Should I just pull him?

@Jen234 posted:

To answer, yes we already paid in full for the 7 tourneys and league games. So far he has not played in any, so I will try to get even a small amount back, but like many of you said I am assuming chances are slim.

Thank you all for your advice, this is my oldest child and only son, so I appreciate the first-hand knowledge you could share with me. I will let you know how it all pans out.

No problem giving you advice. Let us know what happens, dont be afraid to confront these guys that took your money.

I've seen this happen, the worst was actually a non-dad coach (young guy trying to be tough, or toughen up the players or something). Families quit because of it, I don't remember whether they got any money back.  I agree that the organization should be clear to its coaches up front about how they should play players, and how to communicate that to the families, but in our 5 years, almost no coach ever did this.  Certainly there was never anything in the contract about playing time.

It's good that the travel organization head specifically told you to contact him if this happens; you should definitely do that, so you can make a decision quickly. Sometimes they don't pay attention to what their coaches are doing until the season is advanced, unless a parent complains, especially if it's a large organization.

Did your son enjoy the winter practices and the team, before this weekend?

Player talking to the coach first is always the advice for high school where, as cabbagedad noted, the best play.  This is something different, it's as much about the time and money to travel, hotels, etc. as it is about the team fees and playing time.  That is your business, not your son's.

Been there, had the conversation with jerk, ex-pro travel ball guys chasing plastic trophies and past glory. Pulled our son - best decision, and no regrets. So many are just cashing a check.

@Jen234 I think you've figured out what you need to do.  A little advice on how to proceed with that....

Don't meet or correspond with the program director until you've calmed down a bit.  These conversations do not need to be the heated "you slighted my kid" but rather "you offered a sale of services and we are not receiving what was advertised" conversations. It's a business and even though it's your kid, it's a business deal. You likely won't see your money back but you may be able to negotiate. Obviously, first try for a refund, show good faith and ask for a partial based on services/events you have paid for and have not received yet, something reasonable, good faith offer.  I know it's hard to monetize your kid's losses.  The other option would be to have your son be allowed to train there, I'm guessing there are private lessons at the facility? get private hitting lessons in lieu of practices etc. (I personally had success with this when my son first started playing TB at 11, we picked a team based out of a great facility not realizing there wasn't a full team and the field practice we had participated in was a 11/12 combined practice. It was a disaster, you can't play games, much less tournaments without a full team. We negotiated team fees be transferred to private lessons/cage access and offered to guest play with the incomplete team as long as his new team didn't have a tournament that weekend.  It actually worked out great as we moved to a team we really liked but didn't have a facility so were out of luck when weather hit).  Some of these baseball guys are just trying to keep a business afloat, they want to make it right but also need your money in their coffers.

It is likely the program director/owner likely has no idea what's going on at your team level and will apologize and offer to make it right.  Unless he replaces the shortstop-dad coach, it won't happen.  And if he does his core 9 will likely leave...

JEN234

can you discuss the situation with the parents of the 5 players who did not play?

There is NO reason that a team cannot compete with the 16 players participating.

The Coaches are committed to a program that does NOT have a plan, except to collect your $$$.

Send a letter to the Head Coach [copy to your attorney] demanding your $$ returned as TPM suggested. The Coaches need an education.

Are you near the King of Prussia, PA.?

Bob

Of course wasting money stinks, but if he is serious about baseball I would be more worried right now about wasting time.  Playing local rec league while really focusing on high quality instruction and physical training could put him ahead of the game by the Fall. 

I am sorry to hear, I agree you should get the other parents of the players who did not play and face the org together. Did your old travel org recommended the current one? If not, why did they not help you find a team?

2022NYC unfortunately this organization was recommended by his 14u organization. But we now notice they grew a lot this last year, new facility, absorbed a number of new teams from local orgs., went from one 15u team to three..

I spoke to my rec league commissioner friend and he has room for my son on the 15u/16u team with his 3 friends. Registration closes tonight, so I just registered him. I think my son was holding onto hope that he would get some playing time with this travel team, but if we are being realistic I don’t see it happening. I want to see him enjoy the game and I know he will on this team and my friend is an amazing coach.

Scheduled a call with the head of the org and his travel ball coach for tomorrow AM and we will see what comes of it. Like many of you said, probably nothing, and I am slowly accepting that it’s just an expensive lesson we will not make in August when tryouts for next summer come around!

Thanks again.

This thread is an example of how important it is to observe teams in competition and ask the right questions before committing.

I would expect academy teams through 15u to treat paying customers equally. At 16u and 17u where it becomes all about getting to college ball I would expect play to be somewhat equal since the talent should be somewhat equal.

Its usually the dad coached teams through age fifteen it’s important to observe before committing. It’s not unusual on these teams to have their starting players, use the rest of the roster for money and churn the bench every year.

I ran a dad coached team through 16u when the kids were fifteen. But the good sign was even though my son became a high school shortstop I played another kid who became a high school shortstop at short. He was a little better defensively than my son.

While the better players played in the semi and finals overall everyone played about the same amount over the course of the tournament.

You mentioned three 15u teams. Can he join one of the other teams if they have playing time for him?

As others have said, if you pay you play.

So what was the end result?

TMP it’s not fully resolved yet but we are getting there.

I signed him up for the rec team Monday. Tuesday AM my husband sent a nicely worded email that I’m not capable of (haha) to the head of the organization and to the coach to discuss his concerns. He also told them my son would not be going to their Tuesday night league game.

The rec team had a game Tuesday evening my son went to instead. I was pleasantly surprised by the talent on the team I think he will be very happy there. The fact that he’s playing at 14 against kids as old as 18 will be a good challenge. He played most of the game. Made the game ending double play by making a tough catch in left and throwing the kid out at first who took off..Got 2 RBIs on a shot down the third base line. He was happy. It was good.

The coach of the travel team sent my husband a one line email Wednesday AM, My husband is scheduled to talk to him this morning. The head of the organization STILL has not answered my husbands email requesting a conversation. It has been 2 days since the email was sent.

I spoke to other parents of the travel team bench sitters and was told for Tuesday nights league game, they pitched one boy two innings and the other bench boys all played 1-2 innings each. I am confident I made the right decision.

My husband has at his disposal every email ever sent about playing time, kids not being buried on the bench, development being more important than winning, practice and games being nearby (whereas now our home field is the high school when the 9 core players play, 35 min away). We will already save the $500 from the hotel room in Michigan I can cancel, but I’m hoping to see a third of the money back, as I realize he got months of indoor practices, at least that will more than cover the rec league fees and the uniforms he will never wear.

I will report back after he speaks to the coach. Thanks for asking.

And TerribleBPthrower, To answer your question, I found out, of the other two 15u teams, one also came almost entirely from another organization and they are doing the same bench sitting to the “extras.”
The remaining 15u already has 17 kids..

Thanks, I was wondering. I think you made a good decision if he is happy.

TPM

First and most importantly your son is happy playing on the rec team. But I’m not sure how relevant it is he’s playing against 18yo rec players.

I once had a very good 14u travel team. The 16-19yo Legion team wouldn’t play us. I believe we would have beat them. From one end of the roster to the other my team had more pitchers hitting 80.