Little League vs Travel teams

[jbooth]

Why do so many people put so much emphasis on getting their kid who has above average talent, on a travel team? Why do they shun Little League?

I was a volunteer in LL in Marin County for 20 years. LL was the emphasis, there were only a couple of travel teams.

Two guys who are now playing in MLB came from two of the leagues in the District.

Bud Norris, who pitches for the Houston Astros, played in Novato North LL, from Tee Ball through seniors. Never played fall ball, never took private lessons, and never played on a travel team. I know because I've known him all his life. I have been friends with his parents since 1976. I played men's fastpitch with his dad, and co-ed slo-pitch with his mom and dad.

Will Venable, who plays for the San Diego Padres, played in San Rafael LL, from Tee Ball through seniors. Never played fall ball, never played on a travel team. He is however; the son of former MLB player Max Venable, so he did get good instruction.

Another former MLB player, Jerry Goff, let his son play in Novato North LL, from Tee Ball on up. His son is still in HS, but he never played fall ball, or travel.

Why does everybody think they have to get their kid on a travel team? I know some LL programs are pretty weak. My granddaughter plays LL softball in a league with zero talent. She's got talent, but she has fun, and if she wants to get serious she can practice more. I don't see the need to get her onto a travel team. Yeah, she will face better pitching which will help her hitting to a degree, but I don't see the need to pay $150 to $300 a month plus travel expenses, when LL costs $175 for the whole season and no travel expenses.

Just wondering.

[songtitle]

It's not 1985 any more. Things change.

[HeinekenMan]

I'm no expert. But I think the key is to find a good organization. It doesn't matter whether it's a travel team, a Little League or another rec league. What's important is that the focus is on teaching the children the skills and allowing them to showcase those skills on the field. I've told a few stories in the past month or so. One was about a terrible Little League. Another was about a terrible travel team.

Yet one city away from me is a Little League that has its stuff together. It will host the Florida state championship tournament for the Little League division later this summer. There also are some local travel teams that do things right. One team, a nonprofit, requires the players to do a group community service project once every three months. They just did a beach clean up and got some nice press from the local paper. Another team seeks to help high school kids earn college scholarships, and they require players to provide report cards with at least a C average or something of that nature.

[Jake Patterson]

It's not 1985 any more. Things change.

One of our LL'ers played in the MLB All-Star game last night...

[CircleChange11]

Why do so many people put so much emphasis on getting their kid who has above average talent, on a travel team? Why do they shun Little League?

I was a volunteer in LL in Marin County for 20 years. LL was the emphasis, there were only a couple of travel teams.

Two guys who are now playing in MLB came from two of the leagues in the District.

Bud Norris, who pitches for the Houston Astros, played in Novato North LL, from Tee Ball through seniors. Never played fall ball, never took private lessons, and never played on a travel team. I know because I've known him all his life. I have been friends with his parents since 1976. I played men's fastpitch with his dad, and co-ed slo-pitch with his mom and dad.

Will Venable, who plays for the San Diego Padres, played in San Rafael LL, from Tee Ball through seniors. Never played fall ball, never played on a travel team. He is however; the son of former MLB player Max Venable, so he did get good instruction.

Another former MLB player, Jerry Goff, let his son play in Novato North LL, from Tee Ball on up. His son is still in HS, but he never played fall ball, or travel.

Why does everybody think they have to get their kid on a travel team? I know some LL programs are pretty weak. My granddaughter plays LL softball in a league with zero talent. She's got talent, but she has fun, and if she wants to get serious she can practice more. I don't see the need to get her onto a travel team. Yeah, she will face better pitching which will help her hitting to a degree, but I don't see the need to pay $150 to $300 a month plus travel expenses, when LL costs $175 for the whole season and no travel expenses.

Just wondering.

I would say quite simply that the quality of LL vary significantly.

I also think there is an aspect to it where parents seek out the "best" environment for their kids/players, and there's a perception that travel ball is "accelerated". I think there is some truth to that.

Now, whether it's significant enough to go "travel only" is quite another situation. I will say the difference between our 10U games and our 10U LL All-Star games has been huge. We were competitive in about 60% of our travel games. We've outscored our LL All-Star opponents 68-8 over 4 games, and we've only pitched our best pitchers 35 pitches or less each game. In our travel games, the biggest difference between "us and them" was simply [1] they were better/aggressive base runners, and [2] they played better defense (faster ground balls, etc). I will also say that our 10U TB team rarely got to practice (players also played LL Minors), but that's also been the case in LL AS ... there just haven't been many BIP against us.

I will also say that our TB team played primarily much larger area TB teams and our LL AS games have been relegated to LL teams in our area (so far) with communities the same size as us, so there hasn't been a "David v. Goliath' aspect.

[CircleChange11]

One of our LL'ers played in the MLB All-Star game last night...

If those same adults were 10yo in 2012, would they still have not played any TB?

I think that's a fair question as even the kids that play LL often also play some TB/tourneys.

[Jake Patterson]

If those same adults were 10yo in 2012, would they still have not played any TB?

I think that's a fair question as even the kids that play LL often also play some TB/tourneys.

CC,
I am not against TB... I am against age-inappropriate TB. Playing LL and a few weekends is not problem... Year-round ball, with lessons, private coaches, 60 games, etc., etc., at 8 is rediculous.

My son played TB...

[CircleChange11]

CC,
I am not against TB... I am against age-inappropriate TB. Playing LL and a few weekends is not problem... Year-round ball, with lessons, private coaches, 60 games, etc., etc., at 8 is rediculous.

My son played TB...

I agree with you ... except on the spelling of ridiculous.

[crazyhawk]

I never understand why everyone puts travel ball in one bucket and think it is the same everywhere. My son plays travel ball. His team played 10 tournaments, had a blast and played against a ton of really good teams. The total cost was $400. We did fund raisers and we had dads who coached the team. That is how almost all of the travel ball teams do it here and the majority have a very good experience. The cost for our rec team for my other son is $200 and you need to add $100 for the uniforms. 16 games and no tournaments. People always make it seem like you have to pay $150 per month and travel the world if you are on a tournament team.

[CircleChange11]

I never understand why everyone puts travel ball in one bucket and think it is the same everywhere. My son plays travel ball. His team played 10 tournaments, had a blast and played against a ton of really good teams. The total cost was $400. We did fund raisers and we had dads who coached the team. That is how almost all of the travel ball teams do it here and the majority have a very good experience. The cost for our rec team for my other son is $200 and you need to add $100 for the uniforms. 16 games and no tournaments. People always make it seem like you have to pay $150 per month and travel the world if you are on a tournament team.

We raised $457 per player (11 kids) for 23 games (6 tourneys and some DH). I called around to the other TB teams in our areas and they charged/raised between 400-450 per kid and played twice as many games. The charge to our parents was about $150 and we sold raffle tickets (and made about $1800), did a fundraiser at a local restaurant (made $800) and got 16 corporate sponsors ($100/each). Most other TB teams seem to get a large donation from a local company, especially if dad is an executive at said company/bank.

Even the larger TB teams from the suburbs/city don;t often charge the very large fees that I sometimes see mentioned. TB has become so widespread and to essentially all areas, that I no longer think you can just lump TB together in one bucket anymore than you can assume that all LL's run the same way and offer similar quality.

[DerekD]

What about the need to have more games? There are a lot of players who aren't great players that want to play more than the 12 games they are scheduled.

[d-mac]

Bryce Harper was playing all over the country at 10.

Mike Trout didn't play year round and is doing fine.

To each his own.

[azmatsfan]

I wouldn't trades my sons' LL experiences for anything. (Nor my experiences as a LL coach.) But in our league I went through the rosters last season and figured that 50% of the kids playing in the Majors division had played travel ball that previous fall. There's nothing wrong with TB as long as it's kept in perspective. My son's LL majors team his last season only had 8 practices. It's tough to improve much only playing LL.

On a side note, my oldest is playing LL Juniors this season. He came back to play Juniors to have one more season of playing with his friends he's grown up with at the Little League fields. Some of them won't play in HS, and others will play at rival schools. The All-Star team just won districts and we're headed to the State tournament next week. However they do, it's going to be a memory he'll remember the rest of his life.

[clayadams]

What about the need to have more games? There are a lot of players who aren't great players that want to play more than the 12 games they are scheduled.

This... As I just posted in another thread, some kids just want to play more.

[Baseball gLove]

Travel ball can have 7 innings vs 6 for little league. In travel ball there is lead off and stealing. Batter can try for 1st base on dropped 3rd strike. The quality of play can be a lot better because players are not restricted by boundaries.

We tried Little League as 11u. My son was a 1st round pick in Majors but he was bored with the poor coaching. I taught relays when my son was in t-ball. It was alien to the Little League coach he was stuck with. We went back to Pony which was similar to travel ball especially with inter-league play. 70 percent of the kids in our Pony league also play travel ball.

Right now there are 9 alumni playing pro ball from my sons' Pony league. 3 of the pros played together on the same travel team. Three are playing in the MLB. Another is starting quarback in the NFL. Nine alumni are playing Division I college ball. 2 were in the College World Series with 1 closing the last game for the save.