Texas Baseball Ranch March 2018

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRAVEL/SELECT BALL What Parents and Players Need to Know

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My greatest fear with select/travel ball is that young people are damaged mentally and emotionally before they can figure out the game physically. You see, the dirty little secret that very few select/travel ball coaches will admit to is that almost any level of success a player achieves is literally meaningless until the athlete is 15 and trying out for high school teams. In fact, most of the time it is a fool’s errand to evaluate a player seriously before they are 18.

Travel ball/select ball is indeed a double-edged sword. These teams can be a blessing and a

curse. With their higher standard of competition and dedication comes a bigger commitment in terms of time and money. In these leagues, the neighborhood feel of playing with friends doesn’t exist. Instead, you find regional and national recruitment,

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THIS MONTH IN BASEBALL HISTORY The Inaugural World Baseball Classic Baseball may be “America’s pastime,” but the game has spread to all corners of the globe. For many years, the Olympics was the only place to see players from different nations competing against each other. When the International Olympic Committee removed baseball from the games in 2005, it left a huge void. The World Baseball Classic (WBC), which held its inaugural tournament in March 2006, stepped in to fill it. Modeled after the FIFA World Cup, the first WBC featured 16 teams from around the globe and rosters stocked with Major League players. The U.S. team, despite boasting superstars including Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter, was bounced from the tournament in pool play. After pool play and the playoffs ended, Japan and Cuba faced off in the final. That game, held on March 20, 2006, at Petco Park in San Diego, crowned baseball’s first true international champion. Daisuke Matsuzaka, little-known outside of Japan at the time, pitched Japan to a victory and earned a contract with the Boston Red Sox not long after. Over a decade after its inception, the WBC is a fixture of the baseball world. Last year, the U.S. finally won its first title. Bottom line: The dedication, discipline, and intensity select/ travel ball requires can be a very good thing as long as you keep performance in its proper perspective. In your heart of hearts, you know in 10 years no one will care if your son won a tournament or a world series. Skill development must be the primary objective, and you must never let the sideshow distract you from that goal. Until athletes have gone through puberty and begin to reach physical maturity, scouts are basically shooting in the dark. No expert can predict with any certainty who will be stars at 19 and 21 years of age. Yes, I am well aware of the claims that getting “exposure” at 16, 15, 14, and even as young as 13 years old is vitally important to college scholarships or positioning for the professional draft. Whenever I hear such rhetoric, I’m immediately suspicious of how the person speaking might be profiting financially by marketing this idea to overzealous parents, because the evidence to the contrary is so overwhelming.

even for players as young as 10. Travel/select ball is a million miles away from the little league you and I grew up playing.

What that means for your pitcher is simply that playing the game of baseball is far more complicated now than it was when you were growing up. It’s more complicated physically, but it is also more complicated mentally and emotionally.

UPCOMING RANCH EVENTS ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMPS

June 8-10 (Fri-Sun) June 22-24 (Fri-Sun) July 6-8 (Fri-Sun)

July 20-22 (Fri-Sun) Aug 10-12 (Fri-Sun) Sept 1-3 (Sat-Mon) EXTENDED STAY SUMMER PROGRAM

June 4 - Session I begins July 2 - Session II begins

For more information, go to www.texasbaseballranch.com/events

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www.OatesSpecialties. com/Durathro

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