That's a stereotype. When my kids played 15 years ago it was a few hundred bucks, 25 scheduled games and 1 trip out of town. They had a blast. Everybody did. So fuck off.

All of this and then some.

We paid $800 one year, and went to Cooperstown.

$500 bucks a year and some solid competition.

Does that cover insurance or insurance provided already by then?

Our program is very inexpensive at about $500.

We have volunteer coaches. I'm not going to say I know everything there is to know about baseball. However, I think I know enough to get a kid to a degree of competency and baseball knowledge where he will be ready to play in high school if he chooses. I admit that I'm not good enough to fully develop pitching but I'm not bad. We hire a guy in the area during the off season who pitches for the Brewers minors. I like the guy but I just don't see next level teaching. I am just not seeing it from these "professional" coaches that I think any of our kids are at a disadvantage. Yet, its those coaches that are driving the price (along with generally unnescessary long distance travel).

We carry our own insurance.

3k is light

Travel is decimating in-house baseball leagues, particularly in inner-city and lower income areas. I've seen it first hand.

Get him out of house league next year. Believe me, you can find a travel team that plays only 20-30 games and doesn't need to go to Buttfuck, Iowa on the 5th of July. My kids never played over memorial day or the 4th.

House league is fun. He likes to play with and against his friends in the neighborhood and not be typecast positionally.

The championship day picnic is a great time. Good food and drink. Games go on for probably 8 hours and kids not playing in their game hang out to cheer on friends.

My complaint is about the scheduled date.

House league is fun. He likes to play with and against his friends in the neighborhood and not be typecast positionally.

The championship day picnic is a great time. Good food and drink. Games go on for probably 8 hours and kids not playing in their game hang out to cheer on friends.

My complaint is about the scheduled date.

House league is fun. He likes to play with and against his friends in the neighborhood and not be typecast positionally.

The championship day picnic is a great time. Good food and drink. Games go on for probably 8 hours and kids not playing in their game hang out to cheer on friends.

My complaint is about the scheduled date.

If you think that's bad, you should've seen the hell we got for playing a Mother's Day tourney one time. On Mother's Day we got to the fields for bp at 7am and didn't finish until 11pm. To make matters worse, the team we blew out in the 8am game all had flowers for the mothers after the game and went home to Mundelein(?) We didn't.

The ten or so team mothers were salty, especially when they realized the Father's Day weekend was time off for us.

dolphin, when you were a kid, did you play in a Park district league? I played at Dunham. Those still must be viable entities, because I get unending requests to sponsor them.

If you think that's bad, you should've seen the hell we got for playing a Mother's Day tourney one time. On Mother's Day we got to the fields for bp at 7am and didn't finish until 11pm. To make matters worse, the team we blew out in the 8am game all had flowers for the mothers after the game and went home to Mundelein(?) We didn't.

The ten or so team mothers were salty, especially when they realized the Father's Day weekend was time off for us.

I played in the same Edgebrook Saugansh Little League my kids did or do play. It's vitality is strong. I think they have 1K kids playing from 5-15.

Dunham still is going pretty well.

I really like that it breaks down borders between kids. It probably draws from 5 schools. The kids would never have met each other but for this program.

I also like that there is a lot of room for kids of modest ability to grow and have moments of success. There is lots of joy to be had in house league

I played in the same Edgebrook Saugansh Little League my kids did or do play. It's vitality is strong. I think they have 1K kids playing from 5-15.

Dunham still is going pretty well.

I really like that it breaks down borders between kids. It probably draws from 5 schools. The kids would never have met each other but for this program.

I also like that there is a lot of room for kids of modest ability to grow and have moments of success. There is lots of joy to be had in house league

We had this set up the first year young Crest played.

All day Mother's Day, off for Father's Day.

It still comes up.

So those are the same things? Park District leagues=home leagues? I've just never heard them called that. Obviously the All Stars play against one another?

Our tournament/All Star team was pretty much split between four of the eight in house teams. The two teams with the most of those kids never played on big travel weekends, or if we did, it'd be the late game and the other coaches would hope we ran late. At 12, my son's team literally had seven kids that did or still are playing college baseball(five of them still in D1)

we foster which puts us smack dab into some doozies of situations. This one I believe might be the craziest we've ever been involved with.

Mother has 2 children ages 3 and 1.5 with 2 different fathers. Also not really important to the story but of note...she is a little person. 2 fathers are not, 2 children are not. Children have been run through the system. 2 families they've been with have gotten divorced so they've got into emergency care a few times and have had 3 long term placements.

We took in both of them last fall with the idea that the older would eventually go to their fathers' house (he recently was discovered to be the father...they didn't know for 3 years) but he had to get somebody who couldn't pass a background check out of his house before that could happen.

3 yr old went to live with her father in January. These people are nitwits. they basically require she sit still and not do anything all day long and are basically livid when she does anything wrong. There is an old lady who lives there too who just shouts, make it stop and covers her ears when the kid crys from being punished. This has all been observed by the caseworker.

2 weeks ago they were evicted because they just stopped paying rent. They refuse any help from the state and are looking for rentals in nice neighborhoods in places they can't afford. They are now living in a hotel.

The mother is still with the father of the 1.5 yr old. The problem there is that they don't do anything. they don't come to visits, they haven't seent heir children/child in 12 weeks. They can't drive so they have to take the bus. DCFS has supplied the bus passes for them but has threatented to take them away if they don't come.

Side note : one thing that irritates the shit out of me is that DCFS bends over backwards to reschedule, and make accomodations for these shitheads. they called one time and were like they would like to move the visit to friday at 11:00 is that ok. i asked for the phone and told the caseworker... no this doesn't work. its a major inconvenience to everyone to reschedule a thing that they haven't came to 6 weeks in a row. its clear they are just trying to be difficult. a light bulb apparently went off wiht the caseworker.

The mother and father of hte 1.5 yr old keep moving and they keep moving into peoples homes who are on sex registries. Its absurd.

We just learned this morning that the father broke up with the mother because DCFS just cut off bus passes.

He has 8 kids with 8 different mothers. All of the mothers have like some sort of disability mentally.

In illinois, once you decide you will begin to terminate rights, it takes over 6 months to make happen. They state is finally deciding that this is the plan to take with the 1.5 yr old.

if the other guy becomes homeless, the state will have to take the 3 yr old back into care too.

the whole other part of this is that the mother has said that the father of the 3 yr old is inappropriate with children, and the father of the 3 yr old says that the mother and father have touched the 3 yr old inappropriately (every visit they HAVE gone to is supervised)

Looking back, three were 11 and two were just 10. The next year one of the 10 year olds threw so hard, I didn't have a catcher who could catch him.

Yeah, that shit is just a gift. Me and my kids had very good arms but there's just next level stuff that's frightening. Our kid who got drafted was that way. I'd sit there and go, "where does that power come from?" I'm going to try and catch Vlad Jr in person. He had a throw on Sunday that was unbelievable.

I cannot think of one time in the 21st century that I have just shown up at a business without knowing what their hours of operation were, roughly, at least. And yet I have people, young people, not septuagenarians, trundling int my place every time the door is unlocked for deliveries or whatever, seeing that all the chairs and stools are up, all the front lights are off, and yelling "Helloooo!! Are you open?"