Big-Time Little League

Like any superstar, Josh Anderson didn’t want to sell himself cheap. So the pitching phenom and his father negotiated a deal that pays Josh’s travel expenses, provides a personal hitting and pitching coach, and allows him to catch and play the outfield when he isn’t on the mound.

The package is worth about $10,000 a year.

Not bad for a 12-year-old.

Once, youngsters played baseball on dusty sandlots. Then came Little League, with its child-size fields, cute uniforms and occasionally overbearing parents.

Now, there is “travel ball,” an ultracompetitive form of youth baseball meant to groom gifted players for teenage stardom, college scholarships and, just maybe, fame and riches in the big leagues.

The phenomenon is being driven by the same forces that have transformed youth soccer, basketball and other sports: ambitious parents and their money.

Travel ball families spend as much as $10,000 a year on coaches, equipment, air fare, tournament fees and other expenses.

The complaints often heard about Little League -- that it overemphasizes winning and takes the fun out of the game -- seem almost quaint in the travel ball era. On this baseball fast track, no one even pretends that enjoyment is the main goal.

During the week, players as young as 7 spend hours practicing with professional coaches. On weekends, they and their parents take to the freeways, driving for hours to play in professional-style ballparks -- or flying across the country to compete in tournaments.

Some play on several travel teams at once, sometimes in multiple states. Their weekends are a jumble of long drives, plane flights, nondescript motels and inning after inning of baseball -- a regimen that lasts the entire year in warm-weather states.

Travel clubs vie for top talent. In an eerie echo of the professional sports marketplace, some teams even dangle financial incentives to land top players such as Josh Anderson.

Josh is regarded as one of the best 12-year-old pitchers in the country. He lives in Imperial Beach, near the Mexican border, and plays for the Southern California Redwings, based in Riverside. He takes a trip of up to two hours to home games in the Inland Empire. At least six times a year, the team flies to national tournaments.

Each week, Josh has three sessions with a batting coach, plus two pitching workouts with his father. He also plays basketball and, like many travel ball players, participates in Little League to be with his friends. Somehow, he finds time for homework.

“I give up birthday parties and other social things, but through travel ball I go to a lot of places most kids don’t see,” said Josh, a seventh-grader who maintains a B-minus average. “I’m sacrificing a lot, but I do it because I want to play in the major leagues.”

Some parents, coaches and doctors say travel ball is a recipe for burnout and injury.

“The potential for abuse of the pitcher skyrockets as these kids pitch more and more over the course of a year,” said David Osinski, director of the American Baseball Foundation in Birmingham, Ala., a nonprofit group that runs injury-prevention clinics.

“We would never discourage high-level performance,’ he said, “but we want them to reach the highest level they can and not fall victim to an injury before their time.”

Denny Curran, a longtime Little League administrator in Orange County, says travel ball injects pressure and high expectations into what should be a carefree time.

“We’re developing the skills of an 8-year-old ... so he can make the double play at 9 years old?” said Curran, a real estate agent in Cowan Heights. “I guess the ultimate goal is to be Alex Rodriguez,” he said, referring to the New York Yankees’ star third baseman, who has a 10-year, $252-million contract.

“What are the chances of that?” Curran asked. “Can’t we just let a kid have fun?”

Dave Winfield, a Hall of Fame outfielder who played for six major league teams, including the San Diego Padres, the Yankees and the Angels, learned the game on the sandlots of St. Paul, Minn.

“It didn’t cost me a dime to get drafted, to get a college scholarship and to become a pro athlete,” said Winfield, now a vice president and senior advisor with the Padres. “That won’t happen anymore.”

Cal Ripken Jr., the retired Baltimore Orioles shortstop who holds the major league record for most consecutive games played (2,632 over 17 seasons), has established his own youth organization, Cal Ripken Baseball, for parents seeking a low-pressure environment that emphasizes sportsmanship and love of the game.

Naturally, he is skeptical of travel ball. Nevertheless, he is cautiously allowing his 11-year-old son, Ryan, to participate.

“If you push the competition too much, I can’t help but think that you make them grow up too soon,” Ripken said. “It can be a positive experience, but it hinges largely upon the quality of the coach and how he frames the experience.”

Stan Anderson, Josh’s father, views travel ball as an investment whose risks must be balanced against the potential payoff -- a college scholarship or a professional contract.

“We started doing this because we saw Josh had some talent, and we were seeking the best competition for him,” he said. “As he goes on, you don’t want to put pressure on them. But you tell yourself, ‘Let’s stay at this high level. There could be some good things coming down the road.’

“The growth of travel ball has a lot to do with all the money that is being paid to the major leaguers,” he added. “[Parents] think, ‘I want to get my son some of that.’ ”

The odds of landing a scholarship or making it to the big leagues are long, even for exceptional players. The 30 major league teams each carry 25 players for most of the season, for a total of 750 roster spots. That figure has not increased since 1998, when two new franchises, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, fielded teams.

The number of college baseball scholarships has remained stable over the last decade.

Are travel ball parents fooling themselves?

“It’s an absolute longshot,” said Craig Ciandella, state director of the United States Specialty Sports Assn., the largest of travel ball’s four national governing bodies. “I think the parents get delusional sometimes about the ability of their kids, but I think travel ball exposes these kids to reality. Once you get on a bigger stage, you realize your kid is just another player.”

Travel ball has been around in one form or another for years. But lately it has been growing both in reach and intensity. Today, nearly 1,500 teams in Southern California and about 30,000 nationwide, mostly in Sun Belt states, play travel ball. The prime years are ages 7 to 14. After that, participation drops off as players join high school teams.

Bob Zamora, who has coached baseball at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo for 28 years, said travel ball makes a difference.

“The kids come into my program more polished,” he said. “Their mechanics have been honed. Their arms are in shape, and they know how to field a ground ball. I know if I’d have spent 10, 11 months a year playing baseball, I’d have gone farther in my career than high school.”

In recent years, most of the players chosen during Major League Baseball’s amateur draft have been alumni of travel ball. Of course, many might have stood out without playing travel ball; and many draftees never make it to the majors.

Still, Ciandella said, the travel ball experience could provide an edge. “Did travel ball give kids who are being drafted their natural abilities or their size? No,” he said. “But did it give them a bigger stage, get them involved in personal training and improve their skills faster? Certainly.”

That might explain the jammed parking lot one Saturday afternoon at the Big League Dreams Sports Park in Chino Hills, one of three Inland Empire parks used by travel ball teams. The publicly owned, privately managed facilities feature scaled-down versions of historic baseball stadiums.

That day, the Chino Hills park was holding a tournament that attracted teams from Northern California, Nevada and Arizona. During the daylong schedule of games, parents lounged in booths in one of two restaurants and watched college football on television, sipped microbrews and ate chicken Caesar salad.

The players, meanwhile, refined their swings in batting cages, fielded ground balls on the artificial turf or scouted their opponents from the stands.

On one of the fields, a 12-year-old from Las Vegas smacked a fastball 300 feet against an outfield wall meant to look like Fenway Park’s famed Green Monster.

The boy, Bryce Harper, stands 5 feet 10 and weighs 170 pounds. He has played on five travel ball teams in the last year -- the Redwings; the Southern California Aztecs, in south Orange County; the San Diego Stars, the Southern Nevada Bulldogs, and the Colorado Steel.

Like many top players, he’s a kind of traveling all-star, moving from team to team in search of the best competition and the greatest exposure. Most recently, he’s made the Redwings his primary commitment.

Three weekends out of four, he is on the road.

“I eat, sleep and drink baseball,” said Bryce, who will represent the U.S. this year in the Pan-American youth games in Mexico, the Goodwill youth games in China and a tournament in Australia. “I love it. It’s my dream to play in the pros. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I was 5.”

His father, Ron, an ironworker, said he doesn’t need to push his son. “I’ve had to say, ‘Look, we’re taking today off.’ Sometimes, he just drives me crazy.”

The players at the Chino Hills tournament were 11- and 12-year-olds, the same ages as those who compete in the annual Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. But that’s where the similarities between travel ball and Little League end.

Little League combines all skill levels, guarantees playing time to everyone and relies on volunteer coaches.

Travel ball teams are usually formed from Little League all-star squads. They hold competitive tryouts and do not guarantee playing time. Some coaches are parent volunteers, but a growing number are former professionals or moonlighting high school and junior college coaches.

Little League charges modest fees, typically $100 or less per season. Travel ball costs thousands of dollars a year. Many teams defray some expenses with corporate contributions. Many are set up as tax-exempt organizations to encourage donations.

Uriel Salinas, an orderly at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, said he spends about a quarter of his $40,000-plus salary on his son Uriel’s travel ball expenses. The 12-year-old is an infielder for the Aztecs.

“If I looked at it closely, I’d probably think I’m spending too much money,” Salinas said. “I’m trying to do as much as I can to make his dreams come true. He wants to be a pro baseball player.”

The Redwings are the New York Yankees of travel ball, boasting a six-figure budget and dozens of sponsors, including the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas and the Hilton Los Angeles Airport.

Owner Lupe Cruz, a labor relations consultant from Rancho Cucamonga, became aware of travel ball while trying to find better competition for his son, Erick. Three years ago, Cruz started his own team.

“I was disappointed with the level of play in Little League,” he said. “My son was far better than kids two years older than him.

“Travel ball allows you to measure yourself against the most talented kids all over Southern California and the country. And it tells you what kind of future you might have in the sport.”

Cruz recruited his players from Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties. Josh Anderson was among his prize catches.

The boy throws a 70-mph fastball, rare for a 12-year-old, and can vary the speed of his pitches, keeping hitters off balance with a change-up. He’s also a dangerous hitter. During a seven-game regional tournament, he batted .611 (a .300 average is considered excellent) and pitched a one-hitter to win the championship game.

Stan Anderson, a tile contractor, had been spending as much as $10,000 a year on travel ball costs with another club. He was looking for a team that would cover some of those costs and allow Josh to play the field as well as pitch. Anderson worried that the boy was throwing too many innings.

Cruz obliged on both counts. Now, Anderson pays only for Josh’s shoes, gloves and bats. The Redwings take care of nearly everything else: hotel rooms, plane tickets, two sets of uniforms and a daily expense allowance on certain trips.

Research suggests that Anderson was wise to look out for his son’s arm.

Playing baseball year-round can damage developing muscles and joints and lead to injuries in adulthood, studies have found.

A 1999 survey by the nonprofit American Sports Medicine Institute tracked 476 youth pitchers for a season and found that elbow and shoulder pain increased with the number of pitches thrown in a game and in a season.

Young pitchers should be limited to 75 pitches per game, and they need periodic vacations from baseball, the institute says.

“Virtually every pitching injury that requires surgery is from overuse,” said Dr. Glenn Fleisig, the institute’s director of research.

Curveballs can be especially damaging because of the wrenching motion required to impart spin to the ball.

Fleisig, who has studied pitching injuries for 15 years, tells coaches that pitchers shouldn’t throw a curveball “until they can shave.”

But in many tournaments, 8- and 9-year-olds regularly toss curveballs. The reason: At the travel ball level, pitchers can’t rely solely on fastballs; the hitters are too good.

Charlie Hedges, a parent who serves as volunteer manager of the Aztecs, encourages his son, Austin, to play basketball and lacrosse as well as baseball. He worries that too much time on the diamond could spoil the boy’s love for the sport.

“The jury’s still out on whether these kids are going to have burnout,” Hedges said. “My son is 12 and he’s already competed in 50 to 70 significant championship games. I worry when he gets to high school that he might say, ‘The thrill is gone.’ ”