The Trails of A Youth Baseball B team

[giantheart]

The Trails of a Youth Baseball B team

The article is about a parent who felt bad for poor johnny who did not make the travel team....and because Rec league is not good enough for their kids, the parent started their own B league travel team. The parent writes the article and is oblivious of his own audacity.

The article sickens me. Instead of having your child learn a life lesson and have him try to work very hard and develop motivation for practicing and getting better... these parents just taught their kids that if life treats them less than steller....run to mom and dad and they will make it all better.

Thought I would share..

[songtitle]

The article sickens me. Instead of having your child learn a life lesson and have him try to work very hard and develop motivation for practicing and getting better

I will play devil's advocate here... what other option does the kid have to 'get better' unless he plays B ball? Otherwise, he's sitting at home playing XBox.

[tradosaurus]

So let's teach little johnny a lesson by forming a B team and getting run ruled every game. Is league play too good for them?

[tradosaurus]

I will play devil's advocate here... what other option does the kid have to 'get better' unless he plays B ball? Otherwise, he's sitting at home playing XBox.

It appears like the parents of the B-team have an inflated view of their kids' athletic ability.

[CircleChange11]

To have your dreams dashed is devastating for anyone, at any age. But to be told when you are in fourth grade that you are basically finished with serious baseball?

I hate to break it to this lady, but there are LOTS of kids that are "told by the 4th grade" (or earlier) just how unsuccessful they'll be in life.

When you consider that, not making a select travel team in 4th grade is pretty meaningless.

Loving baseball and being really good at it are two different things.

The good thing is that at 4th grade, there's still lots of time to improve. FWIW, it doesn't feel any better to have your professional baseball dreams stomped on at age 21.

What bothers me is that evidently by the scores of the game, the kids could have played LL or rec league and been right at home. But, no, the parents were devastated by the cuts ... so they started their own travel team and the players got slaughtered all year.

There's always a lesson learned in everything. IMHO, the lesson the kids actually learn is often an unintentional one. Nothing will smash your dreams of playing elite baseball like losing by 15+ runs a game.

[Rufus67]

I can't imagine doing something like that and I've been on all sides of the conversation (one kid who tried out for years and never made travel, one who made it after two tryouts at age 10, and one who's "in the wings" and hasn't played anything but rec ball). I guess it all depends on your perspective, though, and I would not try talking someone into/out of that kind of thing.

[chucker66]

What about the kids that get regular math in 6th or 7th grade and the smarter kids get advanced math? Who's dreams are dashed when that happens? Oh the humanity. (End sarcasm)

[CircleChange11]

What about the kids that get regular math in 6th or 7th grade and the smarter kids get advanced math? Who's dreams are dashed when that happens? Oh the humanity. (End sarcasm)

Just imagine the horror of dreaming of being an NBA player, but being born white? Heh Heh.

To me, this illustrates a symptom of a larger problem with society. Gone are the days of "work harder, get better, meet the standard". That's been replaced with "Just buy an alternative/faux experience". Adults are similar in that rather than improving at their current job to earn a better evaluation, they'll just make a sideways career move to go somewhere else where they'll "get the respect they deserve". Yeah, that'll work.

I don;t know the SES of this lady and her kids, so this may not pertain to her ... but one thing that really gets my goat, are the abundance of white, middle to upper middle class parents/kids who feel like "they got screwed". Clueless.

[The Uncoach]

Too many people worry about 7-8-9 year old baseball. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint.

[giantheart]

I will play devil's advocate here... what other option does the kid have to 'get better' unless he plays B ball? Otherwise, he's sitting at home playing XBox.

Very simple....get off your A$S...and take some of the money, time and effort daddy spent forming a B team to
go outside and throw balls off the pitchback.....
dad can throw soft toss to lil johnny for a whole season...
Get a batting cage membership and take him after a little league to go work on his swing..... have him take hitting lessons.....
get someone to teach him to pitch
go to the local field before and after practice and hit some grounders to work on fielding
come to this forum and learn from other coaches

etc., etc., etc. you know.....doing things like, god forbid, practice!!!! and work hard at getting better!

[giantheart]

The funny thing about the whole article is that at the end of the season, the two kids and two other friends did make the A team....I wonder, what did the parents do to the rest of the B team? Did they disolve the team? doubtful.. They basically used all these other kids so that their kids could be a show case for the A team coach once some kids quit for the summer.....somehow I am sure those parents aren't worried about the rejection the other kids on the B team are feeling.

[Rufus67]

Couple of other thoughts:

• If the rosters for these teams are locked in at at age 7, how did her kids and the other two make it on the roster of the "A" team the following year? Wouldn't the fact that your kids made it when you didn't they could cause you to re-evaluate not only the need to create a "B" team but also the need to write the article at all?
• As others have said, did those four get better as a result of playing travel on a "B" team or because they put more work in?
• Would the improvement of the rest of the team have happened with the same amount of effort on a rec team plus work outside formal team practices?
• At what point in the year do parents look at their kids flailing around the field and say "Maybe we should have played rec after all?" and did any of them come to that realization?

These are not meant as being anti-travel questions, just questions that naturally pop up after reading the article.

[AdamInNY]

Seems like there has to be more to this....

They are in NJ. There isn't/wasn't any other team they could play on? They had to form their own? Who coached this team?

[Bolts-Baseball]

This is a non-story...

Some parents wanted to get their kids some more AB's and field time for their 9u players... big deal.

Maybe they were having fun...?

That's all that really matters on the youth field anyway...

[CoolHandLuke]

Some communities can support a B or even a C team if the talent pool is deep enough. I think it's a case by case situation. My son plays on a 9U "B" team. We actually have a A, B, and C 9U teams and they all compete very well. I can say without hesitation that our "A" team plays at a high National competitive level. They play up 10U and still do very well. My son's "B" team just finished the season by sweeping through the County tournament to win the championship. And this league is comprised of all the other "A" TB teams in our county and a couple teams from surrounding counties. It's just an example that there can be a place for B teams as long as there's enough talent to support it.