Don't ya love youth baseball

[Donnie]

Well, my son plays baseball, like many of your kids do. He takes it very seriously and is actually pretty good at it. He's 10 years old and got drafted up into major league, normally he'd still be in minor league. Anyhoo, at practice saturday he broke his bat. It wasn't just any bat, but an Easton Stealth that the warranty just ran out of a couple months ago. These bats are composte bats with carbon fiber handles mated up to scandium barrels. The thing broke where the carbon fiber meets up with the barrel. I spent my Sunday looking for another bat. I found another Stealth in Huntsville in just his size and weight and it set me back $200. He owes me a homerun. I was going to buy some ammo this weekend, but that got pushed to the side. It's worth it, as long as he has fun.

[TGO David]

$200 for a bat?!?!?

[saintsfanbrian]

Holy, Rusted Metal, Man.

Oh, Sorry, Wrong Bat.

That is a bit insane for "little league" isn't it?

[Donnie]

Yep, the one he broke was a $200 bat as well. He's played on the all stars every other year and a traveling tournament team for the last 2 years and it can get expensive. This is his 6th year playing ball and he turned 10 in February. I was looking at some of the adult bats while I was at Dick's sporting goods and some of them are in the $350 range. Gone are the days of playing with wood bats like I used to.

[Donnie]

Well, I've got to go and pick up my daughter. My wife's been out of town all weekend and she'll be home tonight around midnight. My son's got a 7:30 game and we'll see if he tries to do good on his "homerun payback" but he has yet to hit one out of the park. If the little guy can get on base, it's all over. He LOVES to steal bases and he's the quickest one on his team.

[SkWaShDeM]

Baseball bats cost more than some guns now? I'm in the wrong business apparently. The last baseball bat I bought was $15, 10 years ago.

[saintsfanbrian]

Good luck to him. Hope they win.

[Guest Fuel]

I was looking at some of the adult bats while I was at Dick's sporting goods and some of them are in the $350 range.

I was at Dick's here in Mt. Juliet a week or so back and saw those uber expensive bats. Just crazy.

My son (10 also) is playing baseball at the moment. He drove in two runs Sunday to win the game after 2 hours and 20 minutes of playing. I thought the game would never end.

No special bat for him. I make him use the bats the coaches bring.

[Guest macho999]

I had a TPX back when they first came out that was probably around that much. Being the best player in little league is a blessing and a curse. In majors when I played once you got drafted you stayed on that team year to year. If you are the top pick you go to the worst team, which usually means you have the worst coach.

Then you're expected to carry the team and every loss is solely your fault. Going to the majors at 10 is good and bad. If you get playing time it's good, if it's some coach trying to build a dynasty you may ride the pine and cheer the older kids on. Then you've wasted a year.

I purposely did horrible in tryouts when I was 10 so I could stay back and play minors another year. I skipped regular tryouts and did makeups with a few kids that were late signups and hadn't played before. I borrowed my lefty friend's glove and threw left handed. My coach's son was on my team the year before and we played good together, and a couple of other good 10 year olds did the same thing. Our coach was in on it so we had a dream team in the minors. Went undefeated. We also won the East Kentucky all-stars tournament that year.

We all went as first picks in the majors draft and got split up. I was number 1 pick and ended up on the worst team. Threw some no hitters that year and some shut outs and hit some homeruns. I think we won 2 games besides the ones I threw no hitters or shutouts in. Coach was an idiot always riding my ass while the scrubs would build sandcastles in the outfield and rarely got a word at all.

Felt like it was me alone against the other team every game. I ended up quitting baseball because I hated that feeling. I only played sandlot games and other sports from then on out. Coach in highschool tried to get me to play but I went to a couple of practices and almost everyone was horrible except 1 or 2 seniors, didn't want to go through that again.

Little league is for fun so keep it fun. There's a lot of pressure put on kids that's not needed. Every at bat in a little league game doesn't determine whether or not you go to college and play. As long as you are learning and improving that's the important thing. I got burnt out big time, sounds like your kid is pretty good so don't let him get burnt out. If he consistently improves his fundamentals and enjoys the game into highschool then that's where performance really matters. Use little league games like a fun practice.

My dad was a college baseball player so I got a lot of pressure at home too. In the end I found I enjoyed the game but not the other crap that went with it. Football was great though, I played defensive end and it was just me and the qb. I didn't care if we won or lost or what happened besides making the qb hurt.

Not trying to lecture you or say any of these things are things you do just telling you what to look for and be careful of. It's real easy to let little league turn into something it shouldn't be and maybe turn a kid off to the game who has a chance to make it work for him with a scholarship and maybe a career.

[Donnie]

I know what ya mean Macho. I work with him at home to improve on his weaknesses where and when he wants to do it. I don't force him to do it, but he wants to. I'll help him in any way that I can, be it a $200 bat or whatever. He got burnt out last year with the traveling tournament team and he's taking this summer off from that. He's got a good coach and the team is pretty good. There are 4 12 year olds on his team, 4 11 year olds, and then there are 3 10 year olds. He is far from the best player on the team, but is one of the better 10 year olds that got moved up. He wants to improve his game and we are sending him to Vandy's baseball camp this summer. I don't care if he's the worst kid out there, as long as he's having a good time. He's 10 years old and having fun, that's good enough for me.

[Guest Fuel]

IHe wants to improve his game and we are sending him to Vandy's baseball camp this summer.

Any info on the Vandy baseball camp???

[shaftbass]

I played for a year. It was very fun. I was the catcher and never wore a cup.. that is until the ball bounced right under me and hit the ump's cup and made a loud KNOCK! Yea, after that, I wore a cup

[Donnie]

I'll get some info on the baseball camp for ya. My wife has made the arrangements for it and I'll talk to her about it tonight.

[Guest Fuel]

I'll get some info on the baseball camp for ya. My wife has made the arrangements for it and I'll talk to her about it tonight.

Thanks.

He's lined up for football camp now but I'm sured he's enjoy a baseball camp as well. Especially at Vanderbilt!

[Marswolf]

Hey, I found a place I can get a Louisville Slugger youth bat on closeout for $12.88. Will that do?

[Guest macho999]

Hey, I found a place I can get a Louisville Slugger youth bat on closeout for $12.88. Will that do?

Get it and keep that in the car for when you run out of ammo but people are still moving around.

Demon sounds like you are doing things the right way. Some parents would hear time off in little league for their 10 year old and think that he just passed on a major league contract to write poetry or something, time off for a kid doesn't hurt anything. I'm glad you didn't take that the wrong way.

There's a difference in the kid knowing what he has to do to get to the level he wants and being motivated to work his tail off and dragging him to the field kicking and screaming at 5am every saturday for 3 hours of soft toss and then hitting line drives at him for a couple of hours.

So congrats on doing the little league dad thing correctly.

[Donnie]

I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you Sir.