A New Chapter Coming

Eleven years is a long time for anything.  It's probably longer than a lot of marriages last in today's "Hook up" mentality.  It has spanned half my marriage.  It covers the word "decade".  It spans two Presidential administrations.

I stand at the end of my Little League time.  Today is our closing ceremonies, and ending for me.  My daughter has decided not to return for another year of Little League.  My son has refused to play Little League, preferring travel baseball or even sitting out after playing over 130 games in the last three years.  He looks forward to starting his first real job after the upcoming holiday.

In our area, the youth game has gone from a Little League base with occasion travel to Travel based as a higher level of play than Little League.  Little League went from being the center of a community to the fringe.  Not saying there are all bad players, but the best aren't playing Little League in our District.

I see a couple of trends in general.  Little League has become the tee ball feeder system, although some 6U teams have sprung up.  I wonder who those are for, because it's not the players.  8U teams are allowing kids to play real ball, with lead offs and stealing.  10U are developing those players into game savvy players, who can even move to a big field at 12U.  It's a game of refinement at 14U, the final development point for High School.  Even High School ball is taking a hit as some kids are signing with colleges having never played High School baseball, only travel.

Little League continues it's model, successful as long as it was unchallenged.  It has basked in the glow of it's signature events, televised on ESPN, and taken the cash.  If the product on the field starts to deteriorate, the TV money will disappear, too.  The world's largest youth sports organization could go the route of the Edsel or the Beta videotape.

Little League may need to adopt a model similar to Cal Ripken or a number of other organizations.  Travel teams are formed the preceding fall, practicing lightly through the winter, then playing travel ball along with games within it's own park during the week, leaving the weekend free for tournament play.  It allows kids not on the same travel team to play with their friends during the week and get competitive over the weekend.  As long as the in park rules aren't too goofy, it's a good system.

One note: this system requires commitment.  Not just time, but money.  Paid help is going to be required to support an organization that plays as many games each week as this system allows.  The fields need to be kept, the concessions stocked and tracked, the equipment accounted for, the games umpired.  Volunteerism is still needed, too.  I talked about longer than marriages: the commitment level determines how much you get out of it.

I'm for whatever gets kids on the field.  After all, the life lessons being taught will happen there, and they will remember running the bases after a rainout longer than they will the games they played.

So...am I off base?