Showcase or Travel Baseball

In the past year this subject has been brought up 5 times it seems.

Showcase or travel baseball is whatever you make out of it.

I think travel ball is teams that might practice once or twice a week and go to games and try their hardest but still only get 4 hits through 5 games. Some parents believe their child is the best there is and that he should play every inning of every game and if he doesn't then the coach is a idiot. There isn't much structure to travel teams just show up in what you slept in and put a uniform on in the dugout and lace up the cleats and go play. They are usually the teams that show 20 minutes before the game and don't stretch or take infield and make it up as they go.


Showcase teams are teams that do completely opposite of travel teams. They have structure from the top to the bottom from every coach to every player and parent/s. I remember playing for On Deck and how all the parents never bragged about their son or what he did. I had parents of other players that gave me a pat on the back after a tough loss or a high five after a great win. There isn't no my son should play every inning kind of stuff. The parents let the coaches tell us how to play and they never got between the players and coaches. They knew what On Deck was about and how the coaches were and I dont' recall any problems with parents and coaches.

 

Totally disagree, not all travel teams, maybe like that where you are from?

 

Explain how you see it?

 

Must be why coaches like Bagwell, Hignight, Hardee, Parnham, etc. spend all those hours every week speaking to recruiters. You are right on observer. They always want to speak to the HS coach.

A funny sidenote: When my son re-entered the recruiting process this year with colleges, they didn't speak to his previous college coach. They called Hal Bagwell, his HS coach.

 

Everyone is different

I just happen to believe that every game holds the same amount of importance. I don't believe you should play or approach any game with any more or any less importance. So you play one way if its on this team and another way if its on the other team? You play with this amount of intensity if its on this team or this amount of intensity if its on the other team?

Your playing a non conference game in March so you approach the game differently than you would a playoff game? Or you play hard in a hs game but you dont in a summer game? My point is a player a real player should see no difference. Its an opportunity to compete. Its an opportunity to help your team win anyway you can. I believe that practice is approached in the same manner. If practice does not imitate the game in intensity and focus and approach it does not prepare the player for competition in games.

Players who get up for the big games but play at another level for the other games will soon realize this is an issue they will have to deal with. Teams that do the same thing will as well. I coach no differently in a summer game than I do in a HS playoff game. My approach is absolutely no different. And my desire to win and teach and learn is no different. I hate to lose a practice. I want to win practice everyday. If we are not getting better and learning everyday we lose.

I know some will say that this is not possible. If you put more emphasis on this game or this practice over another game or another practice what are you teaching the player? Get after it today and play as hard as you can today but next game lighten up its only a summer game. Everytime you step on the field its a great opportunity. Its an opportunity to compete and learn. They are all equally important to me.

I tell my guys you should play no differently or approach the game no differently if there were 5,000 people in the stands and it was for a championship than you would if we were in the middle of a nowhere and no one was at the game or practice. A player should have so much pride in how he plays the game and so much respect for the game itself that he would have it no other way. And he should demand the same from everyone around him.

When I see a kid playing with pride no matter the score , no matter where the game is played or who he is playing or who is there I see a player. I see a guy that loves the game and loves to compete. I believe it should be every players goal to approach every game with the same desire to compete and help his team win. I dont think you can pick and choose which ones are more important. Because they all are. Everytime I coach a game and we win I am very very happy. Especially if we play up to our ability and we learn from the game. Everytime I coach a game and we lose I am sick to my stomach until I can get back to practice and win that practice. I love to caoch kids that take that same approach.

I understand that players are different. But what kind of a player are you really going to be if your mindset is to play as hard as you can , compete as hard as you can , want to win as badly as you can - but only when its a game or on a team that really matters? If it really doesnt matter that much to you then should you really be doing it in the first place? If your approach is going to be different how is that going to help you.

As far as posistions that is for the experience of playing another posistion. It has nothing to do with your approach to the game or how you actually play the game. Its like a catcher who doesnt block pitches between innings , during warmups and when no one is on base and then decides during the game when he has to he is going to step it up and block that pitch. You block everything everytime period because that is how you play the game. This is just my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own.

Just hope that no one that matters is watching when you have decided to approach the game differently because its not a big game. But that doesnt happen to real players. Because they could careless who is watching. Because they play it the right way all the time. They dont know any other way. Thats the guys I am always looking for and want to see. Its kind of like the saying "You never know who is watching!" Really? Who cares. If a player has to have someone watching him to motivate him to play the game the right way then he is not a player. Or "Hustle". Really? If someone has to tell a kid to hustle then what really needs to said is "Come back when no one has to tell you to hustle."

 

Coach 27 is on target

AWESOME! Coach 27 lit the candle with this one. His message is so true and his passion for the game is so evident. Baseball is full of so many pretenders...those that are not willing to make the effort to play the game fully and with pride. Pride comes from deep inside...only a few understand the linkage between maximum effort and the inner pride that will not tolerate anything less from yourself. What Coach has put our here is a very important lesson: The short cuts players take today will be the short circuits to their future opportunities. The day will come when their bad habits and "I'll work on it later" approach will deliver them to the eternal spin cycle of the bench and then the bleachers......and then as maturity sets in they will be among the many who regret not what they have done, but rather what they didn't do.....

 

This is one of the few topics that can have a thousands different views. There is enough levels of baseball in this state for everyone. If you don't like one, please don't talk negative, just find the one that is right for your son or daughter.They all have their negatives and positives, just remember for every ten people who hate it, the next ten loves it. As far as college coaches and recruiters only talking to High School coaches that isn't always true. Coaches and recruiters will talk to the showcase coaches and high school coaches.Some high schools doesn't have the coaches or support that other schools might have. What it boils down to is the player and his family have to find the right fit for his summer and fall baseball. If you have the talent they will find you, be it D1,D2,NAIA, or Junior College. It is frustrating being at the games and hearing parents bitch about the organization or the coach. The majority of us have been playing this type of ball for a long time and we all have been unhappy at one time or another. That i truly understand. As a parent or a player we have two easy decisions.
1. stay there work hard and maybe things will work out and keep negative conversation to yourself.
2. Tell the coach thank you for the opportunity to play on the team but you will not be coming back.

 

"I know you and stretchy are tlaking about folks looking for a trophy and not my point above, but it just kills me the selfishness I see on the field sometimes"

I could not agree more. that is why it is good that CMs is cracking down on ineligible athletes playing schools in our schools.

 

travel ball

The teams that I have been coaching spend entire practices (2hrs) on how to's (plate awareness,batter tendecies,umpire tendecies,fielding on the right foot,secondaries, even how to get out of the car dressed like a ballplayer). My point is there is a few of us travel coaches that are putting in the effort to get these 14-15 year olds ready to tryout for their high school and at the same time be someone respects his elders.

 

Outstanding!!! rebel, coaches like you are the backbone of continued successful players and young men.