Quote:
Originally Posted by Ksyrup
Travel softball starts at 8U and there's no minimum age (well, within reason), and that is somewhere between rec ball and "putting out recruiting sheets for coaches." Both my kids played at 7 and the team Caitlin played for way back when was coached by a guy who started the team for his 5 year old.
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I similarly "know" (only because an HS classmate posts pics of her grandson) that travel baseball starts at least as early as 5-6 now. And I believe that team has been together since age 4.
Aside from the often distant travel part nowadays, that's akin to what I grew up with. There was no "tee ball" in the early 70s, at least not around my part of the country, and no coach pitch either. We started, IIRC, at age 6 though teams were geographic at that point and the age range was something like 6-11 on a single team.
edit to add: I believe age 12 is where the county recreation league started at that time (I was born in '67 so you can work out the years I'm talking about if you want). And that was usually 4 teams deep. Over the years the age groups slowly got younger at the county level, eventually killing the "town ball" format in my county. 10 miles south the geographic format remained in use for Dizzy Dean at least into the late 80s / early 90s because I helped coach one of those teams & we played opponents in about a 20-25 mile range. (all same county, save for one that was literally on the county line)