LL World Series

[Cusser]

I saw some of LL World Series on TV, seemed like ALL the players had brand new gloves, mostly Rawlings, also A2000. I'd guess they give those away on the agreement that the kids use them, cheap advertising.

[Cowboy7130]

While I saw some new gloves, I saw my fair share of old reliable, well-loved gloves, too. I don't think the glove companies would give away gloves to kids; at least I hope they wouldn't. Seems too exploitive to kids to me.

I would hope that the new leather we saw was a form of "congrats on making the All-Star team and getting to PA" present from Mom and Dad. I know if my kid's team had gone another round in the Texas tournament in Senior League this year, he was gonna get a new glove or two!

[Studboy]

I was checking that out also, those were well broken in gloves, doubt you could break in a top end glove in a week. As much ball as those kids play Mom & dad dropped the dime well before tournament time.

[Bubdoggy]

The teams that make it to the regionals do get bats. Our 12 year old team made it to the SE (lost to Florida in the regional semis, rats!) and, if I'm not mistaken, each boy got their pick.

Our team two years ago made it as well and the younger brothers typically got the bats after the tourney.

I would think the bat guys see a LOT of free advertising with that since their market tends to be in that age.

All the boys talk about is who's using what bat and what's hot (always reminds me of men talking about the hottest driver in golf).

The glove guys probably see a lot more mileage in the pros.

Maybe the good doctor could enlighten us.

[docglov]

we absoulely do not give kids gloves. But not bragging but last year at the cooperstown field of dreams for 12 year olds it did seem the me that the kids were very heavy Rawlings users, it even supprised me. On this have any of you been to this tourment, its on now, there a total of 9600 who will play in this 10 week affair.These are the cream of the crop in 12 year old boys. Is this dropping the quality of L>L> world series teams. I know the kids that came by our display were from coast to coast and all would rather be in this tournment, Big time operation 2 sets of uni's for ea, a home and away perfect scheduling right down to the batting cages. Dorms for players and coachs and a mess hall for them. and 15 matching ball parks with short fences( saw a few 28 to 23 games but kids loved it..
Bob

[Bubdoggy]

Funny you should bring that up. This morning, I was sending out corporate sponsorship letters for our Cooperstown team that is going next summer (not trying to hit you up, doc, we're doing local sponsors). Tentatively scheduled for a late June slot, our team is comprised of local Little League players and are committed to play Little League as well. Our Cooperstown slot was picked so we could get back and have some time to get ready for Little League district and, hopefully, state tourneys. This will be the 8th Cooperstown team from our area and everyone who's gone says its great.

I think the travel teams have diluted the Little League/Babe Ruth/Cal Ripkin leagues. There are some travel teams in our area that won't allow the players to play league ball. Personally, that's where my son gets to play ball with his friends from school, church, neighborhood, etc and he loves playing Little League. Next year is his last one before school ball kicks in.

Hope you're there at Cooperstown when we go next year. I'd like to meet you and introduce our team.

[Cowboy7130]

I think select-travel-tournament ball is definitely diminishing the talent pool in Little League. My neighborhood league is down from 8 teams to 4 teams in the 11-12 majors division. I know that most of that is due to the advent of soccer as a popular youth sport, Nintendo becoming the national pastime of adolescents, etc., etc., but I know there are three or four 12 and under tournament teams in this area, and some of those very good players are not playing LL because they are more committed to a higher level of play in the tourneys. I know from personal experience that Junior League and Senior League is hit hard by select ball for 13-16 year olds.

WARNING - POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE REMARKS FOLLOWING
It seems rather sad to me. Most average kids around here can't shell out a couple of thousand bucks each summer for that kind of baseball experience, though I think it would be great. So it is the overachievers and the overachieving parents of the overachievers who can afford to put together teams and go to the Metroplex, Austin and Waco for select tournaments. Now, I am not bad-mouthing anybody; if I were a wealthy male model instead of a humble assistant freshman football coach I might have my kid signed up for travel ball too. But the fact is, my kid didn't face one of the best young players from Abilene this year because he spent the summer in Wichita Falls on a super-select team. I think my kid would have benefitted from the competition, but it wasn't there.

Anyway, there's my rant for the day ... and again, sorry if I offended anyone ... I honestly don't mean to!

[Bubdoggy]

Didn't offend me Cowboy. I agree with your comments. (We probably ought to take this to the Not a Glove forum but anyway...) While we play travel ball, the parents have made a effort to not make it the end all, be all of our kids lives. We left a team a couple of years ago for one reason that they wanted to play 2-3 times a month ALL year long. My son plays basketball and football as well and we are committed to our church. We do fund raisers and have the kids work their part as well.

We could go on and on about this but thought I would toss a couple more Lincolns in on the conversation.

The issue of older leagues is a hard one because we don't have a lot of structure past the 12 year old like Pony leagues around here. If a kid wants to keep playing baseball, he has to make the middle school team or go to travel ball. We've talked about that around here and I'd like to see more organized Senior League ball in this area.

It's a good discussion.

[pwm317]

My son is 12 and plays on a "tournament" team. Essentially, we play 8 to 10 tournaments with no league play. The main reason is their is no little league in Memphis. We have church ball, rec ball, but no "competitive" league ball. I've found the majority of parents prefer the tournament anyway because they are over the weekend. We also are hoping to be in Cooperstown next summer, we just have to raise the $$$.

Cowboy, I was born in Abilene and all my family still lives in the area. My older sister (class of '77 or '78) graduated from Cooper...

[wjr953]

Any one have any feelings or comments about the 70 foot bases in Cooperstown and the leading of runners/holding of runners by pitchers that have never had to do this before? Do you think that ultimately LL baseball would ever consider changing their big tournament to include 70 ft. bases, like Cooperstown? With the kids getting so much bigger and stronger, I wonder if that would ever be a consideration for LL Inc. Having coached baseball for 14 years (almost exclusively 12U), and having umpired for 8 years, I've always felt that the current LL diamond size was just perfect. I know that I personally wouldn't want to see a change to 70' bases.
As far as some other observations about Cooperstown: Has anyone ever stopped to calculate the approximate amount of money that gets hauled in during their 10 week season? The numbers are staggering, absolutely mind boggling. Granted, they had to pay for the property and the associated sales tax, and they have to pay for maintenance and upkeep on all the fields and buildings. They provide uniforms for the kids and baseballs, and they provide food for all the "campers". They also have to pay their staff. The umpires however, are all volunteers. They don't make a dime, and they also have to provide their own transportation up there. Every player has to pony up between $500 and $600 each to participate, to play in 5 to 8 games during the week they are up there. They have to pay for their own transportation as well. There are 15 fields, as one of the other forum members noted. Games are played all day and into the night. (Several years ago, two of the teams started a game well after 10PM, because there had been rain that day and the game needed to be played to determine playoff assignments.) Thinking about this kind of makes me want to buy a huge parcel of land, build some fields and give it a try. As near as I can tell, the net profits for the organization at Cooperstown for their 10 week season are in the millions of dollars. Not too bad for only working 10-12 weeks during the summer months.

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[rmiller]

Did you guys hear about this- what are your thoughts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaujPRyj ... re=related

[wjr953]

One Word: Ridiculous!

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[docglov]

On the coperstown tourn. I know the owner quite well, in fact I was ask to manage one in Louisville if he got the help he wanted from the state to build another site. When last years tourn ended he was expecting the Govenor if Ky to visit him with an offer, but have heard no more at this time. And of course I didn't go this year, we picked this week for our big yearly inventory.. Boo.. The money spent there was unbelievable

[GoldGlove]

Doc....Ive been hearing some good news about that cooperstown thing.....My batting coach is good friends with tha guy also and he says there waiting for us to sign......That was a couple weeks ago so maybe its some more good info....Ill let you know..

JB

[MVALZ]

I'll be playing in a tournament at Doubleday Field in a couple weeks....I'll have to try to get this guys attention