Thanks for this. Just going off my gut instinct, I'm likely to avoid the Bulls and Canes types at all costs. Mainly for the exact reason you mentioned in that most parents just want the notoriety. It's kind of disturbing to me how the parents act above all else. It's very off putting.
I'd never admit this to my extended family, but their oldest's obsession with the Cane and Bulls is how they landed with the Canes in the first place (he couldn't make a Bulls team from what I recall). To me, he was just an okay player. But he was dead set on playing for one of those teams. This opened the door for his younger brother to follow in those footsteps. Now we sit back and watch how they've spent thousands and thousands of dollars and all of their free time traveling around the country for meaningless baseball tournaments. I said once, "When you find yourself rooting for your son to lose a game just so you don't have to come back and play again later, that should be your sign to reconsider your choices." Birthdays, church, vacations, etc...it's all altered and centered around baseball. It's just a weird lifestyle choice to me. Some kids are good enough and dedicated enough to put in the time. If that turns out to be my son, I'll completely support him. But that's not most kids...even though their parents would all suggest otherwise.
Question: How do you find the "non-organizational teams?" The big advertisers around me are Bulls, Canes, Carmel Pups, Carmel Dads Club. How do I go about finding the teams who only travel locally, etc?
