I dislike travel ball/year-round sports for the same reason I dislike striver culture. It has nothing to do with opposing hard work. People who have followed me for a while know I am strong proponent of hard work and doing hard things just to do hard things. Let kids be kids. It's good to let them try all number of things and see where their talents and interests intersect. It's also good to let them do things they enjoy that might not ever matter for their career and to let them have periods of time where they don't have to do much of anything. It's not good for most people to specialize early on and be hyperfocused on a single aspect of their lives, be it sports or academics or whatever. We want to raise competent, well-rounded adults. If your kid has some outsized ability, you can still nurture that (and it will usually be pretty obvious early on). Smart kids are pretty smart across the board, athletic kids are pretty athletic across the board, etc. Putting your kid in year round baseball or hiring a math tutor at age 5 probably isn't going to move the needle very much if he doesn't have the innate tools necessary. And even if he does, he still probably doesn't need to start specializing until high school. But in all things your kids do, you should expect them to work hard and try their best. I have expectations for my children in school, sports, and at home. Could they do better if we made one of those areas the focus of all our efforts? Absolutely. But I believe that takes away from their childhood and also makes them less complete human beings. I don't want that for them, and I don't want a country full of one-dimensional people. There's a reason we call people like that bugmen.

There is a difference in being a good man and being good at being a man. Modern men focus too much on the former while neglecting the latter.

🎶'Cause I ain't going nowhere 'Cause I'm right where I belong I don't have to love it And I don't have to leave it Ain't no stranger here, I am your native son 🎶