i had to try out for the teams in my day. never could hit a ball to save my live. long before the days of everyone plays and gets a trophy, so yeah, never played little league.
I think it was less try-outty and more "let's make the teams somewhat level." Majors back in the 70's was a "try-out" league. So I quit when forced, thinking I might not get picked. Plus the uniform was completely foreign to me. (Gimme a t-shirt and a shitty foam trucker cap like in Minors.) I didn't discover this until many years later. NBD - I didn't LOVE baseball anyhow. But I wish I got a bit more coaching to make me better. I have good hand-eye. But I froze at the plate.
What I'm amazed at is there are a lot of FOOTBALL programs that fill up. Taunton and DR are filled up with wait lists. Crazy.
3 daughters, two play softball, not super competitive though. Lots of traveling softball leagues around here, girls are wicked good.
Good Little league program out here too, I have no problem donating every year when they ask, I grew up with Little League baseball, great memories.
Traveling anything, a lot of the time, is just wealthy kids having an off-season activity. The "best" don't always play traveling. It's expensive and a hassle to get all over the state to play.
I love hearing how no one can understand the drop-off in youth sports at around the age of 12 or 13 years old. Not really rocket science, it's the kid saying f@ck you dad/coach etc. I'm done with this BS!
Drop off? DROP OFF? You wanna talk drop-off?????
Remember when our parents would drop us off for Little League? Or scouts? Or whatever???
Now parents are expected to sit there and watch like the next all-star came out of our loins.
Let the damned kids go be kids.
My mom came to my games (well, some of them - usually she had to go home and cook dinner before my dad got home) only b/c she was driving. But there were no bleachers. No fan sections. Any parents that hung around sat in their cars or stood at the fence. MAYBE you'd get one or two that would have lawn chairs. (The old fold-ups with the wide weave plastic strapping.). Usually if you had younger siblings, Mom was over on the monkey bars with them.
No one watched. It was all you. That's the way it SHOULD be. Once parents started painting their bodies and holding up signs for Kody and Brewster, it was all over. Participation trophies and such. As bad as my LL experience was, it was a place for me to be me, not a showcase of my parents.
I've tried to do the same with my kids. My son did Karate. My wife went 3x a week. I went about 1x every 3-4 months. I'm not high kicking Master Lima today, so I don't need to be there.
My middle daughter has been doing horseback for. . . . almost 20 years. I've been to the barn (not just pickup) 20 times. Been to 3-4 shows ever. She's 24 now. It's HER thing, not mine.