Baseball fork in the road: Rec league fun or travel team glory?

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Lake Mary All-Stars won the Little League World Series on Sunday, beating teams from the U.S. to make it to the final game and besting Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) for the championship.

But if you have a young boy or girl who was in admiration of the local sport celebs, you may be wondering how a team from a small town in Florida made it to the international stage.

First of all, think of Little League Baseball like Kleenex, Xerox or Band Aid — it’s not the name of a product or activity, it’s a brand.

Little League Baseball is an organization that sponsors America’s pastime as a recreational sport (rec baseball). For a fee, parents sign up kids to play each other in organized baseball games, and as part of the rules, everybody gets to play.

Just about any kid can sign up for Little League Baseball, providing they meet certain requirements (like age- LLB players are 12 and under). The postseason, however, is when things start to get interesting, like they did for the Lake Mary All-Stars.

First and foremost, the Lake Mary All-Stars are just that: All-Stars.

After the regular season, players from Little League Baseball try to make the roster for a LLB All-Star team. Unlike the regular season LLB, All-Star players are selected, and teams are limited to just 12 members. Once those teams are set, they’re the ones off and running to compete for a chance to play in the LLBWS (not the regular everyone-gets-to-play-all-the-time teams).

The LLBWS is truly an international sport. U.S. teams are placed in one bracket and international teams in another. The tournament has 20 teams with the U.S. winner facing off against the international champion. But, because getting on an All-Star team is so competitive, to hone their skills, many LLB players also play another type of youth baseball: travel baseball.

Travel baseball (travel ball or club ball) is just what the name implies — teams travel throughout regions, across states, as well as around the country to play against each other. Travel ball also has a different schedule than “rec ball” as games usually run year-round while recreational baseball mostly follows a seasonal schedule. Travel ball also has different requirements for players; like the LLB All-Star teams, travel ball teams hold tryouts as their level of competition is much higher than with recreation baseball teams.

So, what’s the advantage of travel baseball over rec baseball? For players, it comes down to competition, polishing your skills and attracting attention.

As stated, travel baseball is much more competitive, but sign-up costs are also higher, volunteers are usually replaced by paid coaches and staff, and on the upper levels, facilities can escalate into the millions. Travel teams are usually a great place to see how committed (and good) players are. And finally, scouting for college programs usually starts at the travel team level.

A good place to start to give you an idea of just how many travel teams there are around Florida is on this Facebook page (there are A LOT).

If travel ball is a little much (cost, time, commitment), there are alternatives to Little League Baseball.

Babe Ruth League is probably the most well-known youth baseball league. BRL is a nonprofit, educational organization that had its origins in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, in 1951. According to their website, the Babe Ruth League now has well over 1 million players in 11,000 different leagues spread out over more than 60,000 teams. Want a good place to start? Check out their Orlando Babe Ruth website or the Florida Babe Ruth Baseball website. And if you’ve heard of Cal Ripken Baseball, they are part of Babe Ruth Baseball as well. And the Babe Ruth League has different leagues (and championship games) for different ages.

Here are some travel or club ball options locally:

AAU (or the American Athletic Union) not only runs baseball teams but teams in other sports as well. Founded in 1888, the organization’s original goal was to create standards and uniformity across amateur sports. Check out AAU’s Florida District website for more info or click here to find a club in Central Florida (use the Club Locator search feature on the right side of the page selecting Baseball and your ZIP Code).

USSSA Baseball (United States Specialty Sports Association) is based in Central Florida (Viera in Brevard County) and was founded in 1968 as an up-and-coming softball league. Today, 13 different amateur sports fall under USSSA’s umbrella (yes, USSSA has its own World Series as well). The organization also has its own training facility- the USSSA Space Coast Complex which used to serve as a spring training facility for the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals. Follow this link to search for USSSA baseball teams.