It's just a game. It's just a game. Take a deep breath. It's just a game.
We're now into Summer tryout season, and my son has told me he has no interest in trying out for Next Level Baseball for next year. That leaves the Mavs tryouts, but they're cliquish and competitive. I'm not holding my breath on that one.
This could be the year that Logan does not play travel baseball.
Let me say that again: This could be the year that Logan does not play travel baseball.
And I'm okay with that.
Now, the other travel baseball dads reading this have probably already spit their beer across the room at my perceived act of treason by condoning this type of behavior.
Logan, now that his allergies are under control, is seeing the ball better than at any time in his life. He ended up only playing one month of his season, but in that time, he had 2 HR, 2 3B, countless doubles, and hit well over .500. I've seen him do this before during various times in a season, for a month here or a month there. This was the first time, though, where he was doing it from the first pitch of the first game and just went wild every game thereafter.
Thing is, I have had a love-hate relationship with travel baseball for as long as we've been involved with it.
So, here's a post on what I consider the love and the hate of travel baseball:
The love:
The level of coaching is much better than what the kids get in rec. The equipment is better. The kids get more practice and more meaningful practice. The kids get better game-situation play. The kids get exposed to better pitching. There's a performance mentality.
The hate, though, in my opinion, outweighs the love. (And "hate" is too strong a word, but hey, it works with the theme.)
There are way too many travel teams and way too many travel leagues. It's not just elite players. There are travel teams where the players aren't much better than rec players. There are travel teams where the players would be better off playing rec.
Taking those kids out of the rec leagues doesn't help the kids who go to travel, but it diminishes the experience in rec. A lot of players who can't afford to play travel end up with a diminished level of play in rec because so many of the competent players are gone playing travel.
Travel turned out to be a poor experience from a rounding out standpoint. Players got assigned to one position way too early. We're talking 7 and 8 year olds who are deigned to be Right Fielders who will never be anything other than Right Fielders so long as they play for the same team. Kids should be trying out a few different positions right up until High School.
Travel has too much of an emphasis on winning. Not enough on development. This is competitive baseball. You're there to put your kid on a team that wins. Yes, they get development, but what you will generally find is that most teams have about 3 or 4 players who are superstars. (Usually, they are superstars in reality, but sometimes only in perception. The longer they play for the same team, the larger the role of perception.) There are 3 or 4 kids who are solid role players. Then, there are 3 or 4 kids who barely make the team.
The studs get to play infield and pitcher. They may play centerfield, and catcher if they want. Whatever they can't cover goes to the role players. Then, the barely made it kids play RF, LF and might get an inning or two at 2nd base. At a time when players should be trying all sorts of positions, kids get stuffed into a position way too early and that's all they see of the game.
I also think that travel ball takes up way too much time. The seasons here would start in April (versus rec which starts right about when school is letting out). Kids would be practicing or playing 5 or 6 nights a week while trying to keep up with homework. That's just too much.
In the end, I think travel was the wrong thing for Logan. He was always the youngest kid on the team. Technically, every year he played up into a higher age bracket. Yes, he was always one of the better players. However, emotionally, I think it put a lot of pressure on him, especially when he was 8 years old. That's too young to be getting stressed out by a game.
In hindsight, would I have let him play U9? Maybe not. It's hard to say no, though, when your kid just made one of the hardest teams in this corner of the state. He was excited. I was excited. In hindsight, I think it did more good than harm, but I think it did harm.
I could see him lose a lot of the sheer joy he had in playing baseball. He still likes it, but doesn't love it the way he does football and basketball.
So, what do I see from here? I honestly think there's a lot of upside to him playing rec. The pressure will be zero. Logan was annihilating the pitching in the lowest level of travel ball and the level of pitching in rec is no better. He's going to have an insane year if he plays rec. Absolutely insane. He was a good travel ball player. He will be a sensational rec leaguer.
Will that be good for his baseball development? Eh, it'll be good enough. Compared to playing in the lowest divisions of travel ball, the development you get in rec isn't that different.
What I'm hoping, though, is that this will allow him to rediscover the joy of playing baseball. I want him to feel the way he did when he was playing rec ball as a 7 year old, before he started playing travel.
This is just a game, and it's supposed to be fun. I think rec is his best shot at having fun. For that reason and that reason alone, he should play rec.
Right now, his talent in baseball is exceptional. I doubt anybody would argue that Logan isn't one of the best players in town. Of the kids who will eventually go to his High School, he's easily in the top half-dozen in his grade in terms of baseball.
He likes the game, but doesn't love it. He'll do off-season workouts in basketball. He'll stay sharp on that year-round. Baseball? He likes to play, but he's not wearing out his hitting tee in the basement in the Winter by any stretch.
What about the future? Well, for one thing you just can't predict that.
For another, though, you can sorta predict that, especially in baseball. The skills he's gotten over the past 4 years have given him a fundamental basis in baseball that's not going to leave him. He's gotten the exact sort of neurological hard-wiring that will give him a superior instinctive baseball swing because he learned it when he was a grade-schooler. Kids who first get serious about the game in their teens really don't stand a chance of catching up to him.
Numerically, I don't see how it's possible that he doesn't make his Freshman team 2 years from now. His High School will only get about 6 players from the travel leagues. That means a whole heck of a lot of spots for kids from the rec leagues. If he tries out, I honestly don't see how he wouldn't make the team.
Junior Varsity and Varsity will be a lot harder. That's no guarantee at all. He may not make those teams. However, if he dedicates himself and puts in the work, he will. Nobody can know that right now. That truly is for another day. And between that day and now, kids are going to grow. Some kids who are great today won't be so great later. Kids today who seem hopeless will mature and turn into studs. There's just no telling. So, there's no point in worrying about it.
In the mean time, I think he's going to find rec to be a whole lot of fun. I'm looking forward to enjoying it, too.
