Travel Baseball and Little League

You know it just doesn't seem to matter what sport, you always get fanatics or kooks who figure that a kid is washed up by 11 years of age if he didn't play for this team or that league.

The most important thing for a child between 8- 10 yrs of age is to learn a sport in an enjoyable atmosphere, if that means your Local Little League or a Travel Team the call is yours. It depends on the coach and the people invovled.

The trouble with a coach only concentrating on winning is that a lot of ball players who were pitchers at 12 and under are no longer able to pitch at 13 & up because of little league elbow, growth plates damaged, mechanics not right, or lack of growth.

Major league scouts, I believe tend to look at eg: Kids who can throw hard and train them versus looking at kids who have a slider or wicked curve. That's why a lot of outfielders are converted to pitchers.

Is a kid washed up or will never make it if he doesn't play on a certain team? No, look at Mark Mcguire, he played Little League, then Pony, then Legion, drafted as a pitcher by the way.

If your child enjoys the game and wants to play means more at this age than playing on a team so he doesn't miss out on making it in the big leagues. My own child played house and all star ball untill this year at 14 yrs of age and is now on a travel team, with kids that he grew up with in the House League, playing against kids who have played on a travel team for years. Funny thing is that he does great and just missed out on the MVP award as a first year Bantam for his team.

Wally K