SoupNazi2001 said:
These threads are always a combination of sad and pathetic. People spending nearly all of their family free time playing/watching a kid less than 10 years old play baseball and traveling all over the city every weekend. It is especially unfair for the siblings that gets dragged to the games to watch Junior, but why people allow all of their family free time to watch Junior play baseball at age 10 and below is sad. Junior will not make a living playing baseball. Most 8 year olds don't go to their parents asking to be on a select team. The parents planted the idea in their heads and gently pushed them that way. Do different family activities, expose him to a variety of experiences. Who cares if he plays high school or D3 college ball. There are far more important things in life.
We go deep sea fishing, watch sporting events, go on other trips, visit family, etc. Baseball takes up a lot of time, but it's not the only thing we do.
Most kids might not want to play select baseball, but those that do, the majority want to be there. I ask my son all the time if he's happy with the team and he said he wouldn't ever want to go back to LL, Rec or elsewhere. You're really missing how much these kids love baseball and love each other. If they aren't playing baseball together, they are on the PS4 playing the Show 19 in a big party. We recently had a B-day party for one of the kids on the team and it was a pool party -- after a little bit of swimming -- most were out playing a pickup game of whiffle ball. It's their passion and it has nothing to do with anything bigger later down the road. There might be a few, but the majority of people don't ever think about their kids getting to college or pro ball. They just know their kids have fun and want to play competitive baseball. If they want to play and are good enough, why have them playing crap baseball?
You're kid probably isn't going to be Jimmy Houston, Bobby Flay, Jim Shockey or Andrew Zimmern -- so does that mean we can't let them explore hunting, fishing, traveling or cooking? A passion is a passion and it's stupid for you to care about the passions of other kids.