I feel bad for me 4 years ago * turned into updates on my son's baseball

[Flasch186]

So 4 years ago my local baseball league for my son was just odd. Weird trades were occurring. Weird practice situations. Weird rule interpretations midgame. Weird roster choices. Just weird and I always left perplexed every season why things were happening as they were.

This past summer I'd had enough and volunteered to be commissioner, in essence, usurping the commissioner that had been in place. Fast forward 8 months and now I feel bad for the me of 4 years ago and all of the other REC parents who don't understand the manipulative, conniving, backstabbing, shit that goes on.

Broadly the league looks like this:

AB Baseball is where the 12-14 best players who come out for evaluation go on this team and get extra practice, extra games, some extra tournaments, and extra reps.

The B Team are the players who just missed this AB team but are better then REC and want to get extra work to develop.

Rec is for beginners and those who are trying it out.


Well if you don't go out for the AB evaluations you cannot play AB or B, just REC. It's a qualifier.

This season we replaced the AB coach (who's a nice guy but was unknowingly being manipulated by a guy over him that we are starting to believe has some sort of ulterior motives) with a great coach. This apparently riles up parents of kids who were shoo-ins for the AB Team under the previous coach. They don't come out for evals...

The previous AB coach volunteers to coach a REC team. Thank you, that's a thankless job. However, there's now a sinking feeling that the kids that skipped the AB evaluations AND the Rec Evaluations [their parents] were conspiring to hide their kids from coaches who might not know who the kids are so that the former AB coach can snatch up a bunch of them at the draft (which he did) and run roughshod over the entire REC division. Now there's been trade requests for carpooling issues etc. The kids on other teams don't get to be with that coach which means less good coaching at the median. If it was dumb luck that'd been one thing but the preplanning I learned about at a kid's party last night tweaked me enough to write this.

We're starting to think that this REC coach intends to beat up on rec and then take the team and kids to another league somewhere around. Not sure but things feel weird.

My son was the 24th kid and tried out for AB. So he should be on the B team. Cool. Well, I'm not one of the parents in the clique so the coach decides that instead of taking the normal 12 he's only going to take 11. The board (I'm not on the board) is irritated but there's nothing in the rules that says he can't. He says he only wants to field 11 for games. I have no objection. It is totally his choice and my son left it in the judge's scorecards and didn't make the cut. I just throw out the idea that my son simply gets to practice and be a reserve and if a kid on the team goes on vacation or gets sick, my son will be ready to come in and play whatever role he wants. No expectations just really the practice reps and extra practice work would do any kid well. Actually some board members think he should have 3 or 4 kids extra at practices in roles like this. He says that he thinks that having 1 extra reserve is a good idea and the board tells him to call me and explain the role (which I already know about and think it's great). No call.... days, no call. The board members are flabbergasted he hasn't called yet. I just feel a ton of anxiety for my son because the B coach is very good and I think getting that practice time with him and his team would be awesome for him. Games are minor in this regard and so much less valuable than the practices to my son.

I look back on myself 4 years ago and am starting to see how this garbage is toxic bleeding going on in this age group.

Just venting this morning after a sleepless night.

[Lathum]

My son has next to no interest in team sports and shit like this makes me glad he doesn't. Our town is a factory. State champs in football, youth development leagues, etc...Its all so stupid. The parents ruin it.

He does American Ninja Warrior and loves it. My daughter does gymnastics. They both do rec indoor soccer because we make them. People even suck with that. The rule is no travelling team kids. Last night my sons team played against a team where the kids were obviously WAY better fundamentally. It was 3-0 four minutes in. My buddy, whos son is on my team, pointed to the other teams sideline and there were a bunch of bags from a local travel team. I don't get the point of them being in the rec league. all they learn is it is ok to crush kids who arent as good as they are. My son was pretty discouraged after.

[Flasch186]

I rattled the board members I know and they reached out and he finally called a few hours before the first practice. He laid out the expectations that he be a reserve player and not ready for game roster and I was agreeable if not ecstatic. I complimented him on his coaching that I've seen and mentioned that I've heard from others that he's a very good coach too. He was nice and I reiterated that there's no expectations beyond reps at practice and he said not to worry that he will get better. I was thankful and let him know that.

A lot of anxiety the last 5 days awaiting that call. I'm sure from his perspective a parent having their kid be a 'practice squad' player can be a recipe for disaster in that the pare3nt applies undue pressure to lift the kid to regular roster. I can't let him know that that's not me with just words. It'll have to be shown.

[PilotMan]

My stress level is so much lower that my kids really didn't have an interest in sports. Yeah, they played younger, gave them something to do, and see if they liked it, but when it came right down to it, they were happy just going on a day trip and family play in a park, than to deal with the formal games. I completely applaud your efforts, and attitude. It's the way that I approached my leadership in our HOA, even when other people were constantly trying to say what my 'ulterior motives' were, when there were none, just to make things better and right.



All that internal politicking is extra strain. If you've got a coach and parents who are pulling all that because they are loyal to a coach who got demoted, but things weren't on the up and up, then good riddance. Blast that all over town. I imagine that this is more the norm with sports now a days. If they can't see what was going on, and they want to support a corrupt system, then they get what they deserve.

[Warhammer]

Agreed, as a 14 year coach of soccer, parents ruin sports for kids. I also maintain that the select and travel teams do as well.

My own grading system for my success was not wins (although that was nice), but were the kids playing better at the end of the year than the beginning (which mean they learned something), and how many of them played again the next year (which means they enjoyed it).

[spleen1015]

I wish you lots of luck Flasch. I'm glad this worked out for your son.

I have lived this life with my daughter. First as the tournament director for our local travel softball program and now as the president of the softball booster club for my daughter's high school.

There are a lot of crazy parents out there.

[Atocep]

Out of curiosity, what age group?

I've gone through it all as my son came up through the local rec T-ball league into Pony, into select, and then into national level travel ball. I went from parent/assistant coach to coaching, to coaching and being the vice president of our Pony League, to coaching a select team, to saying "screw it" it's time for someone else to coach my kid. This is my son's senior year and this summer will be my 5th summer as a parent only. I've been asked multiple times about a return to coaching and I have absolutely zero interest in ever doing so.

By far the worst age group, from my experience is the 8-10 range. For 90% of these parents there's no convincing them that their kid isn't the next best thing because X select team offered their child a spot. What they don't realize is that select team needs someone that's going to pay their player fee without challenging the core talent for playing time. The biggest parent red flag in this age group is parents that bring their mitt out to the first practice and are throwing with their kid before that first practice. Make mental note of these parents. There's more than a 90% chance they're going to be a pain in the ass.

10-12 is much of the same, but not as bad. This is the age group where those that are good enough have moved on to select and those pain in the ass parents that can afford it have been sold on taking the 13th roster spot on a select team and become someone else's problem.

Your average select program is still a nightmare with many of the same issues. It wasn't until my son was on a nationally ranked travel team that most of the politics and BS was gone. The kids are hand selected with no tryout and everyone is good enough to play and therefore everyone plays. I believe last year's team had 1 problem parent and they're not back this year. At that level it doesn't matter how good your kid is, if you rock the boat too much they'll find someone else.

In all, I think I've seen just about everything there is to see. I've seen the disorganized board that I volunteered to join, I've seen the shady coaches, I've seen the teams that try to stack rosters and then take those players to select, I've seen the nightmare parents.

We moved into a relatively exclusive upper-middle class neighborhood when my son was in the 8th grade and I watched him get cut from the 8th grade team because he was an outsider. High school has been a bit better, but not much. He hit nearly .600 with a couple of homers and averaged over an extra base hit per game as a sophomore on JV and didn't get a Varsity AB for a team that was struggle to score runs. Last year as a Junior he started the year hitting cleanup and got a hit in each of the first 5 games before being benched for no reason until the last week of the regular season. As it stands he has about 30 varsity plate appearances but because of his time on the nationally ranked travel team he's been fortunate enough to receive a scholarship to continue playing in college.

Youth sports sucks at all levels. The youngest levels are the worst, but anyone that tells you that politics don't exist at the high school level because those coaches are paid to win and can be fired are full of shit.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

anyone that tells you that politics don't exist at the high school level because those coaches are paid to win and can be fired are full of shit.

Or they're part of the politics and don't even realize they're who represent the problem.

[MrBug708]

My son is about to start T-Ball and the local league is promising "free registration". The fine print is selling $200 dollars in raffle tickets at 10 dollars a pop. Can I just pay for registration instead?

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Out of curiosity, what age group?

I've gone through it all as my son came up through the local rec T-ball league into Pony, into select, and then into national level travel ball. I went from parent/assistant coach to coaching, to coaching and being the vice president of our Pony League, to coaching a select team, to saying "screw it" it's time for someone else to coach my kid. This is my son's senior year and this summer will be my 5th summer as a parent only. I've been asked multiple times about a return to coaching and I have absolutely zero interest in ever doing so.

By far the worst age group, from my experience is the 8-10 range. For 90% of these parents there's no convincing them that their kid isn't the next best thing because X select team offered their child a spot. What they don't realize is that select team needs someone that's going to pay their player fee without challenging the core talent for playing time. The biggest parent red flag in this age group is parents that bring their mitt out to the first practice and are throwing with their kid before that first practice. Make mental note of these parents. There's more than a 90% chance they're going to be a pain in the ass.

10-12 is much of the same, but not as bad. This is the age group where those that are good enough have moved on to select and those pain in the ass parents that can afford it have been sold on taking the 13th roster spot on a select team and become someone else's problem.

Your average select program is still a nightmare with many of the same issues. It wasn't until my son was on a nationally ranked travel team that most of the politics and BS was gone. The kids are hand selected with no tryout and everyone is good enough to play and therefore everyone plays. I believe last year's team had 1 problem parent and they're not back this year. At that level it doesn't matter how good your kid is, if you rock the boat too much they'll find someone else.

In all, I think I've seen just about everything there is to see. I've seen the disorganized board that I volunteered to join, I've seen the shady coaches, I've seen the teams that try to stack rosters and then take those players to select, I've seen the nightmare parents.

We moved into a relatively exclusive upper-middle class neighborhood when my son was in the 8th grade and I watched him get cut from the 8th grade team because he was an outsider. High school has been a bit better, but not much. He hit nearly .600 with a couple of homers and averaged over an extra base hit per game as a sophomore on JV and didn't get a Varsity AB for a team that was struggle to score runs. Last year as a Junior he started the year hitting cleanup and got a hit in each of the first 5 games before being benched for no reason until the last week of the regular season. As it stands he has about 30 varsity plate appearances but because of his time on the nationally ranked travel team he's been fortunate enough to receive a scholarship to continue playing in college.

Youth sports sucks at all levels. The youngest levels are the worst, but anyone that tells you that politics don't exist at the high school level because those coaches are paid to win and can be fired are full of shit.

It's 10U

We have a weird dynamic in here. There was a guy at 11U ahead of me who is addicted to the baseball field. Everyone bowed to him which is what the last 10U AB coach did and while the team lost (no big deal to me) he also got too many emails of bad feedback. When we interviewed for a new AB coach this fall even the guy's asst. coach, during his interview threw the AB coach under the bus. That asst is now my son's head coach for the B team. The AB coach is the one who's now pulling strings and conspiring on a REC team in my division I'm commissioner of. The Addict melted down this spring after a histroy of mini meltdowns. This spring, he disappeared with the player evals while everyone needed them to process the team selections, then he didnt show for his rec draft where he is a coach as required and his answer to texts chasing him down was, "I was busy." So they took all responsibility away from him other than his AB team and they're going to show him the door at the end of the season.

Mind you the coach I brought back to interview for the AB job that he got at 10U is one of the best coaches in the area. He is a great coach and connects with kids. The problem is he's a bit of a hothead with Umps AND he doesn't put up with other coaches garbage (like I saw time and again) and he calls people out. So he once got into a heated argument with the commissioner of the position I'm now in and left the league because at that time that commissioner hadn't exposed himself to the board and they believed his BS. The first thing I did, day 1 was call that coach and beg him to come back and that things would be different. Almost within 10 minutes of me calling him, the previous commissioner called me to throw his support to me and let me know that he's here to help me any way he can. Oh, and one thing to never ever do is bring back that coach that left. Ha.

To the personal story, Aiden went out to the B team practice and had the practice of his life. Not an A team like practice BUT showed the coaches that he could play on that team or at least be there to step in if a kid gets sick etc. He did it all right even his attitude was great. Afterward, the asst I know complimented Aiden's play with a He did great and the coaches were overwhelmingly effusive about his play at their coach's meeting after practice. The HC is very good. Very good and while he has orbited the bad guys the last few years you can tell he was around them because he had to because his son is very good and he's a very good coach. He's no-nonsense. Yes Sir no, sir. While he has a chip on his shoulder because his son was left off A team by one spot, he's going to really help the B team a lot my son on it or not.

It just sucks that there's so much politicking and conspiring going on behind the scenes that over the last 3-4 years has hurt the league and the reputation of the league suffered. Now we're building it back and adding that coach was a huge boon. This coach is a boon. We've added to the rep by boxing in the bad apple and I feel like it's turning around. I just wished I'd known what was actually happening 4 years ago but I was so naive. I just didnt know that this would go on in rec baseball.

[Arles]

I've been the VP of Operations for our local Little League for two years. Working with the president, we've setup a pretty good set of procedures and rules that everyone seems to be following (to prevent that kind of chaos). I will be off the board in the fall, and my hope is the next guy just follows what we have.

I've been involved with both Little league and Pony and think Little League is far superior. It may just be a result of our area, but there's such a better national infrastructure there. We are joining a Brazilian soccer team/league as well this spring and I will see how that goes. Youth sports is a minefield and the corruption/shadiness is pretty prevalent. Outside of joining a board or coaching yourself, I'm not really sure how you avoid it.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Arles

I've been the VP of Operations for our local Little League for two years. Working with the president, we've setup a pretty good set of procedures and rules that everyone seems to be following (to prevent that kind of chaos). I will be off the board in the fall, and my hope is the next guy just follows what we have.

I've been involved with both Little league and Pony and think Little League is far superior. It may just be a result of our area, but there's such a better national infrastructure there. We are joining a Brazilian soccer team/league as well this spring and I will see how that goes. Youth sports is a minefield and the corruption/shadiness is pretty prevalent. Outside of joining a board or coaching yourself, I'm not really sure how you avoid it.

Little league has died off here a few years ago and every attempt to bring it back has failed except on the north end of Tacoma where they keep it rather exclusive. I like the organization that Little League brings, but parents in this area tend to want something more competitive. Tacoma PONY died off 5-6 years ago when their President was indicted for using the league as a personal bank account.

The PONY league I was VP of went from the brink of death to expanding and thriving before the local sports director at the city's parks and rec department decided he was going to create a competitive baseball league. Rather than work with the other leagues in the area he tried to undercut prices and leverage his access to city fields. He gutted our league, ran his league for 3 years, and his league was folded last year when he was promoted out of his sports director position and the guy that replaced him had no interest in maintaining a competitive baseball league.

What we're left with at this point is Rec level baseball in Tacoma (pop:215k) and Lakewood (pop: 60k) through 12u. After 12u your only real option is highly competitive select baseball based out of Seattle.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

It's 10U

We have a weird dynamic in here. There was a guy at 11U ahead of me who is addicted to the baseball field. Everyone bowed to him which is what the last 10U AB coach did and while the team lost (no big deal to me) he also got too many emails of bad feedback. When we interviewed for a new AB coach this fall even the guy's asst. coach, during his interview threw the AB coach under the bus. That asst is now my son's head coach for the B team. The AB coach is the one who's now pulling strings and conspiring on a REC team in my division I'm commissioner of. The Addict melted down this spring after a histroy of mini meltdowns. This spring, he disappeared with the player evals while everyone needed them to process the team selections, then he didnt show for his rec draft where he is a coach as required and his answer to texts chasing him down was, "I was busy." So they took all responsibility away from him other than his AB team and they're going to show him the door at the end of the season.

Mind you the coach I brought back to interview for the AB job that he got at 10U is one of the best coaches in the area. He is a great coach and connects with kids. The problem is he's a bit of a hothead with Umps AND he doesn't put up with other coaches garbage (like I saw time and again) and he calls people out. So he once got into a heated argument with the commissioner of the position I'm now in and left the league because at that time that commissioner hadn't exposed himself to the board and they believed his BS. The first thing I did, day 1 was call that coach and beg him to come back and that things would be different. Almost within 10 minutes of me calling him, the previous commissioner called me to throw his support to me and let me know that he's here to help me any way he can. Oh, and one thing to never ever do is bring back that coach that left. Ha.

To the personal story, Aiden went out to the B team practice and had the practice of his life. Not an A team like practice BUT showed the coaches that he could play on that team or at least be there to step in if a kid gets sick etc. He did it all right even his attitude was great. Afterward, the asst I know complimented Aiden's play with a He did great and the coaches were overwhelmingly effusive about his play at their coach's meeting after practice. The HC is very good. Very good and while he has orbited the bad guys the last few years you can tell he was around them because he had to because his son is very good and he's a very good coach. He's no-nonsense. Yes Sir no, sir. While he has a chip on his shoulder because his son was left off A team by one spot, he's going to really help the B team a lot my son on it or not.

It just sucks that there's so much politicking and conspiring going on behind the scenes that over the last 3-4 years has hurt the league and the reputation of the league suffered. Now we're building it back and adding that coach was a huge boon. This coach is a boon. We've added to the rep by boxing in the bad apple and I feel like it's turning around. I just wished I'd known what was actually happening 4 years ago but I was so naive. I just didnt know that this would go on in rec baseball.

It sounds like things are working out for your kid and you're doing what you can to improve the league. You're doing what an incredibly small percentage of people are willing to do.

As for conspiring and politicking, I mentioned the Tacoma PONY president in the post above:

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/...e32689899.html

So it could be far worse. What's frustrating reading that article is Ken Hawkins speaks about the damage that was caused to baseball in Tacoma.
Myself and our board President had a meeting with him prior to the shit hitting the fan because the (later indicted) Tacoma PONY President filed a complaint on our league because we refused to play his teams. Everyone knew what was going on, but regional PONY didn't care at the time because he had just taken a team to PONY nationals the year before. We were scolded and told to do a better job working with his league.

[Flasch186]

Side note, we combined 9u & 10u this year

My son, a big 10 yr old, was drafted by a guy that only knew 9u kids and drafted almost exclusively 9u outside of my son and one other so our team is going to get throttled. It’ll be good for him. He’ll get to understand losing lessons and then get the extra reps with the B team and their really good coach.


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[Flasch186]

Aiden continues to put together good practices including winning the coach's top 3 award for today's practice.

The feedback about the A coach and the B coach has been great. The changes wer made to the league's coaching staff at 10U seems to be paying dividends for everyone in the league. I don't know where the MIA meltdown guy is but he seems to not be doing anything at the moment.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Side note, we combined 9u & 10u this year

My son, a big 10 yr old, was drafted by a guy that only knew 9u kids and drafted almost exclusively 9u outside of my son and one other so our team is going to get throttled. It’ll be good for him. He’ll get to understand losing lessons and then get the extra reps with the B team and their really good coach.


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My son went through this process in the fall. The team he ended up only won one game. He was extremely frustrated on the rides home but he did learn a great deal about being a leader around the team.

[Flasch186]

I called my friend on the board to update him on how good this B coach is. He’s great. His practices are awesome and he really runs a tight ship that the kids live up to. When I was done the board member asked if I’d heard from the coach. I hadn’t. He told me not to say anything but about an hour before my call the coach has emailed him about Aiden...

Aiden, he says in his email that the coaches have determined, is in the middle tier of talent on the team and they intend to officially add him to the roster and make him available in games!

Those lowered expectations gave him some breathing room to exceed.


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[Chief Rum]

That's awesome. Way to go Aiden!

[Flasch186]

So Aiden has been practicing with the team and playing his part in games too. He hasn't been able to pitch well enough to get real reps but he doesn't deserve it either. He is leading the team though in avg. Obp. Obps. And slg which is cool.



Regarding the dude who's a cancer. He went behind everyone's backs to order uniforms from an outside company. When the board told him that they wouldn't pay for them he got mad and announced he's resigning at the end of the season and taking his team elsewhere. Good riddance. He's crappy for the association.


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[Atocep]

You're son has earned his time on a team that didn't offer him guaranteed playing time because you're on the board and involved with the league. That's something you don't see often. Credit to Aiden for putting in the work and to yourself for putting him in a situation that would benefit him in the long run.

[Flasch186]

We’re getting back at it and unofficially Aiden is practicing with a loose group of A team players and their coach while the B team seems to be less energized to get going but will when the county releases the fields officially.

Aides held his own in the practices but likely would be on their bottom tier just from observation. He’s gotten so much better though that he is definitely warranting a solidified spot on the B team when it gets going.

He finished the pre covid season leading the team in the categories above.

Excited to get going again and see where he can go with it.


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[Senator]

Oh brother, could I tell you some stories.

[Flasch186]

Aiden played a solid role in winning a tournament this weekend



And he continues to lead the team in hitting


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[Flasch186]

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[PilotMan]

Flaschen RAKES!

[Flasch186]

Aiden had an unlucky state tournament where a kid closed his eyes and stole a triple from him and a couple of close plays at first went against him. It’s silly how often that happens. Team finished runner up in a field decimated by Covid and a lack of teams. Anyways one more tourney this weekend and then we begin 11u and I think he has a much clearer path to making the B team.


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[Flasch186]

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[Flasch186]

This shiteth has hitteth the fan

So to make a long story short an Atheltic Association made up of two local high school's ADs and baseball coaches has been created. They approached one of our competitor leagues about merging us and them under their umbrella. The competitor is a travel organization of about 300 kids and we're a Cal Ripken org. of about 1000 kids REC and All Stars. The travel organization didn't really have a choice and nested under the new Association without push back. Our association isn't going without a fight.

The Pres, VP, and Treauserer all have kids heading into these schools and want to play baseball so they're feeling a lot of pressure whether explicit or implicit to push this merger through. The Pres. was for it out of the gates. The VP and Treasurer not so much. They asked a lot of deep questions and want to be sure that any decision is right for our association and the pressure built up. This has been in discussion for 4-6 months as they continue a deep dive into the intracacies, making them ask questions of it, preparing stuff on paper, etc.

Anyways, so the Pres. is outgoing anyways and watched the discussion of this go over like a lead balloon but then reported back to the take over guys that the VP and Treasurer were standing in their way. Thrown under the bus. Well yesterday, under insurmountable pressure the VP, quit and stated that he wouldnm't run for president either. Then through a series of events the treasurer quit too and wont run for a board position.

I learned this morning that the reason for the mass quittings was that some of the other smaller positioned people viewed this as an opportunity to mutiny the board and take over. The current board members (about 30 years of experience collectively for no pay) threw their hands up and said you want it, fine, here you go. The issue I foresee is not that new blood is needed. It is as these guys kids were all graduating out of the league. The issue is not there'll be little to no transition and I don't know that the new guys will be able to keep this thing going.

What a shit show. No, I'm not doing anything higher than commissioner of my 2 age groups. I don't know that I'd have the votes anyways as I didn't politick much.

[Flasch186]

bump to add, looks like the power has switched in our REC league to the ALL - Star teams from the REC divisions. Voting is tonight but that seems to be what's in the works. In the meantime I signed my son up for the competitor's Fall Camp (Tuesday and Thursday) AND our Fall Camp (Wednesday & Friday). Since it's his only sport it should be fine but I'll have to keep an eye on it. I guess we're going to look at transitioning to the other league where you get more eyeballs on you from the high school guys even though its 4 years away. Apparently that's how early they start watching kids. Who knew.

[NobodyHere]

There's needs to be an 'The Office' style show based on the inner workings of a youth baseball league.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

bump to add, looks like the power has switched in our REC league to the ALL - Star teams from the REC divisions. Voting is tonight but that seems to be what's in the works. In the meantime I signed my son up for the competitor's Fall Camp (Tuesday and Thursday) AND our Fall Camp (Wednesday & Friday). Since it's his only sport it should be fine but I'll have to keep an eye on it. I guess we're going to look at transitioning to the other league where you get more eyeballs on you from the high school guys even though its 4 years away. Apparently that's how early they start watching kids. Who knew.

High school coaches want to know who's coming into their program and 4 years is about the time they start to pay attention. With limitations on practice time, ect the better coaches use tryouts as extra practice time rather than for selecting a team.

There's a certain HS coach in this area that's probably one of the 25 or so best in the country and the biggest complaint I've heard from parents of his players is he knows who's starting and by which year by the time these kids are in 7th grade. This means late bloomers face a huge uphill battle making the team and competing for playing time.

On one hand we can express our frustrations about the insanity of parents positioning their kids for high school athletics 4 years before high school, but at the same time in a lot of cases it's the only way to put your kid on even footing with others. So, yeah, the politics of high school baseball starts well before your kid is in high school and good high school coaches swing far more political leverage than many realize.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

There's needs to be an 'The Office' style show based on the inner workings of a youth baseball league.

This would be amazing.

You have the guy that means well, is doing his best, but is in over his head. You have the guy that never played beyond little league, is 40 pounds over weight, but shows up to every meeting in baseball pants and spikes. The guy who's on the board because his kid is the best player in the league and he wants to get him every advantage he can. The mom that doesn't really understand baseball but just wants to help and be involved.

You could really go on and on.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Atocep

This would be amazing.

You have the guy that means well, is doing his best, but is in over his head. You have the guy that never played beyond little league, is 40 pounds over weight, but shows up to every meeting in baseball pants and spikes. The guy who's on the board because his kid is the best player in the league and he wants to get him every advantage he can. The mom that doesn't really understand baseball but just wants to help and be involved.

You could really go on and on.

We could sprinkle in some sports drama too. For example we could have a subplot involving one of the late-bloomer 7th graders trying to make the team. Maybe throw in a troubled home situation and the audience would be rooting like nuts for the kid.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

There's needs to be an 'The Office' style show based on the inner workings of a youth baseball league.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a reality tv show that follows a team or a group of teams in a youth sport environment. If you picked the right team, it would be better than Dance Moms.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

There's needs to be an 'The Office' style show based on the inner workings of a youth baseball league.

I want this and a show about the inner workings of the HOA so badly. It would be my appointment TV shows!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

There's needs to be an 'The Office' style show based on the inner workings of a youth baseball league.

10 years ago I seriously wanted to pitch a reality show based on central KY travel softball. Really, it could be anywhere, but there was a perfect storm of talent, crazy parents, rivalries, etc. It would have been a train wreck of epic proportions to the point where MTV probably would have bid on it.

[Flasch186]

The fall advanced camp / A&B advanced team's tryouts were held last night. Teh coaches use an app now (thank god) to evaluate so the process is definitely more democratized and transparent. Aiden had a great tryout and I've been hearing rumblings today that it's possible that he might be 'called up'. Nothing to say until its official but I'm over the moon. Now... The fall is more like spring training so in the Spring he may be back on B but it is another step in the right direction. The app we use is "team genius" and the families, coaches and the league as a whole love it.

Side bar, the local competitive organization that is our sister league (travel). Is trying to get the parent organization over us all to force us to merge so that they can take our all star teams and best players. This is to make themselves better and also is a money grab because they're dying as a league. Parents aren't thinking the extra price they charge for travel is congruent with the coaching. So dramatic here its nutso. I posted about it a few posts ago but it's come to the boil. They want our allstars. We're a Call Ripken org. so they can't have them because they're not but they don't understand it. They just want them all and the money that comes with the kids.

[Flasch186]

The coach just called

He’s been called up to the A team for the fall

I keep waiting for it to be official like there’s something more and something could change but he called so I think that that is pretty official.

Wow


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flasch186]

So Aiden is on the A team and developing well. We found out fairly early on that he doesn't really know how to run the base paths in games well. Just never learned. So they're working on leading off and I had to get a slip-n-slide for home to practice sliding. That was miserable at the fields and much more enjoyable practing together at home.

Yesterday he had a triple header. First against the B team and that was fun. Aiden was solid. Then the rest of the games he got a SF, SH, 2 HBP's and some walks. He's got a better OBP then avg at this point but I'll take it. He leads the team in QAB at the moment which apparently someone said they like as a stat. Shrug.

He's basically playing 5 days per week which seems like a lot but at this school, the teachers he has shun homework so it's baseball vs Fortnight/Roblox so any time we're at the field is good to me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

'splain the dynamics of something to me, if you don't mind.

Up the thread I saw what seemed to be an emphasis on impressing the HS coaches / positioning a player for HS ball ... but HS ball has kinda been dying off here for top players for a number of years now, with the emphasis on year-round travel ball. I figure that Florida is even more geared in that direction with more opportunities to play baseball year-round due to weather.

So why do what HS coaches want seem to have so much sway there? Did I read it wrong / misinterpret what I read? Or am I missing something?

[Flasch186]

So great question

Here there isn't a tremendous travel/showcase system... YET. Plus my son isn't good enough to make that sort of team and not risk epic failures and meltdowns. Baseball, from what I've learned and been told is about incremental building blocks of confidence which has worked for Aiden thus far. It just seems timing wise that he may be more geared towards landing at a HS (I Hope) and going on from there. I'm just not sure that without some epic explosion in evolutionary skills he'll be showcase or Travel ball material. It could happen, I guess. I'm not counting on it.

I think HS baseball (and team sports generally) make HS a much better experience academically, socially, etc and that's what I want for him as long as baseball is his sport of choice. A lot of Baseball players get to HS and switch to Football which perhaps explains some of the slower evolution to showcase ball here. I'm not sure why but perhaps that's a part of it.

I think you're emphasis there is probably happening in S Fl, and C Fl, even W FL but it seems to just not have gotten here yet. There also seems to be a new travel team created every year somehwree up here ubt after a few seasons they meltdown, mutiny, split up and that can't help.

Hopefully Aiden gets good enough (it's been leaps and bounds since his initial eval debacle that started his placement on the B Team practice squad) to have choices of teams but right now we're just lucky to have coaches that believe in him and see potential and are willing to put him out there and in positions to succeed and fail forward.

[JonInMiddleGA]

All perfectly legit answers that I considered, but I couldn't tell for sure if those were the case or not.

Originally Posted by Flasch186

A lot of Baseball players get to HS and switch to Football which perhaps explains some of the slower evolution to showcase ball here. I'm not sure why but perhaps that's a part of it.

Bsed on what I've seen for several decades now I'd say peer pressure plays into that, as well as athletic department pressure.

Football simply has a higher cachet in most cases, so there's a natural push for the most promising athletes (and often the not-so-promising) to invest their talents there at least in addition, if not in lieu of, anything else.

I think you're emphasis there is probably happening in S Fl, and C Fl, even W FL but it seems to just not have gotten here yet.

Hmm, just a shot in the dark here: are your HS on average maybe a bit smaller than some of those other areas? Mega schools in Georgia largely cluster around Atlanta, smaller ones in south South Georgia, is that somewhat comparable there? Not to the extent that Atlanta dominates the megaschool area here but to lesser degree maybe?

If so, sheer body count can be a factor. There's only so many spots to go 'round, more bodies mean more 1% athletes, more viable travel teams, etc.
Purely a wild ass guess on my part, but it seems plausible as a partial explanation.

[Atocep]

Flash - awesome to hear. There's nothing better than reading or hearing about a kid's continued development. And yes, baseball development is about building blocks and its good to remember that development is never a linear line. There's guaranteed to be peaks and valleys along the way and keeping perspective of where the journey started is a key to getting through those valleys.


Jon - regarding HS ball. It's 100% true that it's dying off and being minimalized, but a lot of those coaches still have strong connections and can make or break a kid with a recommendation if that coach has the right connections. The funny thing is that fact plays a role in both kids not completely abandoning it while also pushing them to focus more and more on summer ball. I'd say the politics of HS baseball (which that falls under) would be right up there with the lack of detail and attention that summer baseball and offseason training bring that HS cosches can't compete with as the primary reasons kids just aren't as interested in HS ball anymore. The politics have always been there, but HS coaches had a monopoly on opportunity that they don't necessarily have anymore.

To give an example, Marc Wiese is a legendary baseball coach in this area and he has connections all across the country. He's placed kids at probably every Pac12 school and is a USA baseball coordinator. Kids line up to play for him, parents move their kids to play for him, and his kids play summer ball for 1 of 2 programs he has his hands in.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

To give an example, Marc Wiese is a legendary baseball coach in this area and he has connections all across the country. He's placed kids at probably every Pac12 school and is a USA baseball coordinator. Kids line up to play for him, parents move their kids to play for him, and his kids play summer ball for 1 of 2 programs he has his hands in.

I think that aspect is largely lacking within 50-75 miles of me (and probably closer to 100-150). Ironically, the most connected guy around these parts is probably former UGA head baseball coach Ron Perno ... who is currently coaching HS _FOOTBALL_ locally.

[Flasch186]

Jon

Def. re size of schools. We don't have mega schools here. I'd guess most schools 9-12 are just around 2k. There's more schools around, a few within 4-5 miles of eachother.

[Flasch186]

So last night Aiden hit his first out of the park home run to 200' Right Center in BP off of a machine!! It was crazy! That's him with his head coach. He really looks up to him and well deserved. That's the guy at the top of the thread that I went out and got to come back to the league when he was run off by a misdirected person back in the day.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Well he topped me. I had the glowing OBP like him but the closest I ever got was hitting the pipe railing at the top of the fence.

God, I hope he doesn't screw up his swing chasing the long ball now.

[Flasch186]

Aiden is struggling to adjust to the A team imo, most evidentally today. He is tentative at the plate and nervous a lot. Luckily today he hit a bomb double but his lack of taking practice seriously and lack of being 'focused during practice and lessons' I think is coming home to roost. I've tried not to be a taskmaster and allow him to 'goof around' but so much conversation during practice and lessons wherein I let him 'express himself' by asking questions and joking around with coaches and using imagination (ie. while he's pitching in bullpen he's saying, "there's 2 out, 2 tunners on...") instead of focusing and being dialed in. This is leading me to believe that while he's on the mound today in a rec game (failure) and today during A games (striking out 3/4 times swinging and hitting one bomb double) he's not talking to himself and getting himself in the right frame of mind. I hope he straightenes it out because spring tryouts are in November and if he doesn't get on plane he'll be back on the B team (which isn't so bad but no one likes regression).

[kiwiLB57]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

10 years ago I seriously wanted to pitch a reality show based on central KY travel softball. Really, it could be anywhere, but there was a perfect storm of talent, crazy parents, rivalries, etc. It would have been a train wreck of epic proportions to the point where MTV probably would have bid on it.

This thread is amazing. I have just googled travel baseball and I now want this show made. It seems nuts.

We have nr 7 year old and an 8 yr old playing football (soccer) on Saturdays and Rugby on Sundays.

The football (soccer) has some of the traits that you describe with secret cabals of parent coaches who have streamed the 8 yr old kids from the village into 5 teams with innocent sounding names (Tigers, Sharks, Pumas etc). My 8 yr old has made the 3rd or 4th best of the 5 teams (you can sense how much I am worried about it) and is having a great time with other boys who all seem nice lads keen to play football as hard as they can. The top team is rife with talent, egos and bad attitudes. Some of the parents are not much chop either. Being British it does seem all a little bit more polite than what Flasch described with the baseball, but it is still there. One lad has been picked up by the Tottenham youth development squad programme which sounds somewhat like the travel ball in that it is a heavy investment in time and money for the parents and kids.

The rugby couldn't be more different. There are about 50 kids in the age group with a strict no streaming policy until they get a lot older. Contact rugby starts next season and that will naturally drop the numbers as kids decide they prefer football (soccer). The coaches are nearly all the dads (25 coaches for 50 kids) and we all get on well with a love of rugby and beer knitting us together. Totally different environment so far. It may change and probably will, but for now the hope is that it doesn't. And that the boys give up football (soccer) to focus on rugby. And fencing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by kiwiLB57

One lad has been picked up by the Tottenham youth development squad programme which sounds somewhat like the travel ball in that it is a heavy investment in time and money for the parents and kids.

That raises an interesting parallel/non-parallel scenario I'd never thought about before.

My very limited understanding of the English youth development system makes me wonder how comparable it would be. Does Tottenham (or anyone) develop some sort of actual (like, contractual) eventual signing rights by virtue of having someone in the program? Or does it only give them an inside track through familiarity, better insight into the player's potential, etc?

With travel teams (whatever the sport) in the U.S. there's officially only an opportunity for exposure and higher levels of competition to be seen against, you'd remain a "free agent" to be drafted, pick a college program, etc. (UNofficially, there's certainly some shenanigans that can occur to influence players toward a future destination)

So, educate me: how strongly _legally_ tied to Tottenham is that player you mentioned? How far does that commitment extend for the player?