Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Question for the travel ball dads

This is a serious question but how do y’all ever get anything done? It wasn’t as bad this spring when my daughter was playing one day a weekend and they didn’t play every weekend. Stephens new team plays every weekend this summer Saturday and Sunday and is going to pc for a week the end of July. That is the only open weekend I’ll have all summer. I drive a hr to work try to do side work to pay for hunting and try to go to the gym 3-4 days a week so I really don’t have much time during the week to do thing’s. At some point I don’t see any other way but for me to skip games. I have my yard to work in garden to take care of help with my moms yard keep my land up and a hunting lease. I just don’t see how y’all do anything. Until this summer we only played every other weekend with our other travel teams. He has no interest in playing college ball the reason of this post was to see how those of you who have kids that play get anything done without missing games.

That’s why we don’t play travel ball.

With my travels, I stay at a lot of hotels with travel ball families. Seems to be a way of life for many of them. The ones from Louisiana are a hoot! They grill out and turn it into a party like typical coonasses do. lol

I don’t see how people do it. Especially with it being so often. And the tournaments here last from Friday morning clear through Sunday.
And they play ALL DAY.

I love to watch my kids play if they are playing well and that’s what they want to do play ball. But there has to be some off time. I bought a boat last summer so we could start fishing some. I’m about to put it up for sale cause there’s no reason to own it if you don’t have time to use it.

We stick with rec ball. I love my kids but we don't have time for all that

I understand. My opinion on this varies greatly from some of my friends and even family. We have evaluated the costs and time associated with it and decided it’s not for us. It takes too much time away from other things I feel are more important. I love my kids enjoying the game too, but we stick with park/rec ball. I guess it all comes down to what your personal and family level of tolerance is for focusing on one single thing and the costs/benefits associated with it.

We tried the travel ball stuff for one year. We got all we could handle in that year. We missed WAY more church than we were expecting, plus I did all my bush hogging, disking and food plot planting that year at night. Not to mention the $ and having 2 younger daughters to have to keep entertained while at ball fields all day.

You and your kids have to live and breathe it and if that's the case it can be great. If only one of those two aren't completely on board with it then it's awful. IT takes all of your time and a whole lot of your money.

The ones I know that play travel ball simply don’t get anything done. Grass goes uncut, projects around the house get postponed, doing things with friends (aside from playing baseball) is almost unheard of. If that’s what some people want to do then more power to them, but I just don’t get it.

The ones I really don’t get are the ones that have more than one kid (and we know several families like this) where the other kid (usually a daughter) doesn’t play baseball so they end up just getting dragged to the baseball field every weekend and 2-3 weeknights every week and sit around playing on a phone. I always feel bad for those kids.

Did it for about 10 years. Pretty much gave up hunting/fishing. Made sure my house was way off the road so no one could see how grown up it was. Quit trying to grow a garden. I worked, worked a side job and went to bed...then ball fields on the weekends. Its what my kids wanted to do, so i tried to provide them the opportunity.

I will get divorced if travel ball is ever brought up. I will not live that life.

I think you have to strike a balance between what your kids want and what you and your wife want. I don't think you should fear letting your kids down if you don't eat, drink, sleep ball. I realize you didn't say that, but I can't help but think that down deep inside maybe you do. Everyone should have boundaries.

How does your wife feel?

Who has time for this? I was somewhere yesterday looking at a piece of property and there were a bunch of travel ball parents and kids there. They are having a tournament this weekend here in Birmingham.

Cutting the grass is probably the least of their worries.... How do you keep a job? That was a Thursday at lunch.

130,000 HS senior baseball players
7,000 will play in college
6,000 will play as seniors in college
600 will be drafted (600)
120 will make it to the MLB

I am not 100% sure where travel ball falls in this whole thing, but your kid is NOT playing in the MLB. If that is why you are playing travel ball you are wasting your time and $. If your kid is a pitcher travel ball is going to reduce his chances of playing.

If your kid will be under 6ft tall, his chances of playing NCAA/MLB dropped by ~70%/95%.

If you are not playing travel ball for fun, then you have the wrong perspective. If your kid isn't begging you to play, then stop or get on a 1 weekend a month team.

Raising kids is “busy” any way you cut it, but yes traveling just adds to it. It’s for young folks that’s for sure.

Setting priorities of what you want in life. What your doing now will teach them girl and boys what’s important. (Playing Ball?). Families and kids will meet friends of a lifetime. Playing does teach kids to be on time respect team members how to win and loose. it’s a commitment for both of you. As Doc said his son did and a few will go on to play after high school very few. Parent do have to miss a game or 2. Now the kids see parents setting priorities (we have to work and take care of the choices the parent make/want) hunting, fishing, new tires family trips ,gardening taking care of land and yes tell them I’m working to help with the travel ball.
Get them involved with the grass cutting, gardening helping around the house. Make sure they are earning the weekend play, eating out, pool parties, beach trips ,nice gear.

Wait til they are at the middle school 8 grade heading to high school to start. I see neighbor hood families leave at lunch Friday come home late Sunday and complain all week about how tired they are. It all about what you want. It’s all about what you want your kids to do. Enjoy the journey.

We always found a team that played every other weekend, NOT every weekend.

Two of my kids were very active in rec including travel and then high school sports. If I had a do over they would never have gotten involved beyond possibly rec, and we would have spent our time on other things, fishing, camping, boating, whatever. For years we could not go to family gatherings at the farm for Thanksgiving or Christmas because there were always tournaments. Plus, I got way too invested in it and turned into an "asshole sports parent", which is something I really regret. In hind sight that time and money could have been spent on something much better. The question that I think should be asked by a parent considering this is" Am I truly doing this for the kid, or am I doing this for myself." I have realized much later in life that in my case it really was probably more about me than them.

Looks like a lifestyle that will consume families to some degree. It’s big money especially the tournaments and the amount of money it brings to places hosting said tournaments. Then again as Americans we’re always in pursuit of something.