Several college recruiters have told me that the relevance and importance of high school baseball, especially on LI, has become increasing diminished in their player assestments over the last ten years or so. For various reasons, they are putting less stock in what a kid does or doesn't do on his HS team. Some reasons mentioned for this are the unreliability of stats, poor coaching, politics of playing time and several other issues. Moral of the story - a great high school career or a not so good one doesn't seal the fate of a kid wanting to play college ball. Travel baseball, college camps and showcases have become more important.

Coming solely from the middle school perspective, if your child is on the smaller side..or at least it appeared this way at Salk in Wantagh, you don't have a shot at being on the team. My son who has been the league travel team catcher since he was 8, didn't even sniff a shot, even though he made every throw from catcher to 2b, blocked balls in the dirt, and hit the ball hard in BP during evaluations. Meanwhile, other kids who arent as talented, but were much bigger than my son, made the team. So size does matter at the middle school grades.

Just got off the phone with my friend....50 kids tried out for 20 spots, his kid did not make it...He said his son did just as good on the field as anyone else but had a problem hitting....I said thats weird cause I thought the kid was good enough to get through that stage until he said the M word. I think its total b/s that a coach use a machine to evaluate a batter. why not let the pitchers throw? I feel machines have no value, you need at least 20 just to get some timing and then its almost impossible to stride out and hit the ball....A lot of kids lose focus and just try to make contact and end up looking like crap...sometimes it works the other way kids kill the machine and cannot hit a live arm.....just my opinion...

Good opinion , I agree

Best of luck

I don't understand why the LL board members kids would get a shot over anyone else's kids when it comes to school teams? What does one have to do with the other? I am new to this and obviosly naive to all the politcs... Should I get on the LL board to make sure my kid plays in MS? I can understand PTA or school board members kids being a former teacher but LL boards I can't understand...

You must be from Commack, for sure you are from Commack.

My last post on this thread was almost a full year ago. Now that this year's tryouts at the high school and middle school levels are completed, the same sentiments resurface. Get use to it because " it is what it is." With more school budget cuts coming, school athletic programs will be pushed further in the wrong direction.

You're correct about the size issue. The problem is, a 13 year old boy that is nearing 6 feet tall, usually has the grace of a drunken sailor. No coordination, can hardly reach over and touch his toes. So where do these kids play....first base!! Then throws from across the diamond skip past them because they have no coordination. I've seen some of the bigger kids have the slowest swings. The one thing the big kid has over a smaller boy is that IF he connects on one, he'll hit it out of sight. So I guess the philosophy is a team full of Dave Kingmans would beat a team of Tony Gwynns in the coaches eyes. I see it the other way around.

my kid went to salk about three years ago didnt make it in 7th and 8th but is now on the varsity team at macarthur and also made it in 9th in 10th salk doesnt mean [***censored***] its all about who no ho and whos on the OTA n nd kisses up likes ikes daddyball