12-26-2022, 12:33 PM
(12-26-2022, 11:50 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: A work buddy of mine has his two young boys in baseball. He's buying them $200 hand made gloves. $300+ dollar bats. Playing in this league, that leauge like 8 months a year. They're like 9 and 11. I told him he's nucking futs.
I've told him several times you're taking all the fun out of it for the kids. They're going to be burnt out before they reach H.S. But i guess he has Johnny Bench and Pete Rose dreams for them ?
My 9 year-old loved baseball. He watches it, he plays baseball video games and he liked playing. I def spent my fair share on high-dollar equipment. He's a big kid and he's smart and super coachable, so long as I'm not the coach, lol. He also likes soccer, martial arts and going to Bengals games with me. He wouldn't be able to do any of that stuff if he got on the travel ball/private lesson path, so guess what sport he doesn't play anymore? it was by his choice, but I'm not forcing my kid to do anything at the expense of every other thing he enjoys at that age.
We had a kid on his 7U team that was absolutely a special talent. Just different in his ability and understanding. Fast with a huge arm, great swing, and not really even all that big. He was a machine. His dad was the coach and stayed on his ass for 2 straight hours every single practice. Just brutal to the point where it annoyed other parents. then they'd pack up and go to other games later in the day, and they played year round. One day I asked the kid what team he liked in MLB. He said he didn't know and didn't really watch baseball or know about many players. I'm not even sure the kid even liked baseball, from the way he talked. Just a disaster waiting to happen.
