Select Baseball

[bk913]

I respectfully disagree, and I would say there is likely more validity of your statement in the younger ages than the older ones for sure. My son plays for one of the 17u DBAT teams and that organization has been a class act. If you're on any of the DBAT high school rosters, it's because you're a good baseball player - although I'm sure the youth ages can be a numbers game. The high school teams are built on players focused and talented enough to play beyond high school.

If the kid is really talented, and just has a bad tryout, most all real baseball guys can see past the bad tryout, however, most parents just aren't able to accept where little Johnnys skill level is and what team he should really be on.

As for it being a money grab, what company/business isn't? Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad....but all business is a money grab. IHOP grabbed $70 of my money last weekend in Georgetown and it was a terrible meal.

Fair point and I can't say I disagree with you. Dbat always put together a solid team, not fair for me to call out specific programs. Take this example. Ever heard of a premier team from a big city flying a kid in every weekend to play with them? Happens all the time, and many times they won't pay for that ticket. Organization writes it off as an expense, which they can do because of the low tier team that the owner doesn't give a rats *** about, that has some volunteer coach that has no clue what he's doing. But to keep their reputation, they still have to stick that team in a decent league and get clobbered. I'm not saying these teams shouldn't exist, just in their respectful leagues and not for the sole purpose of funding for the premier team. And you don't want to be stuck on one of those teams that is only their to fund the organization. Not meaning to direct that to any specific club in general, just seemed to be an issue when I was involved with all that 4-5 years ago.

[Jamesdad07]

Yes sir

Any of you guys have a kid playing select baseball or softball? I have been coaching select ball for 3 years now and love every minute of it watching these kids grow and develop is unreal. I coach a 10u team here in Kingwood and hope to do it for many years to come. I have been playing and coaching for 30+ yrs and still love the game today as I did when I started playing. Hope to see some of you guys at some tournament this year we play at the Scrapyard,Baseball USA,Rothwood,Katy and a few other parks here in the Houston area. Good luck to you guys this year.

I have a son playing in the same age group yours is (unless y'all are AAA). I don't coach, I just keep the books and help out. We just played at Big League Dreams in League City this past weekend. (Sore subject) We are a new team and have played at BLD and Scrap Yard. Hope to run into you. I need to get my TBH decal on my truck.

[huntingjunkie]

Fair point and I can't say I disagree with you. Dbat always put together a solid team, not fair for me to call out specific programs. Take this example. Ever heard of a premier team from a big city flying a kid in every weekend to play with them? Happens all the time, and many times they won't pay for that ticket. Organization writes it off as an expense, which they can do because of the low tier team that the owner doesn't give a rats *** about, that has some volunteer coach that has no clue what he's doing. But to keep their reputation, they still have to stick that team in a decent league and get clobbered. I'm not saying these teams shouldn't exist, just in their respectful leagues and not for the sole purpose of funding for the premier team. And you don't want to be stuck on one of those teams that is only their to fund the organization. Not meaning to direct that to any specific club in general, just seemed to be an issue when I was involved with all that 4-5 years ago.

I hear you on all of that. I do. I also have a 14 year old that plays and you might be giving most these baseball guys too much credit. Some (very few) truly have a business model that could support such things, as most all of these "select" teams just share the name but are ran independently of each other. The clubs you mentioned are the select few that do have the resources, but even still, how they use their company profits is no different then me choosing to spend mine for say hunting. Those teams still have coaching dues, league/tournament dues, uniform cost so there isn't that much left over for much of anything. Most of the funding for those type teams comes from well-to-do dads or sponsors. Our budget for the 16U DBAT team last year was close to $50k for just June/July and I know the other 16u teams didn't help fund it. They have their own expensive budget. Did DBAT's franchsie business, bat company, dad or corporate sponsors? I would venture to say that's more likely. I wrote the almost $40k budget for my 14 year olds team and we have players from TX, OK and AR and we all pay our way...including the cost, travel, per diem, etc of two coaches. I wish we had the lower tier team funding you speak of. This is one expensive hobby, and although we are part of a organization, we operate financially independent of each other. The kid business as I like to call it is out of control...and I have 4 knee deep in it.

[seeing reds]

Twelve Silver

We actually played yall Sunday morning @ 9. C2 Select. I was the 1st base coach.

We were there too. 12 silver 12u. There were some good teams!

[Grant2]

If your spending 40-60k on one team to play you need to find a new organization unless this includes some college exposure travel.

[Pin Oak DXT]

We were out at Baseball USA last weekend as well. We won the 11UAAA division - Salty Dogs. It was a messed up schedule to say the least. We played our first Sunday elimination game at 0930 and advanced to the semifinal which was scheduled at 18:30. As if that isn't a long enough layover, the scheduled start was running 1 hour behind and we started the semi-final at 19:30. Won that one and started the Championship game at 21:00. We received our trophy at 2230, luckily we run ruled them in 3 innings and didn't have to play 6 innings!

[tmstuk]

We actually played yall Sunday morning @ 9. C2 Select. I was the 1st base coach.

That was the 12 silver 11u I think. There were 3 12 teams in it and two 12 silver.

Are you guys playing this weekend?

[Dale Moser]

We had our 1st practice of the 2nd year of Tee-ball last night. The talent discrepancy is already out of control, we are gonna have to be really careful not to get someone hurt. We've got 3 boys who hit pitched balls into the outfield in the air....and some who will not roll a ball past the pitchers mound all year....off a tee.

No one wants to be mean spirited as we're talking about 5-6 year olds in a small town rec league, and we will definitely do everything we can to help those kiddos learn and have fun. I just hope the 3-4 who've been practicing, and looking forward to baseball all winter don't get discouraged with the rest of the team.


Some of that upper level select stuff is ridiculous...and I'm sure I'm headed there in a few years...as bad as I hate to say it.

[jshouse]

We had our 1st practice of the 2nd year of Tee-ball last night. The talent discrepancy is already out of control, we are gonna have to be really careful not to get someone hurt. We've got 3 boys who hit pitched balls into the outfield in the air....and some who will not roll a ball past the pitchers mound all year....off a tee.

No one wants to be mean spirited as we're talking about 5-6 year olds in a small town rec league, and we will definitely do everything we can to help those kiddos learn and have fun. I just hope the 3-4 who've been practicing, and looking forward to baseball all winter don't get discouraged with the rest of the team.


Some of that upper level select stuff is ridiculous...and I'm sure I'm headed there in a few years...as bad as I hate to say it.

It's tough at that age to keep the attention of the better players, if playing up to coach pitch isn't an option right now I'd try to make sure he had friends on the team so at least he wants to go play so he can see them. My younger one went through this but luckily we were able to get him on a team with a bunch of boys he liked so it worked out.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[ShockValue]

Some of that upper level select stuff is ridiculous...and I'm sure I'm headed there in a few years...as bad as I hate to say it.

You'll be there before you know it if your kid is one of the more talented kids. It's unfortunate where ref ball has gone. If you want your keep to improve and be on a competitive team you almost have no other choice than to go the select route by 8or9U.

I've got a couple nice LS Omaha bats in the garage if you want them... 28" -10 for sure.

[jer_james]

You'll be there before you know it if your kid is one of the more talented kids. It's unfortunate where ref ball has gone. If you want your keep to improve and be on a competitive team you almost have no other choice than to go the select route by 8or9U.

I've got a couple nice LS Omaha bats in the garage if you want them... 28" -10 for sure.

We have stayed rec league with my 9 yr old, and luckily he just loves to play.

Have been told by 2 different Coaches and switched age groups and everything we could, and it just hasn't worked out. Kiddo is great and we go through games of kid pitch where the opposing team will walk in run limits every inning. Got to the point where I was telling my Son to just have fun with it and hit the crap out of the ball if it's anywhere close.

Our only issue is the schedule, and he loves all sports and just started his first game at QB this Spring. With 3 other girls in Soccer / Volleyball and Cheer as well, that Select schedule is dang near impossible.

[Dale Moser]

It's tough at that age to keep the attention of the better players, if playing up to coach pitch isn't an option right now I'd try to make sure he had friends on the team so at least he wants to go play so he can see them. My younger one went through this but luckily we were able to get him on a team with a bunch of boys he liked so it worked out.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

He and his two buddies are the 3 ball players of the bunch, they were in the same day care since they were a few month old, played on every soccer, tee ball, basketball team together ever since. They are always the 3 best players, and they love playing together. I heard a rumor of an ALL STAR team later this spring....I just hope the powers that be don't put a 2 player per team limit on it, as I doubt there are 4 kids in the whole league who can play with our 3. We'll just have fun and see where it goes.

[LWC]

Back to playing small town 12u rec for my son.....and continue with some lessons. We will pick up for a few select tournaments and play a few with our rec all stars. He's played select the last few years but it has been a struggle to find a team that will stick together without a ton of drama. Granted we haven't yet played for one of the big organizations. I'm just not willing to commit a couple hours drive for all practices and games. We have a pretty good group of athletes and we are trying to keep them playing for highschool. Have lost a few who quit after most of the more talented kids go play select and quality of play drops. Trying to juggle quality baseball, improvement, and family time. Me and another dad came out of coaching "retirement" this year. Looking forward to some baseball.

[systemnt]

We have another scrimmage tonight before the scrapyards this weekend.
Scrapyards will be the first time most of our boys have ever played on turf.. should be interesting to see how they adjust to the faster grounders and lack of 'bad hops' due to field imperfections..

[Pin Oak DXT]

We have another scrimmage tonight before the scrapyards this weekend.
Scrapyards will be the first time most of our boys have ever played on turf.. should be interesting to see how they adjust to the faster grounders and lack of 'bad hops' due to field imperfections..

Your infielders need to get ready for fielding hops at their eye level. My experience is they adjust fairly quickly. Try to get on a field in time to take a few grounders before your game starts.