“We don’t have enough players this year,” my Mom, president of our town’s Little League, said. “The kids won’t be able to play unless we combine with another town.” After days of negotiating with the surrounding towns, Neptune Township Little League was able to salvage its 2021 season, but not before merging with its two neighbors in Neptune City and Bradley Beach, which had each contracted their respective programs.
With the help of the other two towns, they signed up 100 kids, ages 3 to 14, just enough to field two teams per division. Just a decade prior, Neptune Little League was able to round up over 300 players without other municipalities pitching in. Everyone I knew played; it was the thing to do as a ten-year-old. Now, it looked like a ghost town.
The case of Neptune Township is far from unique, nor is it the worst-case scenario. All youth sports across the country have been experiencing steady declines in participation, with baseball being the hardest hit. For example, Little League Baseball in the southeastern United States experienced a 43% decrease in children aged 9 to 12 from 2007 to 2017. Declines like this have ultimately caused what used to be large programs to hollow out, with smaller chapters being forced to close entirely.
Despite the consistent decrease in participation, the worth behind youth sports has ballooned to nearly $20 billion as of 2024, according to estimates from Sports Business Journal. The rise of travel sports and the sports tourism industry is the main reason for the sharp increase. Don’t be fooled; the recent industry boom is not due to some magical influx of new youth athletes, but rather the rising costs of travel sports.
Travel baseball has gained popularity over the past decade over Little League, with teams often boasting a higher level of competition and more player development. What they frequently fail to mention is the absurd price tag for children to be members of these organizations. USA Today estimated the average cost of travel baseball to be upwards of $3700 per season as of 2017, 10 times more than Little League baseball’s $200 price tag. This also does not include the cost of hotels and vehicle expenses, as travel baseball teams, well, travel. With over one-third of Americans saying that they could not afford a $400 emergency expense, one can only wonder about the salaries of the families that can afford to place their children on travel teams.
Little League offers both children and parents the convenience of staying local. Games are typically played within the town or city’s chapter, oftentimes at the same complex for the entire season. Leagues also tend to schedule 20-25 games throughout the three-month season, making for roughly two games per week. Along with ensuring that players don’t get burned out throughout the season, these parameters work around most parents’ work schedules.
I still remember spending the entire day at a field two hours from home playing five different random teams in a pointless tournament, then waking up the next morning and doing it all again. Entire weekends spent at the baseball field were normal. At the time, I was excited to play, but looking back, it’s likely not healthy for an 11-year-old to play ten games in two days. Unfortunately, this is more than a common occurrence in travel baseball. Tournaments with dozens of teams across different states will come and spend hours on end at a baseball complex, all for the chance to increase their Perfect Game rankings.
The aforementioned Perfect Game organization serves as the umbrella for most travel teams in the United States. Hosting nearly 67,000 youth baseball and softball programs, Perfect Game hosts various events and tournaments for teams. More importantly, however, are those rankings the organization gives to both teams and individual players. From a team perspective, a higher ranking comes with an influx of parents desperately trying to get their child placed in their program. These team rankings go all the way down to nine-year-old teams, which begs the question of their necessity. Did they ever consider that the No. 1-ranked 9U team might have a bunch of kids who hit their growth spurt before everyone else?
The sharp price increase and the amount of spare time needed to attend the games mean that only a certain demographic can afford to enroll their children in travel baseball programs.
As of 2023, just six percent of Major League Baseball players were African-American, far from the nearly 18 percent in the league 42 years prior. Black participation in the MLB hit a sharp decline in the early 2000s–coincidentally, shortly after the Perfect Game Organization started operations in 1995. With White households accumulating roughly five times the wealth compared to their Black counterparts, it’s understandable that white families can afford the expensive travel baseball price tag.
During my time playing for Neptune Little League while growing up, the players’ races typically reflected the town's demographics in the youngest age groups. As we got older, however, black participation on our middle and high school teams dwindled. Playing across different travel teams within my town, I often found myself as the only non-white player. Being from a town where the children are the majority African-American, I found this odd even as a child. Looking back as an adult, however, it makes perfect sense.
Growing up as a left-handed pitcher in New Jersey during the 2000s, my parents swore I would be the next C.C. Sabathia of the Yankees or Johan Santana of the Mets. They still do, in fact, say that if it were not for my arm injury in college, I was headed straight for the big leagues. The funny thing is that it could not have been further from the truth. I was a good player. Good enough to start on my high school team. Even good enough to make a low-level college roster. In reality, however, I was nowhere near the professional level. Just 0.5% of high school players make it to the big leagues, a nearly impossible feat.
Parents tend to swear by their children in sports–and that’s a good thing. It’s great to have faith in your children to keep them motivated. Travel coaches have caught on to this and act accordingly, catering to parents’ feelings about their children. In Little League, everyone makes a team—travel ball; however, it provides the mystique of exclusivity by holding tryouts for prospective players. The process of cutting kids from a team, albeit unnecessary at such a young age, serves as a confirmation bias for the parents.
Some of my best times playing the game were during Little League—weeks of talking trash to your classmates were settled on the baseball field come Saturday morning. At such a young age, it’s not about the level of competition or the exposure; having fun is the first priority. Youth sports, in general, are to build life lessons and character—kids can wait until they are older to start worrying about playing at the next level.
Sure, the trips from travel baseball build some good experiences, and the custom gear is pretty cool—not $5000-a-year cool, however. Travel ball operates like a business, except its employees are fifth graders who likely have a spelling test the following day. Personally, I found travel ball to be a source of unnecessary stress. Little League was a chance to relax and actually play at my best.