Bobble:

You would know where all of those places are. Although it would not seem like it to most, we are actually on easy street right now (compared to a year or so ago), as far as time commitment to baseball.

I had one absolutely priceless moment on the weekend. We played an exhibition game against one of the teams that cut my son a year or so ago. I had to take my video camera set-up to the other side of the field to get the right shot of my son out on the mound. While I was filming I heard a parent from the other team saying "Boy, we should have a Pitcher like this guy." Well folks, you did... A couple of innings later, the coach moved his infield out and shifted his outfield until RF was at Center (my son had pulled a long 2 RBI double in his prior at-bat) for my son's plate appearance. To no avail: another 1 RBI double ripped through those fielders!

Needless to say, there was a different emotion felt on the drive home last weekend, than the one felt a couple of years back!

Now back to serious BB.

D

I am in the middle of the road on playing up. I am 15, and a few years ago, when I was 12, I was playing in a U15 league, and I rarely ever got to play. I got no practice, and no work in, I actually got worse, except thatI did get to experience what faster pitching is like. Now, in high school, I am used to fast pitchers, because i saw what it was like, and I worked on it in the cages with machines, etc. and even though my fielding suffered, my batting got much better. I would only play up if you are sure you can compete up to the level. Another anecdote, this year we are playing in a league, and there is a team made of pretty much all 13 year olds, and everyone on our team is 14 and 15, and they have lost almost every game. Their coach said they were really good in their age group, so they played up and now they are getting their rear ends kicked.

I think it can be beneficial and fun for the player.
I personally always wanted to play up because my goal has alwaysb een taking it to the next level.It was frustrating in 7th grade when you had infielders in rec ball who were commiting error after error.Thus in the 8th grade I played competative ball,playing in about 2-3 tournaments a month.

I liked it,and the ballfields where a good portion of our games where at was 10 minutes away.You cant beat it!