Q.Bovifs wrote:
THAT is the big problem. These elitist "travel teams" started by parents who want to will their children to greatness like an USSR-Era Olympic Trainer.
This bullshit is what is killing baseball and making it less accessible to most. When we were kids, the only ones who got to "travel" were the BEST OF THE BEST, who excelled in in-house REC LEAGUE teams, got SELECTED to try out for ALL-STAR TEAMS (no fucking open tryouts), and got to TRAVEL with THE BEST.
The state of baseball is fucked because of elitism and this TRAVEL bullshit.
I'm calling bullshit on this entire post. EVERY youth sport has teams filled with kids & parents trying "to will their children to greatness like an USSR-Era Olympic Trainer", if that's how you see it.
But question is this: Ever heard of AAU basketball? 8-13yr old football teams traveling down south to play in tournaments? Spaulding, Bernstein & others talking biddy hockey)? Soccer? Golf or tennis? Where in this country are there not youth sports dominated by elite level "travel" programs/
Just because it's baseball, the same easy, tired, whorish & wrong arguments come out. Repeat them enough (like Fox News) and a substantial (lazy) percentage will accept them as gospel. What was good for baseball in the 30's, 40's & 50's (with higher level Pony, American Legion ball, etc.) and has been duplicated in every other sport but now is just "bad" for baseball. Why? Because YOU say so.

Perhaps your wrongheaded position is in part because you do not understand, nor appreciate the difference between travel & elite level travel ball.
Elite level teams may have (for practical legal reasons) tryouts, but trust me, those teams are pre-selected. Frankly, with rare exceptions it's fairly clear by the age of 8,9-10 who has it and who doesn't. There is very little in common with "elite" level teams and in house or 80% of the glorified "travel" programs. There is no way that a regular travel team (think any team with Alsip, Palos, Plainfield, Tinley Park, Oak Forest or Homer Glen in their name) will win more than 10% of its games vs. true elite level travel teams. One level actually plays baseball, the others give the parents to come to the park, drink, hand out snacks and socialize.
That having been said, travel ball is still seemingly fun for the kids, definitely better than in-house, and whatever else those parents make of it. However, the state of baseball is "fucked" more often because certain helicopter parents take the fun out of the (non-scored) games, wet nurse their kids into false beliefs about their talent and then sour on the game with their less talented kids when they aren't qualified to move up the ladder. (or get embarrassed by elite teams)
But that's just my opinion.