We packed our bags, started the RV, and traveled down to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee this past weekend for my son’s baseball tournament. It’s a good four hour drive from our house in Kentucky.

Pigeon Forge is a great place to go and take your family during the fall. They have the Great Smoky Mountains, the black bears, all kinds of outlet shops, fun and games for the kids.

The tournament was a USSSA event with teams from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The fields needed help, as there was a six-inch lip all around the infield. It looked like they needed to bring in several truck loads of dirt. But the weather was great, the competition was real good, and the kids had a blast.

My son just turned 9 years old. He’s really developed a nice swing from the left side of the plate. In fact, he hit his farthest shot that I’ve seen him hit so far by hitting a line shot deep to center field hitting the top of the 200’ fence. Maybe next year he can hit them over.

Only two more weeks to go with fall ball. After this year’s baseball season is over (remember we’ve played over 150 games so far), it will be a good break before we get back in the swing of things again.

Travel baseball is growing at a rapid pace, and some teams are playing an unbelievable amount of games each year. Sure, it’s easier for the warm-weather states like Florida, Texas and California to play almost year round, but some teams are playing 100 games or more a season. That’s astronomical! Even I’m a victim of that with my son’s team.

Select teams are traveling across the country to play in the biggest youth tournaments available, and families are dedicating themselves to keep up with the constant practices, games and travel. Parents deserve a lot of credit for doing what they do to support their kid(s’) baseball lives.

Parents also are the ones who have to shell out the dough for their kids to play the sport. It’s not cheap to play travel baseball with tournaments, team fees and especially equipment.

Kids these days want the best bats out there, and that means spending about $300 or more for a top-of-the-line bat. Some kids even go through two or three bats in a year! Then you also have fielding gloves, batting gloves, sunglasses, but the list gets even bigger if your kid is a catcher. Yikes!

Just in the last couple years, television networks have made baseball the most marketable youth sport in the U.S. ESPN and ABC led the charge with the Little League World Series and now the new MLB Network has followed suit by televising the RBI World Series, Cal Ripken World Series and the National Youth Baseball Championships.

You can’t find youth sports like football, basketball or soccer on television or being marketed like baseball is during the summer. Baseball Youth will also be stepping up its coverage of the youth game with the magazine and especially online.

The national pastime is booming for the next generation, and it’s wonderful to see the explosion.

See you on the field,
Scott Hacker
Publisher of Baseball Youth – The Nation’s Baseball Magazine for KIDS