle class families chose to forego vacations for the above to give their son(s) an opportunity to achieve their dream.

A dedicated parent makes a big difference in school/education as well. If the parent cares about grades and achievement a child notices. 

 

Ask my wife: Don't underestimate the value of an understanding & committed mom giving up on a beach or ski trip so her son can make these events.

Remember this, and it is Not true with football and basketball.

You do not have to go to college to play professional baseball; and many stars do not.

Baseball provides many minor league teams to build the future major leaguer.

If football and basketball did the same, they would not force those athletes to pretend to be students.

 

It's true playing professional baseball does not require playing college ball. It still requires playing in events to be seen by those who need to see you which is expensive.

The median household income is $54,000.  I think it's fair to say there's virtually no discretionary income left over for pursuing college baseball in the typical American family.

When I read about 16yo kids showcasing at out-of-state tournaments, one of things I'm thinking is, wow, they're 16 yrs-old and they don't have a summer job.

 

My last remark is NOT a jab at posters here who have done well in life and can afford to help their sons pursue their dream.

 

 

 

 

Great read. Very impactful and well written.

http://www.perfectgame.org/Pla...profile.aspx?ID=1610

 

Ranked 6th best HS prospect in the nation

Attended PG National Showcase

Played in PG WWBA Championships

Selected PG All American for Nationally televised Aflac Game

Had a record 4 hits in that game.

 

He wonders how scouts even knew about him?

 

Where there is a will... There is a way!

 

Andrew would have been considered wealthy compared to Carl Crawford and some of the other kids we see.

 

That said, he was a great kid with a ton of talent who was drafted in the first round.  And the article is very good!

So what's different here compared to basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, volleyball, gymnastics, etc?  The best get "breaks" as McCutcheon calls them, and the rest pay.

Don't know about the other sports, was comparing to football & basketball. Difference is free ride vs partial scholarship, making up the difference. Also easier to be seen playing for HS team in football & basketball. Recently attended college camp of lower level DI. HC talked to parents and emphaised importance of summer play. Very blount telling us its where kids are found. Specified orginizations including PG.

How is it poor, inner city kids have no problem traveling the country and getting college exposure with AAU basketball? Could it be where there is demand there a benefactors? My son played against the RBI travel team at every teen age level. There weren't any black kids on the team. They were all white and Hispanic.

 

In Boston there must be demand. This programs sends most of it's inner city kids on to college ball. The kids are all from Roxbury, Matttapan and Dorchester. Think of the toughest area of your metro area. This is it in Boston.

 

http://www.thebase.org/about-us/

He says he got lots of breaks.   It started with this guy:

 

Thankfully, an AAU coach by the name of Jimmy Rutland noticed me during an All-Star game when I was 13-years-old and asked my father if I’d ever been on a travel team. At that point, I had barely left the county. My dad told him that it was just too expensive, and coach Rutland basically took me in as if I was another one of his sons. He helped pay for my jerseys and living expenses. My parents took care of what they could, which was basically just money for food.

and it continued on from there.  He says he was like a mercenary for awhile.

 

I kept clawing my way up the ladder to better and better teams, kind of like a mercenary. I remember I was playing for the Lakeland Road Runners and we got whooped by the Orlando Red Raiders. They were like professionals to us. After the game, their coach came up to me and asked if I’d want to play on his team. The Red Raiders were big, man. It felt like I had just made the New York Yankees. I remember looking at my buddies on the Road Runners and shrugging, like, “Well, see ya!”

 

There's nothing at all to guarantee that every super talented inner city kid will find similarly generous willing mentors and opportunities to seize.  

 

Which raises a question, Perfect Game,  Do you guys have any kind of scholarship program for talented kids whose parents can't afford your showcases?  Do you do anything to help those kids get placed on elite travel teams?  It would be a great thing if you did.   Just wondering.  Not criticizing or anything. 

It is illegal to help thes kids according to NCAA rules.  Yes, we try to find others that are willing to help.  We know lots of people that will help under privileged kids.  And yes, we often find teams for these kids to play on.  There is no shortage of highest level travel teams that will help talented young players.  Money is not necessary if we know it is a problem.  

 

Things like the PG All American Classic are all expenses paid including equipment, travel, lodging and meals.

 

If we know of a talented player, we do everything within the rules to help him.  That should be obvious based on the draft results.  For the past 8 years more than 80% of all draft picks have attended a PG event.  They are not all coming from wealthy families.

 I have seen many families reach out to these kids over the years, probably more than most. some folks pay to bring up a couple of good ballplayers to make their team better, and some pay for kids just because they are nice people and they have the means to.

 

 When you manage a ball team it seams like it is very easy to pick up the tab on a few players every year......the wife has no idea how much I have spent on baseball.

If you can/have the chance to help good kids who are in bad positions afford the chance to play on teams or in sports that they typically cannot afford...i say do it.

 

I believe, although the kids on that Chicago team weren't culpable, they all knew the kids who weren't from the area and not one of them or their parents stepped up. That should tell you about the character or lack there of on that team.

 

Football and Basketball have huge budgets and give away so much money to inner city kids who could care less about education or the college experience, it is merely a path or stepping stone on the road to their way out of poverty. I get that....we've conditioned those athletes to expect nothing less.

 

Baseball is just above handball at most schools and it just isn't sexy enough to drive the monetary gains required to support more scholarship money. But, it's awesome when a team puts a run together and baseball brings a championship to that program...sad to say, Football is king in U.S. 

 

Football and Basketball are much more corrupt because of these reasons, kids being recruited into other districts, living with host families merely for the sport and not due to living conditions or $$. Parents of those kids being leased houses in district for little to no money, see the Bush incident at USC a few years ago. When is the last time in college baseball have you heard of recruiting violations to this degree?

 

Our capitalist structure lends itself to reward those who work hard and have the perseverance to rise up beyond their surroundings and grind, much like baseball....our social structure rewards those who milk the system and remain in that barrel with the other crabs, like football and basketball for most. Kids don't get to pick their parents and i believe when you have kids having kids, generation to generation....you can't expect much to change. 

 

 

I understand that everyone has limitations....

McCutcheon is listed on the IMG page as alumni...I would love to send my kid there.

 

Actually I wouldn't very a couple of reasons but you get the idea! excuses don't get you very far in life. McCutcheon obviously didn't make many and it is has treated him well.

 

I think it is highly unlikely that any kid with his type of talent or even 75% of his talent wouldn't get a chance to be seen.

Right there with you...although my wife does know she handles the $$$

 

This!! I was one of the few that baseball became cheaper for when my sons moved to academy teams. Only paying for one child seems like a bargain!

I think there is one other thing he leaves out when he points out the reasons why poor African American kids like him aren't in the Majors.  I am sure part of it is the proliferation of specialty teams and increasingly expensive select baseball but I also think the professional portion of the sport has become more diversified over the last 30-40 years.

 

In the 1970s the vast majority of players playing in the Majors were born in this country.  Yes, there were definately some outstanding foreign born players but probably 80% of a roster was made up of people born in the US.  If you look at the rosters today you will find a much more diversified number of people.  You never saw a Japanese player in the US, now they are commonplace.

 

MLB squads are packed with Central American and Caribbean players.  This isn't a bad thing but it does limit the overall opportunities for any kid in the US interested in breaking into the majors.  To me it just reinforces my belief that no kid should ever come up and play baseball expecting to make a living out of it.  It doesn't matter how talented you are on a showcase team, the chances of making all the way to the Majors is just too long.  It's ok to hope, to play but play to enjoy the game, not to make it any farther. 

 

If feel for the kids in Chicago that had their title stripped.  Personally I think the wrong people were punished ultimately.  It would be nice to see baseball emphasized more in the poorer areas but in many ways the game has gone from being a game for poor people in the city to a rich persons game in the suburbs.  When a good bat costs 250 bucks and a field takes thousands a year to maintain you can see how this will happen.