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bfriendly
376 Posts |
 Posted - 04/13/2016 : 09:06:42
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When I was a kid growing up(a long time ago) in Bradenton FL, we played Little League Baseball. 10-13yo.....it was the only league we knew of. All-stars were at the end of the season and was comprised of 2-3 players off each team playing against a different area(we all met in Sarasota) of similar all-star teams.
Today, the only reference to "Little League" I hear anymore is the Little League World Series which is televised on ESPN. When I think of the LLWS, Warner Robbins comes to mind as they always seem to be in there.........Other than that, Little League does not seem to exist.......... Anyone have any idea?
I wonder if its just an "Area" thing. I can get that, but here North of the Atl, Baseball is YUGE! Yet, I never hear of Little League, nor do I ever hear of a Warner Robbins teams in the travel arena either. Sup with that |
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lowandoutside
69 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2016 : 16:46:47
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| Warner Robins still has an active Little League program. A few years ago a team from Buckhead also competed in the Regionals for the LLWS. I believe East Marietta was or is affiliated with Little League. I think the problem with Little League is, especially in this area, are the rules. There are equally as good or better run organizations hosting tournaments. And, as far a "rec." ball goes, many parks opt to partner with an organization like Dizzy Dean. If you've watched the LLWS you will notice that these are fairly large kids and they are playing on a small field. These kids are 12-13 years old and are playing of fields that are the dimensions of what our kids play at 10u. ALso, there is no stealing or leading off. I think a lot of parks in the Northeast are still affiliated with Little League, while many down south have moved on in the name of competition. |
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Renegade44
211 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2016 : 20:59:26
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OOOh I got this one nailed! What happened to little league? It moved to the hundreds of AA travel ball teams. And the Bronze, Black, All Black, All Black Elite, Red, White, Blue, Purple, Elite, Select, Orange, flavors of Academy teams.
Or you can ask some of the older Homeplate guys what happened when they tried to support little league a few years ago. |
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brball
615 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2016 : 23:39:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Renegade44
OOOh I got this one nailed! What happened to little league? It moved to the hundreds of AA travel ball teams. And the Bronze, Black, All Black, All Black Elite, Red, White, Blue, Purple, Elite, Select, Orange, flavors of Academy teams.
Or you can ask some of the older Homeplate guys what happened when they tried to support little league a few years ago.
Little league, middle school / high school and American legion ball was it back in my day. Nowadays, there's just too many options and everyone is so fixated on "travel ball" that it has killed the little league outlook! I could go on and on, but I'm not going to.
Here's your Homeplate little league happenings... Happy readings or not, here it is:
http://www.nwgabaseball.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38197 |
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tbaillie2
120 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2016 : 08:54:32
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| The big thing is "Little League" has become = to "Xerox". Warner Robbins has very little competition due to most large associations not being a part of "Little League". Your point that rec has diminished is founded and is the real question....there are good and bad on what has happened to 'rec' IMO. |
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bfriendly
376 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2016 : 17:17:46
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quote:
Originally posted by brball
quote:
Originally posted by Renegade44
OOOh I got this one nailed! What happened to little league? It moved to the hundreds of AA travel ball teams. And the Bronze, Black, All Black, All Black Elite, Red, White, Blue, Purple, Elite, Select, Orange, flavors of Academy teams.
Or you can ask some of the older Homeplate guys what happened when they tried to support little league a few years ago.
Little league, middle school / high school and American legion ball was it back in my day. Nowadays, there's just too many options and everyone is so fixated on "travel ball" that it has killed the little league outlook! I could go on and on, but I'm not going to.
Here's your Homeplate little league happenings... Happy readings or not, here it is:
http://www.nwgabaseball.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38197
Thanks for the link brball........tough read. I never liked them not being able to lead off etc...but WOW.
As the saying goes.......it could be worst! |
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jtm2002
13 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2016 : 10:19:16
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We left Rec ball at 10u due to the unbelievable politics going on at the our park. Many families of the best players left also, leaving the park with a lower level of play. Travel ball has been a breath of fresh air compared to the politics of a park that you have to return to year after year. Travel ball is self policing, if you dont like it, leave the team. We have been on teams that were not so good, and watched those coaches not able to field teams in subsequent years.
Rec ball has fallen apart, and continues to deteriorate because the leaders of the parks take care of their own, and consciencely impact others to put their kids ahead. Families have voted with their feet, and continue to do so. Travel ball would not continue to grow if its not a better product, as it requires much more of a commitment from the entire family than Rec ball does. These park "leaders" that govern with an agena are dispicable and will continue to erode the community parks until the chain is broken, and selfless "leaders" are in place to right the ship.
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bfriendly
376 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2016 : 11:39:24
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quote:
Originally posted by jtm2002
We left Rec ball at 10u due to the unbelievable politics going on at the our park. Many families of the best players left also, leaving the park with a lower level of play. Travel ball has been a breath of fresh air compared to the politics of a park that you have to return to year after year. Travel ball is self policing, if you dont like it, leave the team. We have been on teams that were not so good, and watched those coaches not able to field teams in subsequent years.
Rec ball has fallen apart, and continues to deteriorate because the leaders of the parks take care of their own, and consciencely impact others to put their kids ahead. Families have voted with their feet, and continue to do so. Travel ball would not continue to grow if its not a better product, as it requires much more of a commitment from the entire family than Rec ball does. These park "leaders" that govern with an agena are dispicable and will continue to erode the community parks until the chain is broken, and selfless "leaders" are in place to right the ship.
Way back in the day when I played Little League baseball, it was the same teams and the 10-12yo's played together......with only a few different subtle changes, it was the exact same teams and not much different outcomes. |
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BamaDad
188 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2016 : 09:57:40
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quote:
Originally posted by jtm2002
We left Rec ball at 10u due to the unbelievable politics going on at the our park. Many families of the best players left also, leaving the park with a lower level of play. Travel ball has been a breath of fresh air compared to the politics of a park that you have to return to year after year. Travel ball is self policing, if you dont like it, leave the team. We have been on teams that were not so good, and watched those coaches not able to field teams in subsequent years.
Rec ball has fallen apart, and continues to deteriorate because the leaders of the parks take care of their own, and consciencely impact others to put their kids ahead. Families have voted with their feet, and continue to do so. Travel ball would not continue to grow if its not a better product, as it requires much more of a commitment from the entire family than Rec ball does. These park "leaders" that govern with an agena are dispicable and will continue to erode the community parks until the chain is broken, and selfless "leaders" are in place to right the ship.
Wow, reading your post was like a trip back in time. We left after 8U for the same reasons. When the top all-star teams are filled with the kids of coaches and board members(some of whom couldn't catch, throw or hit), then we knew it was time to move on. Over the past few years, we have been on some less than stellar teams and some great teams. The bottom line is that parents of players with talent who are tired of being passed over due to the politics and favoritism in the rec parks will take their kids elsewhere. One last thing that got to us is the minimum PT rule. Regardless of whether or not your child came to practice that week, they were going to play at least a certain number of innings. In travel ball, your playing time is USUALLY based on your PRACTICE time. |
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doublesteel
3 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2016 : 13:59:55
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| jtm2002 and BamaDad, thank you for your posts. Could not have described the situation in our ballpark any more accurate. After witnessing rec coaches and board members manipulate and self serve, we have left the rec environment for travel ball for our 2 sons. The focus should be on baseball, player improvement and fun for the kids. |
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Renegade44
211 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2016 : 19:26:51
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| Just wait until high school ball if you think you seen the end of "manipulate and self serve". |
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brball
615 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2016 : 23:48:20
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quote:
Originally posted by Renegade44
Just wait until high school ball if you think you seen the end of "manipulate and self serve".
My brother from another mother... This is so true!!! |
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jaguars18
245 Posts |
Posted - 04/30/2016 : 20:50:31
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| its called travel ball and cost 4k more than little league but same kids just better uniforms |
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brball
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2016 : 13:34:36
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quote:
Originally posted by jaguars18
its called travel ball and cost 4k more than little league but same kids just better uniforms
4K? |
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jtr10
15 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2016 : 10:12:06
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For us in our County Parks and Recreation made the greatest mistake....they removed the ability to travel from one park to the next to compete against one another for County title. All parks are now private, and no longer have two really good teams competing against two good teams from other parks at that age level within the same County so on and so forth. Now they have 4 teams in the same age division and the coaches bring the 4 to 5 good players to the top two teams and there isn't any competition. So like we did most parents want to see their sons/daughters competing at higher levels and go to travel ball. All that is left are the players who have never played the game before and a watered down version of Rec ball with coaches who really guess at how to develop players.
The next mistake is taking the Middle School teams away and handing them to the High Schools. We went from having 4 to 5 Middle Schools who could field a team to having 1 Feeder team at the High School level. So instead of the High School coach having a hand on developing what could be potential players to his/her program most parents have decided to stay with travel and skip the politics of 1 feeder team based program. As a result there was not enough interest in a 6,7 or 8th grade team for our home High School team to field in 2016. I am assuming this was a way to try and develop players under an umbrella and/or save the County money from having to pay coaches stipends. But it's truly not just affecting baseball; it's also hurting basketball, volleyball, soccer, etc. The only sport that seems to be handling this transition well is football. |
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unitedballers
29 Posts |
Posted - 07/23/2016 : 12:49:47
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quote:
Originally posted by jtm2002
We left Rec ball at 10u due to the unbelievable politics going on at the our park. Many families of the best players left also, leaving the park with a lower level of play. Travel ball has been a breath of fresh air compared to the politics of a park that you have to return to year after year. Travel ball is self policing, if you dont like it, leave the team. We have been on teams that were not so good, and watched those coaches not able to field teams in subsequent years.
Rec ball has fallen apart, and continues to deteriorate because the leaders of the parks take care of their own, and consciencely impact others to put their kids ahead. Families have voted with their feet, and continue to do so. Travel ball would not continue to grow if its not a better product, as it requires much more of a commitment from the entire family than Rec ball does. These park "leaders" that govern with an agena are dispicable and will continue to erode the community parks until the chain is broken, and selfless "leaders" are in place to right the ship.
Preach it JTM!! |
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aj94
182 Posts |
Posted - 07/23/2016 : 20:44:22
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quote:
Originally posted by jtm2002
We left Rec ball at 10u due to the unbelievable politics going on at the our park. Many families of the best players left also, leaving the park with a lower level of play. Travel ball has been a breath of fresh air compared to the politics of a park that you have to return to year after year. Travel ball is self policing, if you dont like it, leave the team. We have been on teams that were not so good, and watched those coaches not able to field teams in subsequent years.
Rec ball has fallen apart, and continues to deteriorate because the leaders of the parks take care of their own, and consciencely impact others to put their kids ahead. Families have voted with their feet, and continue to do so. Travel ball would not continue to grow if its not a better product, as it requires much more of a commitment from the entire family than Rec ball does. These park "leaders" that govern with an agena are dispicable and will continue to erode the community parks until the chain is broken, and selfless "leaders" are in place to right the ship.
Good comment...this happens in travel ball too though, mainly with the rec association travel teams. Some of them try to align themselves with the area highschools too trying to get in with the hs coach from early. |
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teddy41
421 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2016 : 11:30:40
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| its called AA baseball and cost 4k per academy |
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brball
615 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2016 : 12:39:45
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| Who is charging 4K? That's just insane! |
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CaCO3Girl
1989 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2016 : 13:32:18
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quote:
Originally posted by brball
Who is charging 4K? That's just insane!
More like what age level is charging 4K. Some of these 16u teams are traveling all over the country...not sure I see the point of that one but okily dokily! |
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Renegade44
211 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2016 : 14:53:21
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Ok well is $3000 less insane? Per season.
Or is $2750 per team to play at PG 16U less insane?
Or $10 per day gate?
Or $5 to park?
Or no coolers in 150 degree heat on a flat shadeless concrete pad less insane?
What happened to little league? Simple. Dreams are for sale. And nobody can say No. Neither the parent nor the dream promoter salesman. |
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What happened to Little League?
