Mendell tells a quick story of how, while coaching his son's baseball team, he hears a booming voice from behind speak the words every parent longs to hear, "You got a nice little ball player there."
Flattery Will Get You Everywhere
At one time or another, every parent with a kid on a travel baseball team has heard something along those lines from a coach. If you have, he was interested in adding your son to his team roster. I remember the first time I witnessed it happening with my son. Coach Jeff Hawn, a LEGEND in the Knoxville baseball community, approached us at Ryder's football game. Let me repeat that, a FOOTBALL game. Not only did the Coach express his interest in having our son on his new travel team, he made a point of coming to a football game to do it.
Coach Hawn also saw something in a pitcher from Loudon County. Cam Hope was playing in a recreational league when the Coach plucked him out of obscurity and added him to his roster.
Throughout the next several years, I watched Coach recruit players. I also watched parents ask, no beg, him to let their son play on one of his teams. You see, Coach has an eye for good ball players and most of the time, he's right.
It's flattering to have a coach believe your kid is good enough to play at a 'higher' level. When Coach approached us, our son was ten years old and Cam was eleven. When Mendell heard the voice in Chicago, he coached a nine year old team.
I'd like to say I was appalled by the idea of young children being recruited to play at a higher level. I wish I could have mustered up some self righteous rant about ruining my son's childhood. Instead we put our son into Coach's hands and played with him for several seasons.
The years with the Coach were some of the best we've had in baseball. Ryder, and his buddy Cam, were the best 1-2 punch in town, with Cam starting and Ryder closing. The teams did well in Cooperstown, local and major tournaments. However, looking back with a more objective lens, I wonder if it was as rosy as I thought.
Winning Is Everything
My mom likes to say, "It's always fun when you're winning!" But what about when you're losing? What happens when the stress of being on a travel team gets bigger than a nine or ten year old can handle? These kids MUST experience a higher level of stress than kids playing on a little league or rec team. Winning becomes the goal on travel teams. Development takes a back seat and buckled up beside him, is Fun.
Travel baseball implies a 'win at all costs' mentality. Local tournaments are the worst for ELITE teams because local baseball teams are the very ones they MUST beat! Losing means suffering the humiliation after the game or Monday at school lunch tables. Worst of all, the parents of these 'higher level' players expect a lot more out of their kids. Travel baseball is very expensive. Parent's expect a payback for their sacrifices when they are hiring coaches, traveling to other cities and living out of suitcases every weekend. There is also internal competition on a travel team. Each player competes against his own teammate to be the best. Parents also want their kid to be the best, bat high in the line up or be the starting pitcher. I am sure winning is fun for the kids, but does the end justify the means? Does the added stress, extra practice and pressure allow the game to be fun? Or is fun ancillary compared to better competition and higher baseball IQ?
Ice Packs and Advil
I also agree with Mendell when he points out the physical costs incurred by travel baseball players. I remember one parent made his son throw 100 pitches a day to get ready for the weekend tournaments. Regardless of how many times he was told NOT to overwork his son's arm, he didn't listen. Tommy John surgery is becoming an epidemic among MLB players and everything points to over use at a young age. It's not strictly a pitcher's problem. Young players are practicing year round and in some parts of the country, playing year round. It's okay to assume young kids can bounce back quickly from physical activity, but playing four to six games a weekend, sleeping in hotel rooms and three hour car rides home, exhausts a kid. Parents need to be aware of the toll travel baseball takes on their sons. The 100 pitch parent ended up damaging his son's arm and he couldn't throw for a year. What did the parent do? He hired a coach to teach his son how to pitch left handed. Ice packs and Advil can't fix everything.
Is Erosion Real?
When travel teams dominate a community, solid baseball teams become extinct, much like present day college basketball teams with the 'one and done' movement. The travel ball players are taken from other teams to form ELITE teams. In this respect, the community does suffer. The days of 'fun' being the focus, are gone. The teams built for dominance don't want to play locally and the teams built for fun and development struggle to find tournaments. I have heard stories about the Golden Days of Knoxville Baseball. Coach Hawn talks about the great teams of years ago and how the pool of talented players was much deeper. Was that because those players developed a more comprehensive skill set before they joined a travel team or perhaps the travel ball system wasn't the out of control machine it is today?
My son is 14 this year. This season is unlike any before it. After being asked to play on an ELITE team, he ultimately decided to play for two teams. The coaches have his back and protect him. His teammates make him laugh and are behind him 100%. These teams play good competition and practice often, but they've found a way to stay loose and enjoy the game.
The grind will start again in high school and the quest for a college scholarship will take center stage. Sometimes it feels like being caught in a run down each time my son chooses a new team. Travel baseball can be stressful, but if you get a big enough lead...a good enough jump...you may end up scoring and finding just the right team.
Stealing Home: How Travel Teams Are Eroding Community Baseball, http://wapo.st/1m3i19U via @washingtonpost By David Mendell
Sheri Super is a Realtor in Knoxville, TN, an Avid Baseball Fan and Ryder's Mom.
Both yours and Mendell's articles are good reads. Here in SC it's almost taboo to mention what most everyone is thinking. These articles hit it on the head.
ReplyDeleteWe started a travel softball team, with a completely different mindset than others in the state. We chose the girls based on their personality and their parents based on their attitude....skills was secondary. We wanted a "family" of girls that could enjoy the game and get better over time. We've lost a lot more games than we have one, but the girls are all smiles when we lose a game. Why? Because the goal isn't to win. Its to get better, stay with the sport, get the joy of being on a travel team, without the stress of winning. Still, I worry about burnout. My daughter is now playing on the rec league for the spring AND the travel team...fortunately, the coaches know each other, and she WANTED to do this. If I need to pull her out of multiple practices this spring to avoid burn out, I will. She loves the camaraderie, and this drives her to the field.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, not all travel teams are the same.
No matter what it's all about balance and finding what is right your young athlete. Some parents, especially at the much younger ages, seem to take it far too serious. No scholarships are awarded to 10 year old players no matter what you might have heard. Have fun, enjoy the game and move on when it's time.
ReplyDelete