I have two boys. One has played a ton of sports included traveling baseball his whole life and the other one played only one year of tball when he was in kindergarten. Why is that? One wanted to play all those different sports and the other absolutely did not. So here’s a hot take- if your kid wants to do competitive baseball and is good enough and you have the money and think it would be a decent time, then let him. If any of those things aren’t true then don’t.
Also and for a million reasons, yes to multiple sports if sports are something he’s kind of into.
Honest question, no judgement from me to anyone posting here but at 7 did your kid play travel sports instead of rec sports and if so, how did they make the distinction? Don't kids at that age just want to play with their friends?
The last sentence is the saddest part. Most kids don’t really play anymore. They don’t run around. They don’t play sandlot sports or pickup. They don’t learn all the social crap they need to learn and sort out on their own. Most basically sit at home and get shuffled from activity to activity. Imo kids need to be free range to an extent. The old “get out of here after lunch and don’t come back until dinner.”
Mir response- age seven was his first year of travel baseball. There were two travel teams in mhk for that age. Seven boys (his closest friends) in his grade school class played on one of those two teams, five on his team and two kids played on the other team. So yeah he was playing with his friends. My kid made the team because he was pretty athletic and I knew the dad putting it together. Anybody can play city league. Traveling you either have to try out or know someone. Usually both. Hilariously enough, they had a hostile take over by one of the parents at the end of the year. three kids got cut, the team changed names and old coach was out. Mine was one that got cut. He just ended up going and playing for the other team. Little kid travel baseball is hilariously serious and I was not prepared for the weirdness of it all all. About 1/2 of baseball parents are rough ridin' insane. Overall it’s been pretty great though. It allowed him to meet and play and hangout with a million kids his age from all over town and even outside of town at an early age. Every year I warn him that he’s going to have to start taking it more seriously and improve if he wants to keep playing traveling ball because his bat is on the weak side and hitting is a fairly important part of baseball. He keeps making traveling teams though and keeps wanting to play so I indulge him on it. At some point in time though his good won’t be good enough and baseball will be over. I’m guessing 10th grade but who knows. It’s mainly a social thing for him and I think there’s also some mhk street cred that comes with playing traveling ball but who knows. From a personal standpoint I am old with not a ton of close friends in mhk and almost non existent hobbies so the tournaments on a weekend don’t really bother me like it would some parents.
Nickname response- idk. I personally don’t see that. At least not with my kids or their bros in our neighborhood. Not to say that it isn’t true to a larger extent but even when my kids were young they had friends and would be outside and going from house to house and yard to yard 24/7. Reminded me exactly of my youth/
Also, some of you guys are dorks. Most traveling Baseball teams are just run by dads who like their kids and like baseball. Also, you don’t have to sign a contract stating that you will no longer play catch with your kid or show interest in them if they belong to a team. My kid is 13, baseball was done with over a month ago and we just went outside the other day and played catch for a good thirty minutes. Good grief on this either/or stuff.