John Van Benschoten

@DanClarkSports Games being played at Yankee Stadium? Yep, that works too.

Rob Manfred said there may be a mid-season World Baseball Classic in future. Some benefits: • Higher player participation showcases a true “best vs best”. • Players in peak shape means better quality, less strict pitch counts, etc. • Breaks-up the regular season grind.

@DrNiravPandya 100%.

You can be critical of the current youth sports culture and still believe in the tremendous physical and emotional benefits of sports for kids. They are not incompatible

@SoonerNScout @DevineGospel I do not. I own eyes and ears.

@JohnnyVanBee @DevineGospel I bet you own a team.

Travel Ball is one of the biggest scams ever It Killed Little League

@weldyprep @BigMoeBaseball @ShooterHunt @mattponatoski Yeah, that’ll work. 😆

‘26 Matt Ponatoski (OH @BigMoeBaseball ) FB: 94-95 T96 🔥 (2200-2300) CB: 82-84 (2500-2700) s/m, lands CH: 86 (2100) good feel QB1 with two-way upside. Showed well in this preseason look. Upper 30 degree temps 🥶 #MLBDraft || @ShooterHunt

@nextlevelbb @NILnotNLI Agreed.

@NILnotNLI Non athlete college students shouldn't pay one penny in fees to support athletics in this environment.

University of Arkansas students overwhelmingly don't want their tuition going up in order to subsidize the school's Athletics Department (via 5News Arkansas)

@YianniMaroutsos @DevineGospel If you don’t know. I can’t help you.

@JohnnyVanBee @DevineGospel ‘Serious player.’ What’s a ‘serious player’ who’s never sniffing a scholarship? What are you going to ‘develop’ into? A great beer-league softball player?

@IronheadArmory @DevineGospel Me too. Would have loved to coach it too. But you can’t have very advanced kids play with ones that can’t catch. LL and rec says you have to, and don’t give them an advanced division so you had no choice but to go to “travel”.

@JohnnyVanBee @DevineGospel I would've loved to keep my son in rec ball and we tried, but by 10u almost everyone who could reliably catch a ball had left for travel teams. Rec leagues killed themselves.

@realist800 @DevineGospel Anything that isn’t labeled rec or little league is considered “travel” now. We used to call that select ball when I was growing up. I’m defending that which is a large portion of teams that are consider travel but don’t have the expenses that you’re talking about.

@JohnnyVanBee @DevineGospel I don’t mean to debate but just earlier you didn’t mention “Select ball” you were defending travel ball. And this pricing out has gotten so bad, many states (especially in the south) BAN travel ball being played in their state during HS baseball season.

@swillbilly @DevineGospel lol. Sure.

@JohnnyVanBee @DevineGospel 100% BS.. must be a travel coach/parent espousing the nonsense.

That’s elite travel that you speak of. Elite travel has existed since I was young but what’s replacing LL is select ball. Select ball teams don’t travel, don’t play in expensive tourneys and rec leagues let them play in what we call an open league. My son’s team doesn’t travel, plays in PG tourneys, plays high level teams and every single kid pays zero dollars. It’s possible.

@JohnnyVanBee @DevineGospel No. They hate travel ball because it prices out a lot of kids who come from working class and lower middle class families out of the sport. It also allows D1 Schools and Major League clubs to cut back and consolidate their scouting to select showcases and events.

@mcuban Hell yeah. Thank you, Mark.

Everyone wants me to rip on TrumpRx. Reality is, it’s saving patients money on IVF and a few other drugs. A lot of money. IMO, anything that saves patients money is a win. And they truly do have some great people that are making smart moves. You just don’t know their names. Chris Klomp. Mark Atalla, Abe Sutton and so many more. When you talk to them, and see the work they put in, it’s obvious they are focused on trying to do the right thing for patients. Don’t forget they didn’t give the insurance industry a price increase they wanted, and those stock prices got crushed. TrumpRx is just getting started. @costplusdrugs is just getting started.

@DustyBakerTV Amen

I’ve genuinely loved watching the #WorldBaseballClassic this year. Regardless of the outcome tonight, this year has been a tremendous success and I believe the WBC has done the job it needed to of growing the game.

Keeping teams together regardless of record is a much bigger issue than people think. Especially at the rec level. If they can’t be on a good team, if they’re not a very good player, at least the family has some continuity and consistency playing with the same kids, coaches, and families. Instead they have evals, drafts, keepers, etc….(To me, it causes corruption). Parents hate all that stuff.

When the average age that kids quit youth baseball is around 10.5 yrs old, obsessing about playing up to “get them ready” and in turn having crappy in-game experiences seems fairly misaligned. Meet them where they are.

@DevineGospel It’s simply because the player/family wanted more out of it and LL wouldn’t evolve. I’ve been there, seen it, been in those meetings. They hate travel because it steals their good players and they get butt hurt, stomp their feet and talk shit. Time to evolve. Sorry.

Nah. LL killed itself. A serviceable LL is only successful in small towns and it’s understood that that’s what the entire town does. Any sort of suburban area with some population….yeah no chance. Travel is the way to go if you want to play good completion, get coached well and develop. LL is not for developing, it’s for sport participation. If that’s what you want out of it, go ahead but for the serious player, LL is not an option anymore and that’s their fault.

@jaysonst Hell yeah

The WBC was awesome. But what if they played the last 3 rounds in July, in the same week as the All Star Game? As I wrote last week, that would create the greatest week of baseball ever. nytimes.com/athletic/71102…

@Chase_Senior The sport is bigger than both the owners and the players. Bout time they both start realizing that.

MLB cannot go on a strike. The sport is as hot, as exciting and as good as ever. Gotta continue to capitalize.

@BaseballDudes48 Parents should only be allowed to see the stats when their kid gets to HS varsity.

Imagine having an outsider, un-biased, third party running the GameChanger and scoring every hit, error, passed ball, wild pitch, fielders choice, stolen base, and indifference by the rules. This person might end up being hated more than the umpires!! 😂😂

Really don’t understand why there’s so much negativity towards USA baseball. All these players play here, train here, raise families here, pay taxes here, are welcomed here…. The WBC is a celebration of our AMERICAN pastime and it was epic! I don’t care where they were born and what flag they play under. It was a fantastic tournament and I hope it keeps building.

@DMAC_LA Putting all the economics and logistics aside I like number 3 the best. Put it’s always about the economics.

Biggest takeaways from attending the World Baseball Classic: 1. Baseball is hotter than it's been in a LONG time. 2. Winning a WBC Championship means more to most of these players than winning a World Series. 3. The Tournament 100% needs to be played in the summertime.