Teams EVERYWHERE!

Is there a decline? YES, but only in the eyes of the general sports media.As far as all of the different things for players to do today, I agree that there is more today.I certainley think it can be confusing to players and certainley parents. I am one of those parents that spends alot to time on this site to try and understand things and listen to other experiences so that I can be better educated to help assist my son in any decisions he may need to make.

The decline is with the local leagues not with baseball overall, in my opinion.

Parents choose to leave leagues for travel primarily due to three reasons, but others come into play as well.

1) Better competition/coaching
2) opportunity to play with other kids who "Want" to be out there and work hard.
3) ability to build the team year after year instead of starting from scratch each year.

These parents are tired of the politics of of league board members and their agendas.

Now there are exceptions to this and we have a really good example in our area, but I have experienced too many others that are typical of what is listed above.

The unfortunate part is, there are a lot of kids playing travel ball now that should not be because their skill level has not developed enough to compete. They could really benefit from playing league ball more, to get the experience they need. This phenomenon is leaving leagues with really weak players, which have a hard time competing in state tournaments, against leagues that either are doing it right, or don't have good travel opportunities around them.

I think it's perceptual in that, yes overall there may be fewer players involved in the game, but I feel that the overall quality of the game has increased leaps and bounds. As a result, there are more competitive teams playing.

Some may say this is a decrease in the popularity of the game, I say those that left the game would probably have left anyway, the "weeding" process just starts earlier now.

Is that a result of a decline in the game? No, I feel kids/parents just see that they can not keep up with those that put in more effort and with more option in different areas available, they move on. So be it.

Many use the rear view mirror and say "I remember when....". IMHO, thats how we stagnate as a society, "As it was, is not, as it is", and until that is accepted as a way of life many will spin their wheels in regard to change.

I pretty much agree with Southpaw. In our area there has been a huge increase in demand for high level BB . The rec or house leagues have suffered somewhat as numbers have declined for the last 5-6 years. We have also had a proliferation in high level senior teams for post college and pro players. 3 senior leagues to play in depending on your level of play and / or commitment to play.
Our area has about 20 elite teams for college/pro bound players. We start with rec league and the better players play for city teams under the Ontario BB league. These teams range from A to AAA teams based on city size or you can play up if you want to. These teams also have district allstar teams for each of the 8 regions of Ontario and the best players from the city teams are chosen to play on these teams in their district. There were district allstar teams for bantam and midget level players. You also had HS teams. My son's HS league had 23 teams that had to be split into 2 leagues with playoffs. The winner moved on to play winners of other HS districtc and the winners of that regional playffs went to play for the Ontario championships in the Rogers Skydome. All these oportunities seemed to keep the demand for high level BB high and those less motivated to play BB dropped off. The city teams tended to lose a lot of players to elite teams and to other interests . It became harder to get players for these teams that were talented and dedicated. The elite teams seem to still be able to get enough players to compete well. My impression is that there is still a reasonable demand for elite teams even though the costs start at around $5000 and go up to just over $10,000. when my son played it seemed that about 50% of his teammates went on to play some level of college ball now it appears the % is closer to 15%. This may indicate a lower level of overall talent but I find most sports have their peeks and valleys with the talent level. My son's HS BKTB team is alos on a low talent level from when he played. I also think the economy will have a negative effect on all sports.