It amazes me that people are still talking about Select Vs Knothole, I thought this thread was to name summer teams and players, and keep up with their progress throughout the summer.

It amazes me that people are still talking about Select Vs Knothole

 

Seems to be more interesting and people are somewhat passionate about it. Everyone has kept it very civil and no attacks. Maybe we should start another thread about Summer Ball. :ohbrother: Just kidding!

Funny....from your avatar name, I presume you are a Ryle fan. Check with your STARTING regional champion 2nd baseman and shortstop and find out what KNOTHOLE team they played on until they got to Ryle. Also Deters was on a Knothole team too, coached by his dad. To each his own indeed! Just know what you are talking about.

Great post and you are 110% correct.

As I said already, it doesn't matter what league a kid plays in, if he is good he will succeed in HS if he isn't he won't. There are good players on knothole teams and there are bad players on select teams.

 

The biggest difference I've already said was simply competition and one advantage select has over knothole is for some reason the pitching and competition tends to be better at the select team level than knothole. that doesn't mean only the select team players go on and play at HS level and knothole doesn't. It simply is what it is period.

 

In baseball at any level 90% of how successful a team is comes down to pitching. You can have the best pitchers in the area all play on a knothole team and more times than not that team will be more succesful over a select team that doesn't have very good pitching. Pitching is everything no matter what level you play.

 

There are plenty of really good players that play on knothole for many different reasons. Could be the friends they grew up with and have played together since T-Ball all stayed together and happened to play in knothole and don't want to be split up. could be that parent coaching a knothole team so their son plays knothole on his team or could be financially. Select baseball is very VERY expensive, not just due to the cost to play on a team but also the huge expense to travel every single week throughout the summer to play in tournaments.

 

Growing up it was very different, all we had was knothole or intramural so knothole was where everyone wanted to play. today it's a whole different animal. A very expensive animal at that. for a 3-4 day tournament it costs at least $500 a weekend for hotel, travel, food etc. Do that every single weekend until the end of July and it's tough.

 

Bottomline, there are kids that can play and be successful in HS Baseball that play for select teams and play for Knothole. I never looked at one being better than the other, it's just pick your poison. Competition wise select tournaments seem to give teams better competition but that doesn't mean all the players are better than every player playing knothole.

well said hellbird,well said. lets move on!!!! how 'bout them reds!!!! .....lol!!!

Funny....from your avatar name, I presume you are a Ryle fan. Check with your STARTING regional champion 2nd baseman and shortstop and find out what KNOTHOLE team they played on until they got to Ryle. Also Deters was on a Knothole team too, coached by his dad. To each his own indeed! Just know what you are talking about.

 

Sorry... perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I didn't mean to say no knothole team(s) in general... I only meant the team on which my kid played. My point being that from what I can tell more kids make HS teams that come from select teams versus knothole teams. With that said I wonder if this is a result of talent/skills (learned of natural) or just simply a result that perhaps more kids play select than knothole. Geesh give a guy a break!

 

EDIT... I do believe that both SS Tyler Lonneman and 2B Jackson Brennan played for the Northern Kentucky Panthers and played in the SWOL. Not to say they didn't start out playing knothole as t-ballers or some earlier age but at some age it appears they transitioned to a select team.

Sorry... perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I didn't mean to say no knothole team(s) in general... I only meant the team on which my kid played. My point being that from what I can tell more kids make HS teams that come from select teams versus knothole teams. With that said I wonder if this is a result of talent/skills (learned of natural) or just simply a result that perhaps more kids play select than knothole. Geesh give a guy a break!

 

EDIT... I do believe that both SS Tyler Lonneman and 2B Jackson Brennan played for the Northern Kentucky Panthers and played in the SWOL. Not to say they didn't start out playing knothole as t-ballers or some earlier age but at some age it appears they transitioned to a select team.

 

Both Tyler and Jackson played for the Gold Star Chili Tigers for many years in Boone County Knothole prior to playing for the Ryle Raiders. Throw in Ben Allen who pitched in the region tournament for Boone County in 2013. Craig Rose, who was the starting 1st baseman and starting pitcher in the 2013 region semifinals for St. Henry, and Ryan Rengering, a utility player, who started several spots for the 2013 region semifinalist Beechwood Tigers. They were all on the same District 24 knothole team the Gold Star Chili Tigers for many years.

 

BTW Ryan Rengering was the winning pitcher last night in the 2013 Northern Kentucky All Star Game I just read. Not bad for a bunch of knotholers.

As I have said before, knothole gets a bad rap here. This is what really happens. Dad coaches kid who is decent, but not enough other talent to surround kid-so then Dad signs kid up for select team with more talented players. If Dad's (Coaches) would develop the fundamentals of all the kids on the team, then the knothole teams would be better too. Truly the Dad's (Coaches) do a disservice to the rest of the kids on the team.

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As I have said before, knothole gets a bad rap here. This is what really happens. Dad coaches kid who is decent, but not enough other talent to surround kid-so then Dad signs kid up for select team with more talented players. If Dad's (Coaches) would develop the fundamentals of all the kids on the team, then the knothole teams would be better too. Truly the Dad's (Coaches) do a disservice to the rest of the kids on the team.

 

Or Dad and other coaches DO a good job of developing fundamentals, and said Knothole team spends a summer winning games 15-1, playing only 5 innings a game, going undefeated. So in order to push and develop the players further, that Knothole team move to SWOL.

Do dad's not coach most of the teams that kids are on? Talk about a blanket statement and shot at parents who are willing to give their time so that kids have a place to play. I have coached many of my kid's teams and have shown no favoritism to them and stress fundamentals from day one whether it was baseball, football, basketball or soccer.

Knothole seemed pretty much over in A ball with U16. The AA east is made of of teams from both sides of the river and is a U18 league. There seems to be more teams and oppurtunities in Select for older players U18.

Or Dad and other coaches DO a good job of developing fundamentals, and said Knothole team spends a summer winning games 15-1, playing only 5 innings a game, going undefeated. So in order to push and develop the players further, that Knothole team move to SWOL.

 

Or Dad (Coaches) make every attempt to develop the skills of kids that have no interest in playing the game and are only there because their parents think is is the thing to do. Furthermore, it is very apparent that these same kids do not touch a baseball, bat, glove or any other baseball equipment except at practice and game time. I was a Dad who regularly tossed ball and threw BP with my kid outside of regulary scheduled practice to help enhance the education he was getting from his coaches. It was very apparent which kids had a genuine interest in the game and which ones didn't. I personally didn't see the same disparity in the select program.

 

Now, before I hurt someone's feelings... I KNOW THAT SOME KIDS PLAY KNOTHOLE AND ARE VERY GOOD PLAYERS. IMHO and from my personal experience there were more kids with little or no interest in the game within the knothole organization and less in the select programs.

 

Kudos to those that had a different experience. Again, to each his own.

Not hurting anyone's feelings by having a different opinion

How many of those Ryle kids play knothole now?

How many of those Ryle kids play knothole now?

 

Most likely too old for knothole now. Once teams are done in A ball (16 and under) they generally fold. They have recently added AA league but interest above 16 makes it hard to field teams. Thusly they make it a near travel team with many Cincinnati teams included. Perfect for kids who want to extend their season, get some summer ball in and have fun. Keeps them playing the game which makes everyone better. AA knothole is not widely known about and many kids go select at this point with 18 and under teams. Many see it as the only option.

So how many of the Ryle kids play AA ball?