12thMan9 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

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One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Jose Altuve would like a word.
Tony Kemp would like one, too.
Marcus Stroman awaits as well.
Kolten Wong, Ozzie Albies, & Nick Madrigal send their best.
Phil Rizzuto & Joe Morgan and other are looking down laughing at you.

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You just listed less than 10 examples out of thousands of professional athletes. And those are across different generations. This only proves the point more that it is nearly impossible to crack into the pros unless you have amazing genetics.

I would even wonder if every penny saved from travel sports instead spent on the lottery or roulette would ultimately yield better generational wealth.

johnnyblaze36 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

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One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever seen stated on this website. I could list a thousand examples but Barry Sanders is 5' 8" and is the greatest running back in NFL history.

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You misspelled Emmitt Smith. Just FYI.

Urban Ag said:

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johnnyblaze36 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

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One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever seen stated on this website. I could list a thousand examples but Barry Sanders is 5' 8" and is the greatest running back in NFL history.

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You misspelled Emmitt Smith. Just FYI.

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Those 2" were why they weren't linebackers back then.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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12thMan9 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

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One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Jose Altuve would like a word.
Tony Kemp would like one, too.
Marcus Stroman awaits as well.
Kolten Wong, Ozzie Albies, & Nick Madrigal send their best.
Phil Rizzuto & Joe Morgan and other are looking down laughing at you.

---

You just listed less than 10 examples out of thousands of professional athletes. And those are across different generations. This only proves the point more that it is nearly impossible to crack into the pros unless you have amazing genetics.

I would even wonder if every penny saved from travel sports instead spent on the lottery or roulette would ultimately yield better generational wealth.

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Well, here are 90 more current examples from MLB:

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-baseball-players-shorter-than-6-feet-tall-right-now/ranker-baseball

Also, nobody is trying to build generational wealth. This is such a stupid comment. I have been involved in this world for years and I haven't heard a parent ever say a single word about their kid playing pro baseball. I can't even think of a time when I have heard a parent mention college baseball. It is just message board fodder for people who don't have kids or their kids can't compete -- and making crap up, makes them feel better. There is a lot of talk about high school baseball and what programs feed into what high schools, but that is about the extent of it.

There are 750 MLB players on active rosters and over 100 of those are under six foot. So, that is close to 15%. Also, teams and players usually list themselves as a little taller than they are, which skews the stats even more. I would venture to say that probably 20% of MLB players are under six foot.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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12thMan9 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Jose Altuve would like a word.
Tony Kemp would like one, too.
Marcus Stroman awaits as well.
Kolten Wong, Ozzie Albies, & Nick Madrigal send their best.
Phil Rizzuto & Joe Morgan and other are looking down laughing at you.

---

You just listed less than 10 examples out of thousands of professional athletes. And those are across different generations. This only proves the point more that it is nearly impossible to crack into the pros unless you have amazing genetics.

I would even wonder if every penny saved from travel sports instead spent on the lottery or roulette would ultimately yield better generational wealth.

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You're very ignorant to think travel sports are all about pushing kids to college/pros or generational wealth. It's laughable. No, literally, I read your post to my wife and we both laughed and rolled our eyes. I'm sorry you or your kids suck at sports or for whatever reason you feel so passionately about what other people do as a hobby and with finances.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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12thMan9 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Jose Altuve would like a word.
Tony Kemp would like one, too.
Marcus Stroman awaits as well.
Kolten Wong, Ozzie Albies, & Nick Madrigal send their best.
Phil Rizzuto & Joe Morgan and other are looking down laughing at you.

---

You just listed less than 10 examples out of thousands of professional athletes. And those are across different generations. This only proves the point more that it is nearly impossible to crack into the pros unless you have amazing genetics.

I would even wonder if every penny saved from travel sports instead spent on the lottery or roulette would ultimately yield better generational wealth.

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Or the family sees value in the experiences, the teamwork, the discipline, and watching their kid grow in something they love.

Urban Ag said:

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johnnyblaze36 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever seen stated on this website. I could list a thousand examples but Barry Sanders is 5' 8" and is the greatest running back in NFL history.

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You misspelled Emmitt Smith. Just FYI.

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Both of y'all can't spell Earl Campbell.

Funky Winkerbean said:

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Urban Ag said:

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johnnyblaze36 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever seen stated on this website. I could list a thousand examples but Barry Sanders is 5' 8" and is the greatest running back in NFL history.

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You misspelled Emmitt Smith. Just FYI.

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Both of y'all can't spell Earl Campbell.

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I have a signed Jersey from him. I was in elementary.

Such a nice guy

Poor Alyssa, that is the slam dunk poster of the progressive mindset. Grifting for money for she/her son, but also thirsting for the attention she/her is missing later in life showing the extremely wide vein of hypocrite running through she/her. If the sheep had a brain, she/her would be cast out of that sorry ass group but they all look the other way because she/her is one of their own.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Get out of here with that crap! I don't like statistics that are contrary to my dreams.

There are hundreds of thousands of examples of kids well over six feet that didn't play professional sports. There are also also tons of folks that didn't get married or graduate before having kids that are happy and successful. Moderators……hang this man and his statistics!!!

fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position.

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Little Rock Ag said:

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We've got a guy at work who is always traveling with his son's baseball team, and they go all over--Arizona, Florida, Texas... He doesn't ask for money, but at the same time, I wonder how much he spends on it, and will it be worth it in the end? I believe much of travel ball is about parents trying to live through their children vicariously and hoping they can push their kids into the major leagues. Baseball is a great game, but it's being ruined for those kids who just want to have fun.

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Parents like that spend thousands on a sport hoping to puff their chest out when they get a partial baseball scholarship, when - if they put that same money into a college fund - they wouldn't have to hope for a partial scholarship.

We had friends like that, and their point was always "but my kid is sooooo good!"

One of my older son's friends was an actual elite player who got drafted early 2nd round, and his parents didn't go broke trying to get him there. Most of the other kids burned out from too much baseball.

I found competing in football and trying out for teams to be a compelling pursuit long after I should have given it up. I have two years of JV starts along with four concussions and shoulders that pop out of joint to show for all that grit and dedication.

Not to say that it doesn't do a lot of good for many kids, but travel baseball monetizes that particular pathology. If I had instead supposed myself to be a baseball player and had my family had the money, I probably would have gone that route myself, to ride the bench and patrol right field in games that didn't matter.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Bleacher report sucks at statistics...

In this case, the median is a much better indicator of centricity than the average. For something typically normally distributed like height, they should be about the same as population statistics, but when you're measuring athletes you're looking at a specific subset of the total population, which may have a left or right skew.

Yes, it's a lot harder for shorter men to play pro sports and easier for taller men, but that means there's an effective lower limit without an effective upper limit. That's a recipe for a right skewed population, meaning the average of higher than the median. If the average is at like the 60th or 65th percentile because of that, then most professional players would be below the average, which sounds ridiculous but is true. You definitely have s much better chance of being a pro athlete if you fall into a higher percentile height wise, but this seems just a little misleading.

And this looks like it was made in R, so it should have been really easy to use the median. This is just dumb reporting.

Muy said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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We've got a guy at work who is always traveling with his son's baseball team, and they go all over--Arizona, Florida, Texas... He doesn't ask for money, but at the same time, I wonder how much he spends on it, and will it be worth it in the end? I believe much of travel ball is about parents trying to live through their children vicariously and hoping they can push their kids into the major leagues. Baseball is a great game, but it's being ruined for those kids who just want to have fun.

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Parents like that spend thousands on a sport hoping to puff their chest out when they get a partial baseball scholarship, when - if they put that same money into a college fund - they wouldn't have to hope for a partial scholarship.

We had friends like that, and their point was always "but my kid is sooooo good!"

One of my older son's friends was an actual elite player who got drafted early 2nd round, and his parents didn't go broke trying to get him there. Most of the other kids burned out from too much baseball.

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I don't understand why many are so quick to judge how folks spend their time and money and the motivation they have for doing so. Are there folks like the examples you give....sure. But in my experience those are in the minority.

I have two teenage daughters who have been on travel teams for multiple years. Spending time together traveling as a family has created some of the best memories and brought us all very close. As a dad of teenage girls, that alone has been worth every penny. Their teammates (many of several years) are among their best friends and they beg to get to game destinations (and even practice) early just to hang out with them. Notice I haven't even mentioned playing an actual sport yet? But yes, they absolutely love playing and competing at a high level and have learned countless life-lessons doing so. Dealing with team dynamics and learning to handle disappointment, success, challenges, criticism, pressure, etc. are just a few. This has always been their deal, we don't push....just tag along and support them.

Both are very good but have no intention of playing beyond varsity. They could likely play at a small college, but that is not their plan. They are both straight A students and want nothing else but to attend A&M. We are not in it for scholarships (or chest puffing). As pointed out above, the math on that wouldn't even make sense (which is why that assumption itself is very ignorant). We are in it for the experience, for them. And fortunately we can afford it. There are many more like us than like the examples you give. But go ahead and assume whatever you want if it makes you feel better about your personal situation.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Outliers

I don't really care one way or another for the whole travel sports issue, but your point is very salient. Before you know it, your kids are moving away to college and then on their own. It happens fast and if you have quality time or great memories/stories out of it, then it's plenty worth it.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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fightingfarmer09 said:

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Little Rock Ag said:

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The reality is that athletes who compete at the highest levels of their sport are genetically gifted. Many, if not most, of them excel at multiple sports, too. No amount of practice or training will get you there unless you have it in your DNA.

---

One of my favorite points for parents that push their kids into sports. If you aren't a minimum of 6' to 6'2" you have no reason to consider moving forward in sports, regardless of talent.



https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077563-graph-shows-average-heights-and-weights-of-pro-athletes-by-sport-and-position

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Bleacher report sucks at statistics...

In this case, the median is a much better indicator of centricity than the average. For something typically normally distributed like height, they should be about the same as population statistics, but when you're measuring athletes you're looking at a specific subset of the total population, which may have a left or right skew.

Yes, it's a lot harder for shorter men to play pro sports and easier for taller men, but that means there's an effective lower limit without an effective upper limit. That's a recipe for a right skewed population, meaning the average of higher than the median. If the average is at like the 60th or 65th percentile because of that, then most professional players would be below the average, which sounds ridiculous but is true. You definitely have s much better chance of being a pro athlete if you fall into a higher percentile height wise, but this seems just a little misleading.

And this looks like it was made in R, so it should have been really easy to use the median. This is just dumb reporting.

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Our education system has failed to the point that 100% of media and 99% of media consumers won't understand what you just said - even though it is 100% correct and completely change the conclusion this writer intended readers to take away.

chimpanzee said:

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I found competing in football and trying out for teams to be a compelling pursuit long after I should have given it up. I have two years of JV starts along with four concussions and shoulders that pop out of joint to show for all that grit and dedication.

Not to say that it doesn't do a lot of good for many kids, but travel baseball monetizes that particular pathology. If I had instead supposed myself to be a baseball player and had my family had the money, I probably would have gone that route myself, to ride the bench and patrol right field in games that didn't matter.

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Tell Braden Montgomery right field doesn't matter. That's where you put your best arm in hopes of throwing someone out going first to third. You should watch Aggie baseball this spring. It's a beautiful sight to watch someone do that.