2017 LLWS: There's No Crying In Baseball!

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2017 LLWS: There's No Crying In Baseball!

At the 12 year old level, the team has been together for at least a year, sometimes 2-3... The US teams play as a full time travel team, only showing up for the minimum required LL events such as regular season games. They will have practice/coaching year round.

When I was 12 and our team fell 1 game short of the LLWS we hadn't been together more than a few weeks before our first game. When did it become year round?

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

When I was 12 and our team fell 1 game short of the LLWS we hadn't been together more than a few weeks before our first game. When did it become year round?

My local town league was the same as well. Granted I come from a small town in upstate New York so it might be different other places.

We never got anywhere near a district title more or less the LLWS.

 

[RaceBoarder]

Re: 2017 LLWS: There's No Crying In Baseball!

When I was 12 and our team fell 1 game short of the LLWS we hadn't been together more than a few weeks before our first game. When did it become year round?

That's been the case for at least the last 15 years and probably longer. I've called games for both of the recent Chicago area teams (Jackie Robinson LL from 2016 and Lemont LL in 2006) as full time travel teams. This occurred on a regular basis

I'm sure there are teams that do it legit, but those are in the tiny minority once you get past the regional level. Since around 2000 you've seen an explosion in "travel ball" and significant drop in in-house players. Everyone wants to feel like they are "elite" because they play travel ball. Because of that, "in-house" players that remain are the bottom of the barrel. Sure you get talented kids who play only in-house for financial reason or whatever, but that's the oddity.

 

[joecct]

My local town league was the same as well. Granted I come from a small town in upstate New York so it might be different other places.

We never got anywhere near a district title more or less the LLWS.

Horseheads is upstate? Yeesh. I guess Potsdam is the formerly Frozen tundra (now mud)?

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2017 LLWS: There's No Crying In Baseball!

Horseheads is upstate?

Everything north of the Tappen Zee is upstate.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: 2017 LLWS: There's No Crying In Baseball!

My league did the regular way of picking all stars after the season. We also lost in the third round and since it was single elimination at the time, that was it.

Other teams, like the Sioux Falls team that made it in their first year, I'm sure are just a travel team that made a league to try to get to Williamsport. One of the regional rounds was highlighting a team saying if you didn't make the all stars when you were 10, you had a cool option of playing in a league to get more games and try the next season. It didn't make sense why they highlighted that because that's exactly what LL is.