Please Join and add to the experience!

I second the invitation. Have learned SO MUCH here, I often wish I had a group like this in other areas of my life!

2019lefty21, thanks for the encouragement. My son (12u, 2024) is still so young that we don't know if he'll be interested in playing hs ball, let alone college. However, when some (amazing 8th grade) kids in his club's (equally amazing) 13u team started "visiting" power 5 schools like UVA this past fall, I figured I should start educating myself about what might come next. Thanks to all those who've shared their experiences here.

Fan,

Welcome aboard! As a parent of player not much older than yours, I can say the investment of time has been well worth it. I truly enjoy this community as it has a great mix of education and entertainment.  My 8th grade son has a great passion for baseball and I too wanted to educate myself on the process from I what I saw from his older team mates going through it as well as a niece with another sport. 

2019Lefty....

Did I just get "called out"?  ......

"Sure there are some folks who are “a little direct” but..." ......

baseballmom posted:

2019Lefty....

Did I just get "called out"?  ......

"Sure there are some folks who are “a little direct” but..." ......

Not at all! Just trying to figure out why literally hundreds of people are just lurking and not talking, asking questions and making new friends! I will say at times I have to pick my discussions carefully. Always trying to ask myself will my response add to someone else finding answers for their kid on this journey the way this site has helped me? It just blows my mind to see guests outnumber members 5 to 1 most of the time! 

2019Lefty21 posted:

baseballmom posted:

2019Lefty....

Did I just get "called out"?  ......

"Sure there are some folks who are “a little direct” but..." ......

Not at all! Just trying to figure out why literally hundreds of people are just lurking and not talking, asking questions and making new friends! I will say at times I have to pick my discussions carefully. Always trying to ask myself will my response add to someone else finding answers for their kid on this journey the way this site has helped me? It just blows my mind to see guests outnumber members 5 to 1 most of the time! 

I think part of the "guests" count could actually be members who don't have auto-login enabled on their browsers. They might only log in when posting, or using advanced search features.

MidAtlanticDad posted:

2019Lefty21 posted:

baseballmom posted:

2019Lefty....

Did I just get "called out"?  ......

"Sure there are some folks who are “a little direct” but..." ......

Not at all! Just trying to figure out why literally hundreds of people are just lurking and not talking, asking questions and making new friends! I will say at times I have to pick my discussions carefully. Always trying to ask myself will my response add to someone else finding answers for their kid on this journey the way this site has helped me? It just blows my mind to see guests outnumber members 5 to 1 most of the time! 

I think part of the "guests" count could actually be members who don't have auto-login enabled on their browsers. They might only log in when posting, or using advanced search features.

I think that you got that right!  I think if one is permanently logged in and chose option not to have name appear that counts as a guestvas well.

I think the gesture was very nice of the OP to ask them to join in.

This is an example of what I was concerned about. Didn’t realize you could be “permanently logged in” and counted as a guest.

I am not sure, maybe swampboy may know. This site is so outdated, so who knows!!!

2019Lefty21 posted:

This is an example of what I was concerned about. Didn’t realize you could be “permanently logged in” and counted as a guest.

Whenever I come to the site, I'm already logged in.  I like that feature.  

You’re online unless you log out. You don’t get timed out.

Please join up!  I joined after lurking for a long time.  I think I signed up when my son started playing HS ball in 8th grade.  SOOOOO much good advice here!  

(I think when I log on at work, I am a guest.  At home on the home computer or on my phone, I am a member).

I was a lurker when my 2018 was an 8th grader, participated the following year.  The lessons learned on this site can save a lot of recruiting headaches.

I'm always logged in as well, both home and work computer the same.

Fan2024 posted:

2019lefty21, thanks for the encouragement. My son (12u, 2024) is still so young that we don't know if he'll be interested in playing hs ball, let alone college. However, when some (amazing 8th grade) kids in his club's (equally amazing) 13u team started "visiting" power 5 schools like UVA this past fall, I figured I should start educating myself about what might come next. Thanks to all those who've shared their experiences here.

That is exactly why I joined up here when my son was in 12u. Seeing these actual children taking college tours flipped my eyebrows up so high I thought I'd need surgery to get them back down!

Thank you for the encouragment! I joined this site about a month ago and this is my first post.  I have a 2021 trying out for his high school team for the first time this week.  I have been lurking on here and trying to absorb as much information as I can on what is coming at us in the next 4 years. It's so overwhelming! Thanks to every member on here who shares their stories and advice and makes things just a little bit easier on this mom. 

BeesKnees posted:

Thank you for the encouragment! I joined this site about a month ago and this is my first post.  I have a 2021 trying out for his high school team for the first time this week.  I have been lurking on here and trying to absorb as much information as I can on what is coming at us in the next 4 years. It's so overwhelming! Thanks to every member on here who shares their stories and advice and makes things just a little bit easier on this mom. 

I love this site and I've learned a heck of a lot from the folks here, but my minor pet peeve has been that it's too focused on college recruiting, when the topic of HS Baseball itself is so fascinating.  We don't really talk about it that much here compared to college ball, travel ball, and recruiting, and that's too bad, IMHO.

Four years ago my only baseball playing son was in exactly your son's position. It feels like yesterday, of course, because the time goes by so fast.  It's trite, and it's been said a zillion times before, but the most important thing is to enjoy every moment as best you can, because it will be over in an instant, and for too many of us, we never know when we're watching our kids play organized ball for the last time.

Agree with both main points, JCG... more HS questions/discussions, people!

cabbagedad posted:

Agree with both main points, JCG... more HS questions/discussions, people!

The thing is.....getting recruited to play in college seems to contain about a billion variables.  Getting to play in high school not so much.

bump. 

Would love to hear from some of the nearly 200 guests signed in today>

baseballmom posted:

bump. 

Would love to hear from some of the nearly 200 guests signed in today>

I agree. One of the keys to how helpful this site is is the variety of voices on it. The more the merrier. Every time I posted a question, I'd get some responses that had no relationship to my son's situation, some that seemed interesting and some that made me go "yea!!!"

The more people putting their thoughts out there, the more we are likely to find helpful information and solutions.

A little extra incentive... logged in members are able to search by the person who posted.

We

baseballmom posted:

bump. 

Would love to hear from some of the nearly 200 guests signed in today>

OK here I am!  What would you like to know?

I use 1 phone, 2 tablets, and 2 computers regularly.  I use between 4 and 6 browsers on each of those devices.  So 20 or 30 of those could be me!