Why Travel Baseball Took Over

Travel took over because people sold exposure, and families got scared they’d miss the boat.

Playing locally from 8–12 is good and necessary. 8U rings don’t show up on a college board. The hours in the yard do.

Travel isn’t inherently bad. Chasing a college opportunity is a worthy goal. It’s also okay to choose Sunday, vacation, and family.

The miss is treating the org name and the weekend schedule as the work. If he’s not getting better — and you two are always in the car fighting — the program isn’t development. It’s a product.

Ask a simple question after a month: is he a better thrower, runner, and hitter than he was, or just more tired? If you can’t answer that, the travel isn’t the plan. The plan is still in the backyard.