How Elite is Elite?

[sydfinch]

And it gets more ludicrous by the day...
I've seen several local kids actually doing online, crowdsourced fundraisers to pay for their travel ball ... and people are contributing!!!

[say_oww]

Is it the kid who is asking for donations to pay his travel expenses but is also raising money for Children's Hospital?

[Sarge98]

Chad Luensmann from Bellwood-Antis was drafted by New York Mets today. And he has a scholarship to Nebraska. Not too shabby for a kid who played "elite" baseball. The name of this website is spot on. All who posted in this thread about elite baseball have ZERO clue about it. Merely coaches from the bleachers

[say_oww]

Congrats to the kid for being drafted in the 39th round by the Mets. Great for him! Wish him all of the luck in the world!

But this post definitely sounds like someone is defensive about paying for their kid to play travel ball. The original post was based upon an article on ESPN and featured experts who researched the subject. Basically, it said parents are creating prima donnas who aren't going to achieve their parents' dreams. The question then becomes if every kid playing little league nowadays also plays on a travel team does that mean that every kid will play professional MLB baseball?

BTW there are about hundreds of thousands of "elite" kids who didn't even get a scholarship, let alone get drafted

Before you respond, lets do some math... If PA has 30 travel organizations, and each organization has 10 different teams (8U - 18U) with 12 kids per team - all standard numbers - then that means there are 3600 "elite" kids in PA, right. One of 3600 where you pay to belong, does that really define elite??? Oh, wait... You mean some kids do it for a year, or only part of the year? Or just in the fall, or the summer? And then new kids try out and do it the next year? So that means there at any one time there are 4800 or 7200 elite kids in PA who pay to be "elite".

Sounds like the only "elite" kids are those who made this list - http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ss ... ia_ta.html

And once again congrats to Luensmann!

[Sarge98]

Thanks for the math lesson, I was running out of fingers and toes to do the calculations myself.

As for the comment about being defensive, you shouldn't assume things, you know what happens to people that do that.

My comments have zero to do with the money aspect rather the posts in this thread from decade old pony and little league coaches that try to tie their experiences into travel/elite baseball. Comments about pitch counts, coaching abilities of travel coaches, college exposure, etc...

Is every kid that plays travel ball going to play at the next level? Absolutely not, but the chances are significantly higher because that's where the best baseball is at.

[Sarge98]

Question for you say_oww, since you seem to be a wealth of knowledge on this subject, should I "assume" you've coached at this level? Or are you just good at Internet searches?

[Sarge98]

Since the game is doing research before you post, I have a few homework assignments for you say_oww;

1. Who or where have you seen a high school kid throw 140 curve balls in a game? I wouldn't let a kid throw 140 pitches total!

2. DNA can determine pitch count? Really? As you posted earlier in this thread, that is a good one. I've been around baseball a long time and never heard of a coach making a determination on how long to keep a pitcher in the game based off of genetics.

3. What is the appropriate pitch count for each age group (9U-18U)? And what other factors should be considered?
There are so many arbitrary numbers you spewed out, but do you know the real answer? If you can't find it in your internet research I can pass you the answer or ask the guy who thought Kirk Gibson was pitcher, I'm sure he has the answer.


The final question I have is: what's with all the emojis? Are we in 5th grade again?

I eagerly await you long and educated response

[peytonsaturday]

Fact is: In order to be "elite", you have to have money FIRST, and some talent 2nd. I've been around baseball and have seen kids who tout the Flood City Elite gear a lot.....and about 1/4 of them are "good", and a lot less are "elite". The guys running this fill these kids (and parents) with hopes and dreams of, "Yeah, Timmy has the tools to be a D1 scholarship player.....but I'm going to need $2,000 every 3 months to get him there." It's a joke, a shame, and insulting to the kids and parents that pay for this stuff. Well more than 80% of these kids are average players, but Rick and the boys fill them with dreams of the bigs from the time they are 10.....and are laughing all the way to the bank. I wonder how many kids they actually missed out on because their dad dug a ditch, and their mom is a waitress (nothing wrong with these professions, just elluding to the fact that they probably don't have the money to attend the FCE group)

[peytonsaturday]

just to go on the record, I'm not saying the most of the kids that play for FCE are bad....but by no means do they "wow" me, or most people IMO. Also, I have not, nor my nephews have not been asked, or played for FCE. It wasn't around when I played, and my nephews don't play baseball. JUUUUUUSSSSSTTTT so you know Sarge, I'm not a disgruntled parent / player.

[Manfred]

This has been an amusing topic for sure. What is the real beef here? My generation had many things better than my parents' generation, as did theirs before them. The next generation will have things even better, unless total decadence kills our entire society. If you have the tools to make things better for your kid, I can't fault that. Many of us had to make do with the menial job/ income we had, mainly because -WE- made poor choices along the way. Lack of education, no silver-spoon-in-mouth, or politically-correct families to steer us into better schools, tech schools, higher education. Is it peer pressure that drives kids? Pressure to do bad things in order to facilitate having what little Billy or Janey has? Jealousy? I don't have an answer, as I was only an average kid who did average things, and had a decent but average adult life. But I pay my taxes, have never been arrested, am not hooked on drugs, am married to the same first wife, and my name has still been absent from the back page. I'm one of the luckiest guys on earth, even if I'm not........ELITE!