PLAY BALL ? competition . In a country where the feeling is baseball is slipping as a youth activity – to football , to basketball , to soccer , to video games – travel ball juices up the interest level by the travel , competition and opportunities it offers .
But Adam Kleinert wonders if it ’ s having exactly the opposite effect . Kleinert , a graphic designer who owns Hatch Design in Henryville , is the father of two sons and two daughters ; baseball coordinator at the local youth park ; and baseball coach at Henryville Junior High School . He sees travel baseball potentially diminishing interest in youth baseball because it ’ s causing the summer rec leagues to disappear .
“ Because of the entry fees and travel demands , travel ball has become something for the affluent families and the single-child families ,” said Kleinert , who turned down travel ball for his older son , Eli ( now 13 ), partly because he felt it wasn ’ t fair to his three other children . “ A lot of kids , left off of travel teams and with no other opportunities to play organized baseball in the summer , are turning to other sports .”
Kleinert said a friend pays around $ 10,000 for his son ’ s travel ball activity . That includes the entry fees , of course , but also the private lessons and expensive equipment – because , said Kleinert , parents insist on providing only the very best bats and gloves for their sons . ( He notes , wryly , that in the Dominican Republic kids play the game using hand-me-downs and makeshift equipment .)
And for what ? For those who play , the immediate prize for winning one of the tournaments is a trophy .
The trophy is a nice prize , too , for those who run the teams – mainly because it allows them to recruit other good players , not unlike the way Alabama brings the best high school football players to Tuscaloosa . That recruiting is profitable in travel baseball because of the money the organizers make on the membership fees they charge – as much as $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 per player ’ s family . If they have several teams in a variety of age groups , that loose change becomes a sizable profit for them .
The prize for the kids ( and perhaps even more so for their parents ) is a chance to perform in front of the college coaches and professional scouts who come out to the tournaments and sit in the stands . That means scholarships , pro contracts ,
“ IT ’ S ‘ TOLD ’ VERSUS ‘ TAUGHT .’ I OFTEN FIND MYSELF SPENDING A LOT OF TIME TEACHING MY PLAYERS THE RULES . AND THEY ’ RE IN COLLEGE ! THE GAME ’ S A LOT MORE THAN HAVING A GOOD SWING .”
BEN REEL HEAD BASEBALL COACH INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST major league salaries , free-agent signing bonuses , endorsements , shoe deals , glove deals , book deals .
Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels earns more than $ 34 million a year – and that ’ s just his salary . Little wonder parents want their kids to impress the scouts and coaches .
One of those college coaches whose attention is sought by travel players and their parents is Larry Owens , baseball coach of the Bellarmine University Knights . So , he must love the idea of these tournaments , in which he ’ s able to see and assess promising athletes from all over the country . Not so much . “ Yes , it gives kids the opportunity to play a lot of baseball and to travel around the country , and that ’ s a good thing ,” Owens said . “ But here ’ s my gripe . When these kids show up here ( at Bellarmine ), we ’ re having to teach them things we shouldn ’ t be having to teach : how to play the game ! It ’ s little things they should know by the time they get here : cutoffs , relays , rundowns , fundamentals that are not getting taught at the youth level because they don ’ t have time to do it .” Why not ? Because , Owens said , “ the tournaments are set up only to play games – as many as they can pack into a three-or-four-day weekend . So , kids just play games , they don ’ t practice , they don ’ t learn , they don ’ t develop .”
Amazingly , he said , “ When I was coaching in the minor leagues ( he was a pitching coach in the Chicago White Sox organization ), those kids didn ’ t know the fine points of the game , either .” And that ’ s just for the kids who get that far . Many more have been left on the side of the road because they were forced to pitch too many innings in these tournaments , or to throw too hard , and they blew out their arms .
“ In too many cases , these coaches just want to win , so they ’ ll pitch their best kid over and over ,” Owens said , “ unless the tournament has limits on how many innings a kid can pitch . And the kid wants to open it up and throw hard because he thinks that ’ s what the scouts in the stands want to see . It ’ s too much for young arms .”
Nor is the problem just about preserving arms . It ’ s also growing up and maturing off the diamond .
Ben Reel , the baseball coach at Indiana University Southeast , would like to see youth
APRIL / MAY 2018 : EXTOL 47