I went to Holmes and the money was mostly allocated to football and basketball. There was not as much parental support for those inner city schools compared to suburb or county schools. Its a matter of numbers for Holmes and Newport. They don't have money to travel and play many schools outside region unlike the football and basketball teams, meaning less exposure. I agree that baseball for those teams just do not get the interest from the better athletes in the two schools for that reason. As I said basketball and football are more their focus. This leads to sub standard play in most cases. Of course that's just my opinion.

Hmmm ... interesting comments about budget impacting baseball. I never thought of baseball being a sport impacted by budget. Does it cost more than $1,000 to equip a baseball team?

Hmmm ... interesting comments about budget impacting baseball. I never thought of baseball being a sport impacted by budget. Does it cost more than $1,000 to equip a baseball team?

Umpire fees alone is more than 1000.00, Throw in uniforms every couple of years, game balls, field maintence, etc. Baseball is very expensive.

It might be were parents cannot afford to have their sons play baseball outside of school, so baseball might get some interest loss. To play competitive baseball in the summer to elevate your game gets more expensive each year.

Umpire fees alone is more than 1000.00, Throw in uniforms every couple of years, game balls, field maintence, etc. Baseball is very expensive.

It might be were parents cannot afford to have their sons play baseball outside of school, so baseball might get some interest loss. To play competitive baseball in the summer to elevate your game gets more expensive each year.

 

But Holmes will spend money on umpire fees (which I wasn't thinking about as part of the $1,000), uniforms, game balls, field maintenance, equipment this year. Where is the impact budget has on them being competitive in baseball?

But Holmes will spend money on umpire fees (which I wasn't thinking about as part of the $1,000), uniforms, game balls, field maintenance, equipment this year. Where is the impact budget has on them being competitive in baseball?

 

I think IMO it is not the budget of the school, but the impact on the parent's budget. I think there is enough conditioning and open gyms at school for football and basketball to keep a player growing in those sports, but to keep growing in baseball, I think playing competitive summer ball is a must. There is a big difference in cost to attend summer workouts at school and to play summer baseball. IMO, That why you see a drop in interest and level of play at the schools in question.

Summer select baseball is very expensive and time consuming. Whether it be parent's budget, lack of time or interest. Most of the boy's on these teams are knothole player's, or don't play summer ball at all. The best teams year in and year out are loaded with select baseball player's.(check the tape). It is hard to compete with these teams when you are lucky to maybe have 1 or 2 select player's each year. This inevitably leads to losing most of the time which creates a lack of interest for younger boys coming up through these schools. My suggestion would be that coaches of these schools try to help get there kids on select summer teams.(If it can be afforded) This may change the culture of these programs. Alot of select summer teams work together to get player's to games and tournaments.

parent cost may have something to do with it. Seems like Summer basketball would have the same issues.

parent cost may have something to do with it. Seems like Summer basketball would have the same issues.

Ok summer basketball..... hmmm growing up in Covington there were pickup games on just about every basketball court in the city "have basketball will play" not to mention with baseball, permits were needed to even get on field, finding 15-20 guys with gloves bats and balls was pretty much a rare event. Lets not forget basketball is king at Holmes and has been for my 42 years of life. my point baseball costs money that many inner city kids would rather spend on sports they know draw attention to them.For Newport and Holmes its basketball, be it cause of budget or attention they would get from the schools popular sport. I just don't wanna say they are under privileged or have no talent for baseball, its just not in their social or economic "wheelhouse" so to speak.

By the way I really liked the coaches from Holmes. Seemed to have a really good connection with their players and you could tell they loved what they were doing.

Playing on a select team is a huge commitment by players, parents and the coaches. Renting out indoor training facilities in the winter. Weekly games and practices take up the summer. Most tourneys start on Thursday running until Sunday. Big tournaments with the most exposure run Monday to Sunday. Its a constant dilemma for the coaches to balance uniform expenses, tournament fees, hotel and gas prices. Even if you attend a tourney in Lexington, Louisville, Indianapolis, or Columbus the tournament directors have hotel deals and kick backs and your team have to commit to staying instead of driving back and forth. A quaility uniform can easily go $120 without numbers, lettering, belt and socks.

The 12u Cooperstown tourney is a week long, and extra $800 a player and $800 a coach, a week of hotels for the parents. Then you have elite teams flying in pitchers as they advance.

 

As tough as that is a friend of mine has a daughter on a traveling swim team, in the water at 5:30 am, off the school, back in the water for 2-a-days, crossfit on off days as a team and meets on most every weekend year round. She was 12. Baseball players have it easy.

Baseball is rapidly (if not already) becoming a rich, white kids sport. Good summer teams are expensive and time consuming, and require lots of travel, even to play locally. There are very few fields, and the ones that are available are bad, and softball leagues take up much of the time, especially in urban areas, and gloves, bats and balls are expensive. Heck it even costs a $500+ to play knothole. The inner cities have basically fallen off the map in the baseball world. And baseball more than any other sport, is a father son game, and is affected by high divorce rates. My generation (I'm 43), and previous generations, your dad taught you how to throw and catch, and break in a glove, and played catch with you every day. In urban areas, with many single parent homes, that sort of thing just isn't happening anymore.

Campbell County Knothole is still a bargain at 75.00!

 

ccknothole.com

Campbell County Knothole is still a bargain at 75.00!

 

ccknothole.com

 

Still gotta buy balls (two per game), uni's (knothole doesn't provide them) and pay umpire fees ($20-$30 per game). And if you want to step up and play some tourneys, it's gonna cost even more. $75 gets you in door and on a team, but not much else. I don't know many coaches that will take on all the rest of the costs on their own. In reality, even most knothole teams will cost you several hundred $'s to play unless your coach is real good at fundraising or getting sponsors.

Playing on a select team is a huge commitment by players, parents and the coaches. Renting out indoor training facilities in the winter. Weekly games and practices take up the summer. Most tourneys start on Thursday running until Sunday. Big tournaments with the most exposure run Monday to Sunday. Its a constant dilemma for the coaches to balance uniform expenses, tournament fees, hotel and gas prices. Even if you attend a tourney in Lexington, Louisville, Indianapolis, or Columbus the tournament directors have hotel deals and kick backs and your team have to commit to staying instead of driving back and forth. A quaility uniform can easily go $120 without numbers, lettering, belt and socks.

The 12u Cooperstown tourney is a week long, and extra $800 a player and $800 a coach, a week of hotels for the parents. Then you have elite teams flying in pitchers as they advance.

 

As tough as that is a friend of mine has a daughter on a traveling swim team, in the water at 5:30 am, off the school, back in the water for 2-a-days, crossfit on off days as a team and meets on most every weekend year round. She was 12. Baseball players have it easy.

This will be the first summer that I can remember since our boy started playing baseball that we will not be playing summerball and I'm actually looking forward to it.

 

We now will have weekends free and will be saving a ton of money.

 

Summer ball was some of the best memories we had, a lot of great folks we got to meet and spend our summers with etc. but the money and time saved will be much needed.

Knothole is much cheaper then travel teams. If you forego the out of state tourneys

it is much less then 150 dollars. Teams usually are able to get sponsors to cover most

of the cost mention.