Travel baseball is full of aspiring athletes hoping to make it on a college team, but the financial hurdles to get there are often overlooked.
“For my son's experience, his love of the game, it’s worth the grind. It's worth the money. It's worth the extra overtime I need to put in at my job to get my son hopefully to the next level,” said Mike DeRosa, father of16-year-old baseball player Andrew DeRosa.
Tournament fees can range from $995 to $1,695 per team, costing individual players and their families. The tournaments will charge different amounts for various reasons: The games guaranteed per tournament, how many divisions there are and how many age groups sign up.
A popular tournament hosting organization in travel baseball is Perfect Game, offering tournaments around the United States and providing individual showcases. Perfect Game is also considered to be the largest scouting service, hosting more than 1,000 annual tournaments.
Luis De La Cruz played baseball in the minor league all the way up to Triple-A. He currently coaches youth baseball in an effort to get his kids to the next step.
“I believe Perfect Game tournaments are the No. 1 thing that is really helping the kids. This is one of the biggest steps for kids where people can look at their stats and see their improvements over time,” said De La Cruz. “Playing in Perfect Game tournaments is where the competition is, along with the college and major league scouts to watch their performance.”
Aside from tournament fees, the tournaments charge spectators a $10 admissions fee per day to walk onto the fields. This is on top of paying for team fees, hotels, food, gas and flying expenses throughout the duration of the tournaments every year. Perfect Game tournaments can last anywhere from two days to over a week.
“Travel baseball expenses are off the charts. In my situation, I have to pay for a nurse to stay with my wife every time I leave, so that’s another expense for me,” DeRosa said.
There are many families who aren’t able to afford the hefty cost of travel baseball and often stick to recreational teams or play for their middle school and high school teams.
“Sometimes high school levels are not really the best level,” said De La Cruz.
Brendan Peck, a University of Florida student, had a passion for baseball and was on the varsity team for his high school but didn’t have the ability to attend travel tournaments for exposure.
“It really sucks seeing some of the less talented players on the team get an opportunity to play in college because they could afford to spend thousands of dollars every summer,” said Peck. “The only scouts that ever attended our high school games were pro scouts there to watch one specific player, and occasionally a local college or university coming to watch a player who is already committed to their school.”
Peck said this is where a strong divide is created between financial classes of families in the baseball world. Many people can’t afford the extreme costs of hotels every weekend, dining out every meal, as well as the tournament and travel fees.
Peck mentioned that he played baseball with his twin brother, so “all the expenses would be twice as much.”
Furthermore, most of the travel players do additional hitting, pitching or batting lessons on top of their team practices and games. A few lessons a week or a month adds up quickly.
Apart from De La Cruz coaching his youth teams, he provides extra lessons for any baseball player who wants to get more practice in.
“My goal is to give them advice, all the things I know about baseball, and my passion and my love for baseball,” De La Cruz said.