re: Question for the board and those of you that have actually played

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If you actually caught the 1st game instead of the 2nd game, you had an idiot for a coach.

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A) We had a very good ace pitcher. He was better than me so he started the first game.

B) I went to a AA academy school where there weren't many other options.

I loved playing multiple games a day. I just loved playing the game. I loved coaching the game, I love watching the game.

I played men's league softball just so I could still play some kind of ball, and loved tournaments.

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My nephew is on some travel/tournament teams. They played at 10 Saturday morning, again at 2:15 that afternoon. Had to wait until all the games were played that day to know if they had to be back at 10 on Sunday or later. If they had to play again at 10 on Sunday and won, they would have to turn around and play at 1:00.

I just don't think these things should be interfering with an entire weekend. I went to a couple of them last summer, and watched two of his games on a Sunday afternoon. I think it was like 1:30 and again at 4:00. They had played a game Friday night, 2 on Saturday, and then the 2 on Sunday that I went to. Basically spending your entire weekend at the ball field. He was 8 back then, 9 now. Just seems a little young to be doing that type of competition. Plus I go to Church on Sunday mornings, so I would never put my kid in something that would eat up the entire weekend.

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You have some good points. When I was growing up, we played baseball in baseball season, basketball in basketball season and the same with football. Today, with school and travel ball teams, kids are working on 1 sport 6-10 months a year which doesn't really allow for much multi-sport participation unfortunately. My daughter plays high school volleyball, then travels all over the southeast with a travel team, and finally participates in beach volleyball training and tournaments (mainly for conditioning). This is her choice, but it's tough on both her and her mom and me.
She's played since she was 12, but in some areas of the country the kids start at 6-7 years old (usually Catholic school teams), and you wouldn't believe how good these kids are, so there's something to be said about starting them early.

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It was really tough on pitching, he is the Ace for the team. He had a no-hitter through four Innings Tuesday got pulled in the fourth so he could pitch again on Friday. They ended up losing the game on Tuesday. His team has been terrible this year. He has pitched in 12 games all but two he pitched well enough that they should have won easily. I'm talking about holding the opposing team to 2 hit 1 earned run and still losing the games. He's thrown three complete games that they've lost. Held the other team to less than three hits in each game and less than 2er lost, 4-6, 0-3, 2-5. It is really frustrating to see routine plays get f***** up. It is really hurting his chances to go to a better school to play. He will go to some showcases this summer and play on a travel team out of Birmingham more than likely. He played on one last summer and it was awesome.

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This is a frustrating situation to be in. But what it does do going forward is forge a mental toughness that I'm not sure you can get otherwise. And someday when he does get the support it will make it that much sweeter.

I played catcher and didn't mind them at all in the spring, now in the middle of the day in the summer the second game was pretty horrible.

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When I was growing up, we played baseball in baseball season, basketball in basketball season and the same with football. Today, with school and travel ball teams, kids are working on 1 sport 6-10 months a year which doesn't really allow for much multi-sport participation unfortunately.

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Same here. I sucked at little league, enjoyed HS football, and played in some basketball leagues every now and then. But to have a kid start baseball in February, play in a league for a couple of months, then make all-stars in that league, while also playing travel ball, and then fall ball, just seems a bit much. I think he enjoys it, and from what I've seen he is pretty good. I just wouldn't want my entire family to have their weekend sucked up by one activity that my child was participating in.

A good friend of mine helps coach some church league soccer. His boys are close in age and on the same team, and his daughter is a few years younger. Last spring, his boys were on my daughter's team. It was only one game a week, on Saturdays, but he would be up there at 8:30-10:30 to coach his daughter's team, back at 11:30-2:30 for our game. And not get back home until after 4:00 on some days. Basically an entire day. But they were always free on Sundays. Even that sounded like too much for me.

I couldn't imagine legit travel teams and going all over for games or meets. Most of the so-called Travel teams around here have the luxury of a large metro area, and all of them are within 30 minutes of here. Down in South Alabama, you might have to travel a few hours for a tournament, just to get knocked out on day 1. Most are double elim, but it would suck to drive a dozen kids a couple hours away and be stuck in a hotel with nothing else to play for the next day.

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I couldn't imagine legit travel teams and going all over for games or meets. Most of the so-called Travel teams around here have the luxury of a large metro area, and all of them are within 30 minutes of here. Down in South Alabama, you might have to travel a few hours for a tournament, just to get knocked out on day 1. Most are double elim, but it would suck to drive a dozen kids a couple hours away and be stuck in a hotel with nothing else to play for the next day.

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These travel teams in my area only travel at most an hour or two from Montgomery.

But there's a new option here now where HS age kids are going to a private school here where baseball and academics are coordinated so that the kid basically trains for baseball all year long.

The kid gets to school at 7am and does weight training and batting practice and a designed breakfast before classes start 9am. Classes go till 1pm, then they eat lunch designed by a nutritionist and hit the baseball field and batting cages from 2pm till about 4-5pm on week days.

I witnessed one kid (16 yr old) transfer to this private school and he has gained 15-18 pounds of muscle in the last 7 months. His entire physique has changed.

They travel all over the place to play ball. Often times, leaving on Thursdays to travel to South Carl, Georgia or Florida and don't get back home until late Sunday nights. They play year 'round and rarely have a weekend free.

I guess it works for some families but dang what a commitment for the whole family.

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I loved playing multiple games a day. I just loved playing the game. I loved coaching the game, I love watching the game.

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same here- played 5 games in a day more than once. heck- did it once with only one contact because i lost the other in the pool the night before.

Man I would play a quadruple header if I could. Looking back on it, it was the best time of my life. There is no way I would complain about a DH in hindsight.

I was a ball player...didn't care