All;
It appears that I struck a chord with this article. We have a discussion here about this subject, and another discussion on a private board, and I have received emails.
I was wrong. This is a nationwide phenomenon. Several posters have told me over the years that the general insanity in baseball that I describe is unique to the DC area. Since $2500 travel baseball is insane, I assumed that it was unique to high income areas like Northern VA.
Boy, was I wrong. On the private posting site, a poster described a select league where kids parents pay $375 per double header to have their kids play. No refunds for rainouts. Someone else mentioned a $3500 charge to join a travel league. Legion coaches were paid $8000 for a 9 week season. How many umpires are making $8000 in 9 weeks. OK, MLB umpires do but not even AAA umpires get that kind of dough.
There are a lot of articles here that you all could write and Carl would pay you. Our local team (Mclean VA,) just won the LL Girls Softball World Series. McLean is an ultrarich suburb of DC where the rich and powerful politicians live. Rumor has it that their LL World Series victory was a quarter million dollar multiyear project that bent all the rules.
Sounds like an article for the Washington Post.
Peter
[Edited by His High Holiness on Aug 19th, 2005 at 03:24 PM]