So much this. Starting at age 15, my teammates and I were on the tip of the spear when it came to travel (select) baseball. For us, it was the opportunity to play during the summer in a more competitive environment than standard little league provided. The idea, at first, was to get more games in after high school broke for summer. It was also extremely fun. Itās also when I began to notice the dawn of the current baseball dad. Iāve since watched this culture evolve into an experiment that went wrong. The whole point of select ball was to get better, so your high school team could potentially compete for a state birth. Also, selfishly, to gain exposure to some coaches at the next level. Now, some of these dads donāt even let their sons play on the high school team for a myriad of reasons; They donāt like the coach They donāt think the level of competition is adequate Theyāre paying private fucking select coaches, and hitting/pitching instructors so much money, that the dudes are literally becoming scouts At that age, the game should be fun. I have to look extremely hard to see that in the kidsā eyes nowadays. And itās extremely sad.