Travel Ball

[imported_Sportsman]

I'm surprised there have been no comments about this article about travel ball and its affect on Little League programs in the BHC today.

http://www.tricities.com/tri/sports/high...ues_base/13980/

I've also noticed that BSG is starting Babe Ruth baseball, heard they were trying to get away from LL. I think that is a mistake, Wise did it about 20 years ago, didn't last long before they went back to LL Baseball.

[TPLLTTP_PV10]

Sportsmom i assume you are a Wise fan so with that said. If i am not mistaken this years JJ Kelly State Baseball team played alot of travel ball growing up. Pretty good outcome. 20 years ago Babe ruth travels and plays other teams,they also played Travel ball. Result being numerous State Titles for JJ Kelly . Looks to me like the proof is in the pudding, not Little League.

[imported_Sportsman]

First of all, I'm not a mom.....lol!

Babe Ruth ball wasn't the reason Kelly won numerous state titles, believe me. It was mainly a thing called talent. Yes, playing a lot of ball is one of the keys to success, but this group of Kelly kids that just won a state title came up through the Little League ranks. They played some fall ball and usually played baseball all summer.

My point about Babe Ruth was that Wise did it for 2-3 years instead of playing Senior League. It didn't last. You don't cut your hand off to spite your face. These towns are too small and too isolated to support multiple organizations. If you destroy the foundations of Little League Baseball, you'll end up in a mess.

I'm pretty steadfast on this point, because I'm a firm believer that you give all kids an opportunity to develop at an early age, then if others want to do more outside the realms of the local system, then so be it. But don't destroy your basic system or kids will look elsewhere for other activities to get into, and many of those won't be good.

And as far as sports go......there is a whole lot more to life than sports and winning state championships.....better to develop your kids into quality people than than quality athletes.

All this is just my opinion, and I probably won't post on this topic again. It does make for an interesting debate though.

[imported_SuperX]

my g'f little brother plays ball in the TNUSSSA ball.. he' plays on a kingsport team though.

"I'm pretty steadfast on this point, because I'm a firm believer that you give all kids an opportunity to develop at an early age, then if others want to do more outside the realms of the local system, then so be it. But don't destroy your basic system or kids will look elsewhere for other activities to get into, and many of those won't be good"

You got that right...