A

Welcome back to another episode of the most valuable Asian podcast. I'm here today with my producer Mike, and we are going to do another Q and A episode where we are going to answer questions from real travel baseball parents about a number of different topics. So, Mike, talk to me, buddy. What do we got today?

B

We're going to talk about the cost, more importantly, the real cost of travel baseball. And so we got a couple questions today from listeners and viewers of the show. First of all, thank you guys so much. We appreciate you for taking the time out of your day to send us questions and allowing us the opportunity to help you guys out in your travel baseball journey. So Matt, the first question we have is Ken from Toledo. And Ken writes. Matt, I grew up watching and listening and seeing footage of Babe Ruth and the American Legion. There wasn't all this like travel baseball stuff and we had guys go to college in the pros. Do you think kids today actually need travel baseball to make it to the big leagues or is that a story? We're all just being sold.

A

Appreciate the perspective and, and just to make sure that I'm hearing everything clearly, obviously I know the listener wasn't alive when, when Babe Ruth was around.

B

I think, yeah, I, I, Ken kind of came in a little hot. I think he was, I think it was a little bit about like, from what I got from it, at least it's, you know, back in the day, Babe Ruth's playing hundreds of games. These guys are playing, not playing travel baseball. They're like smoking cigarettes and beers like, you know, back in the day. And now we're like making sure kids are doing recovery and longevity drills and like working on their arms and you know, baseball, baseball, baseball the entire time. That's what I at least got from it.

A

And look, I think on some level it's smart for all of us to pause for a moment and say, look, with, with the advent of travel baseball, are there elements of travel baseball that add value to players abilities? And I think undoubtedly the answer to that is yes. Right. Like, obviously if a player is able to have access to better coaching, more games, more quality games, that's going to help a player's development. So there's certainly a benefit from playing travel baseball on some level. Now I think where we get into hot water is everybody just makes the assumption that it's only positive, that there's no negative. And even saying that, I think everybody who would hear it would recognize, well, that's not entirely true right there. There are certainly negative, negative components to being a participant in travel baseball. Right. And let's talk about some of those. The cost, right? Just the financial cost. Obviously, playing travel baseball compared to Little League is a completely different animal. Right? You're having to pay for not only the entry fees, but you're probably having to pay for being a part of a program. Right. Whether that's monthly or for the summer. You're having to pay for flights, rental cars, just, you know, the hotels, the food, all of that stuff starts adding up. And so there's certainly an added negative component to this that if you want to participate in travel baseball, well, on some level, like there is a buy in price to being able to do that. So where my mind goes and where, if you asked me, well, Matt, knowing all of this, how do you think parents and players can come out of this thing enjoying the positive things, but not necessarily, you know, negatively affected by some of the negative things? And I would say that that would be a great question. And so the way I think parents ultimately can do that is not to buy into what everybody else is doing. Right? Recognize the unique situation that you're in as a parent. Okay. You have a son who's at a certain age and depending on that age, if he wants to play baseball at the next level, there are certain, there are certain things that he's going to have to do. Right. The, the thing I tell parents all the time is the number one thing a player should really be focused on is his development. Okay, so what does that look like? Well, that may not look like you having to play in every single tournament throughout the year. What that could look like is regionally or locally. You have a hitting coach if it's a hitter, you have an infield coach if he's an infielder, you have a pitching coach if he's a pitcher. And you really spend a lot of time working on the kids game well in advance of participating in events. That is one way where you can really receive the benefit at the lowest cost. Now there's still a cost though, right? Like hiring a coach is going to cost some money, but that's also not 100% required, depending on your son's age and ability. There are plenty of kids nowadays who don't have these individualized coaches and they're getting their instruction through their travel baseball program. So if I was a parent today, what I would do is I would start with who's my son? What are his abilities? How old is he? How good do I think he is? Where do I think as a parent he needs to get Better. And I recognize that you may not feel like you have all the answers to that, but I would start there and then I would add into that, what is our financial picture as a family? Do we have the resources? If we wanted to go to every event we possibly could throughout the year, the answer to that is either yes or no. Right? There's probably not a like, well, kinda like no. I mean, you either have the resources to do it or you don't. Now, if you have the resources, I, I'm not saying to do it. I'm saying you have the resources. That's one box to check. But it's not the reason why you should just go do everything. You need to be led first with what is our plan as a family if your son is 10 years old? Okay, and I'll, and I'll. I'm going to paint a, a very clear picture for you. I want you to consider kind of three different and separate age groups. Okay. 9 to 13 is one age group. 14 and 15 is a second age group. And then 16 to 18 is a third age group. So if we're going to start with the first age group, that age group, their focus, number one, needs to be head and shoulders development above anything else. Once they have a foundation of development and once they've learned the game and they have the baseball iq, then you can go one step further and you can say, okay, we have the development piece handled. It's not just like we're going to do that and then stop and then move on to the second thing. No, we're going to do that and then add an element to it. And the second piece is competition. Okay, we're going to add competition and we're going to add certain select events that we're going to go to. Could be regionally, could be nationally. To now test out, how is our development working for us? Are we developing as well as we need to? Do we need to develop a little bit more? Are we as good as some of these other players? Let's just say if it was a national event nationally, where he may be the better kid regionally. But now we're testing out the development on a national level. Okay, that's the second step. And then for the first age group, there is no third step. That is, those are the number. Those are the two most important things that you need to kind of focus on. Now, the second age group is the age of 14 and 15. Now, for them, they've already kind of nailed hopefully the development piece. If they haven't yet because your son, let's just say just started playing baseball not too long ago, which is also totally fine. Then you need to then go back to just like the 9 to 13 year olds and you have to nail the development piece. You got to spend time and you need to develop. And the same thing would apply to you and as it does for the first age group where then once you've developed, you introduce the competition piece. But for the sake of this conversation, let's assume that that player at 14 and 15, they've already have that foundation built up of, of development. Then they add that competition piece and now they can expand the level of competition beyond solely regionally based and then go nationally. Okay, again, that doesn't mean you have to do it every single event. You can pick and choose what events to go to. And we're going to do a separate episode on that very soon. So look out for that. The third age group is 16 to 18. Now why, why the age group 16 to 18? Because for rising juniors who are essentially 16 years old, if not a little bit older, their August 1st of their junior season is the first time that a D1 college program can actually make contact with you. Now maybe they've seen you before, but that's the first time that they can actually reach out. And so the reason I'm bringing that up is because the third component outside of development and competition is exposure. Okay, so let's assume for a second. If you follow my, my three age groups, if your son is 16 years old, then chances are he's already participated in the 9 to 13 age group where development was his focus. He's already participated in the 14 and 15 age group where competition was his focus. And now he can introduce this idea of exposure, but exposure at the right time, wanting now to be seen by the right people who can recruit him for kind of the next step in his journey. Okay, why am I talking about this? Because I think the mistake more than ever that is being made, this is like the number one thing that most families don't understand early is they are led to believe that exposure is the number one piece from the very beginning at nine years old, we've got to go and we've got to go to all these events and we've got to go be seen. And if we, we don't do that stuff now, then by the time he can be recruited, nobody will know who he is. No, you can literally go to no events and only work on development. And if you've done that well and you've Played in some local regional stuff, maybe hasn't been seen nationally, maybe hasn't been seen by any of these college recruiting coordinators. And at 16, that is the first time you're choosing to go to some of these national travel ball events. If that's what you did and your son is good enough, I'm telling you, you're not behind. But what I've recognized is so many parents, they're led to believe that exposure is the most important piece because it's what travel baseball in the industry tells you it should be. And so now what happens is you spent all of this money up until that point, and now you're in the whole 20, 40, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you're wondering what it's all for, right? You're now 16 and you're realizing, we just did all of that and now my son's not being recruited. What's going on? Well, it's because you shouldn't have spent all that money. You should have been focused more on the development and the competition. And this naturally, is a byproduct of doing those things well. And so at 16 to 18, now, that's the first time that exposure should actually be on your list of priorities. Because everybody hears the word exposure and what they think is like, oh, well, we just have to go be seen. No, no. Exposure is evidence, right? You're leaving them with evidence as to whether or not you're somebody who deserves the exposure or you're not. But evidence nonetheless is going to leave them with some impression. What impression do you want to leave them? You want to leave them believing that your son isn't good? No. So then why do you need to worry about getting exposed at 13 years old if you can't be recruited by a college? Right? And I did a podcast not too long ago, and I had a ton of parents reach out to me, and I had some players that had gone through the programs and did this before. And a lot of people, I basically made a podcast, and the title of the podcast was nobody's scouting 11 year olds, right? And a lot of people were commenting saying that's not true. I know a bunch of people scouting 11 year olds. And my point is, is that the people in this business who matter to your son's future, they're not scouting 11 year olds, they're not scouting 13 year olds, they're not scouting 15 year olds, they're scouting 16 to 18 year olds. Now, travel baseball programs certainly will scout younger kids, but the point I was making in the Episode, which I'm again going to give you right now is the people scouting the players before 16. They're, they're in it for something for them, right? A travel baseball program that's scouting an 11 year old. They're asking you to come to their program so you can pay them money. So of course they're going to scout you. What I'm saying is, as a parent, who cares, right? If you want to play for a better program because you think that they're offering a development piece that you need, that's okay, assuming you can afford it, go do it. But don't be led by this belief that, no, we just have to be seen irregardless of our development, as though somehow just being seen is the thing that matters. No, I mean, and we'll talk about, you know, if I used like a basketball analogy, like Steph Curry being a terrible basketball player. Doesn't matter what tournaments he goes to, he sucks. But Steph Curry spending all the time that he did developing his game, when he went to a basketball event, everybody realized, this kid's good. Now what's funny about Steph Curry, people forget this. He went to Davidson, he didn't go to, you know, Alabama, he didn't go to Tennessee, he didn't go to North Carolina or Duke. He went to Davidson. He, I mean, if that's not a perfect indication of like what development was, that just goes to show you, it's like everybody's journey is different. And I'll give you a baseball player right now, and I've talked about it on this podcast before, I didn't represent him, but Evan Longoria as an example. Evan Longoria wasn't drafted out of high school, went to a junior college, then went to Long Beach State and was the third overall pick in the draft. Got to the big leagues very quickly, signed for a lot of money and made a ton of money in his career. So think about that and ask yourself, what does that story tell me about whether or not we should be led to believe at 11 years old that we should be going to all these various events? That's just fear mongering. They're trying to scare you into doing something. And what I'm saying is, don't let the people who are benefiting from you financially talk you into doing it unless you're choosing to do it because it fits within your overall plan, if that makes sense. So, Mike, I mean, that was such a long winded answer. I, I, I'm not sure if I, I nailed the, the answer. To this specific question, I. I know that just generally. What the. What. What was his name? Ken.

B

Yeah. Ken.

A

Yeah. What. What I know Ken is ultimately getting at is, look, when. And I'll speak for myself, like, when I was coming up and I was playing, you know, high school baseball, there was no travel baseball. When I was done with high school, I went and played American Legion baseball. And then after American Legion baseball, I had the chance to play in college, but I didn't have a scholarship, so I decided to go to a junior college. I then went to a junior college for two years. I then went to Long Beach State, and then I got into this business. And so the time. The time that, you know, I'm 45 years old, the time that. Or I shouldn't say the time, but the access that we had to the things that people have access to today, it was just a different game. It was vastly different. And so if you're a parent and you're just merely saying, well, I wish it was different, I don't think that that's solving any problems. Don't. Don't say, well, look, when I was coming up, we didn't do this, so you shouldn't do it either. I also think that misses you benefiting from what travel baseball could give you. Um, so I think the smartest family is one who understands all this stuff and then makes decisions, recognizing there is a cost here. There is something that we could do that is going to cost us money, time, energy, and potentially affect us negatively. But there's also a way to do it to where we can tap into the benefit of it and then not have to just completely, you know, roll over and just be taken advantage of at the same time. So, Ken, I appreciate the question. Uh, Mike, what. What. What do we got on the next one?

B

Yeah, so we got Jim from Naperville, and Jim writes, let's see if I can find the question. Okay, here it is. So Jim writes, hey, Matt, my kid sits most games, and I'm writing a $3,000 check for the season. Am I just paying to develop the starters at this point? When is a roster spot you're paying for not worth it?

A

Jim, thank you for your question. Did he say how old his kid was?

B

He did not say how old he was.

A

That's okay.

B

But I could. I could tell that he's. I could tell that this has been an ongoing problem. Just based on the way that that question was being phrased. This is. This must be a long standing problem.

A

Yeah, I think underneath every question, there's a lot of information that the person has given. They're telling you, like, what perspective they're coming at this problem from. And if I had to assume, here's a dad who is, you know, he's spending a lot of money, you know, is. Is trying to. Is willing to spend the money, but wants to know that there's a benefit from spending the money. And. And it sounds like he's not receiving that benefit. And so again, where I would caution parents is you really need to address these problems long before you sign up and agree to pay for a certain program. And the questions that I would be asking as I figure out the travel ball program that I would want my son to play for is I would have a conversation with the coach and I would ask him specifically, what plan do you guys have in place? How do you develop players? Number one. Number two, can you give me specific examples of guys who, like my son, maybe were in a similar place? And through your coaching and through your expertise and through your program, you helped develop them into be a better player. And I would hope that that coach or that program would give you more than just one guy. Where you want to be somewhat cautious is a lot of these travel ball coaches, they're going to post on social media, you know, this. This one particular player that plays for their program. And the reason I say I would caution you from just buying into that is you don't know if that player started playing with them at 10, and that coach was highly influential in that player's development. You don't know if that player played with them one tournament and they had nothing to do with his development. And so this is your way of getting that answer. And so for this particular question, I think if. If this dad would have had this conversation leading up to this, what it also does is let's assume for a second this dad had that conversation. Now, if the son is not playing and he's still spending the money and he's not developing, well, now you can have a meeting with the coach, and you can have a very respectful meeting with the coach. And, and you could say, look, we talked about this before we signed up with you. You said specifically this is what we were going to do. We have not seen it happen. So one of two things I'm asking you needs to happen. Okay? Number one, I need you to do the things that you said you were going to do. Number two, my son needs to at some point start playing or we're just going to be forced to go find another program. We're not going to pay the money and then not ultimately have any sort of benefit attached to it. So that's going to solve a lot of the problems. But there's a third component to this that I think you have to consider, and that's. Is your son doing his part? Right? If the coach says to you in response to that, well, we've wanted to work with your son, but every time I text him or ask him to show up for this development, let's just say it's, you know, this cage work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he's not able to be available. So we're not the reason why he's not developing. He's not showing up like that. If I'm a coach and that's happening, that's the first thing that I'm saying. So you have to recognize that the player plays a role, as does the family, in whether or not that player is. Is doing his part to develop. But for this question, let's assume that the player is. I think having that conversation in advance of signing up for that program is going to solve all these things. Travel baseball just in itself is. Isn't this, like, magic pill that you're going to take and, like, is going to equate to success down the road? Just because you play travel baseball doesn't mean you're going to guarantee yourself a scholarship. Just because you play for a certain program doesn't mean that you're going to go to LSU one day and win a national title in the College World Series. Right. Like, you on some level have a, have a part in that journey. And so I think you have to recognize early. And that's why I say have this conversation before because there needs to be a plan. And everything becomes a lot easier when these conversations are had in the infancy stages rather than after a period of years and then learning that it didn't work out. So the other thing, the last thing that I'll add to this, this, this question that this father asks is, you know, I think sometimes parents are like, oh, we play for this travel ball program. And in their mind, if the kid's 13, they're like, well, we're going to play with them from 13 to 18. Well, no, I would take it year by year. I would stay with that program as long as they're developing him and adding value to his baseball journey. The minute they stop adding value, then I would stop and pause. And if you've had the conversation in advance, identify why isn't he developing? Is he not developing? Because the program has no plan. They're not doing what they said they were going to do. They're at fault. Or is the reason he's not developing because our son hasn't done what he should do. He's not developing at the level that they were expecting. And if that's the case, parents, you've got to. You've got to look in the mirror a little bit and you have to recognize, is my son, does he have the talent to play for this program? Where I want to caution families is, you know, choosing to play for one of the better programs. You're not going to get better through just being around these players and like, through osmosis, just being close to them. You're going to get better because of the instruction and then the work ethic that the kid has and his desire to want to work diligently on his game. That's how you're going to get better. You don't just get better miraculously. So I think all of those things need to be considered well in advance of just forking over $3,000 to play for a program.

B

Yeah. And then I think, like, the other thing that comes to mind, too, before we move on to the next question specifically, is, you know, Jim represents a, what I would assume, Matt, a growing demographic of parents who are so frustrated and expect results so quickly from their kid, to be the starter, to be the leadoff hitter, to be the. The kid that every single travel ball team wants them to be the star player for their team that gets recruited by high schools and colleges and makes it to the major leagues at 11 years old, and this seems like such a really high expectation for parents to have on their kids. And I'm assuming this is not the first time you're hearing about this, nor is it ever going to be the last time, but if a parent's listening to this right now and going, you know what, like it's been, you know, two years and we've been doing this, do we stop because the kid's not developing, or do parents need to have a even longer timeline? Maybe two years is a little bit long, but I just wanted to get your thoughts around that.

A

Yeah, I think it depends on what the parent and the family's overall goal is. If the goal is the player wants to play at the next level, whether that's college or pro ball, and he has the capability, meaning he has the talent to do that. I think you really need to consider, if it's not happening, why is it not happening? And, you know, if the let's just assume for a second, you know, you commit to playing for a couple years and the kid's just not developing. On some level, the answer to that may be, well, maybe he's just not that good. And so if you choose to keep doing it, the reason I said start with what your goal is. I just did an episode, funny enough with Danny Espinosa, former client of mine and also former major league player, who he coaches his. His sons today.

B

And.

A

And he told me something that was. I mean, it was actually a breath of fresh air to hear. And I think it's interesting when you have a former major leaguer saying this, because I would encourage a lot of families who maybe didn't play in the major leagues to. To ask themselves, do they have the same belief? But he said, Matt, any. And he complimented his parents on this. He said, the reason why I appreciate what my parents did is they never made it about, you know, the scholarship. They never made it about getting to pro ball. It was all about the enjoyment factor. And what he said in the way that they, you know, described what was a win was if when all is said and done, does the kid say to his parents, it's okay, I love you, right? And that may sound a little, you know, cheesy and whatever, but I think the point is, is if the goal is only to get a scholarship and that means that you have to ruin your relationship with your son in order to get it, are you willing to do that? And I would assume every parent who's listening to this would say no. But I think what happens is parents think it's a. Both. And like, we can have a good experience and we can have our kids love us, and the answer to that is yes, you undoubtedly can. But if your son doesn't have the talent and you're forking over all this money, and then he eventually gets to a place where he's not enjoying it, and you're only playing because you're forcing him to recognize that there is a byproduct of that strategy where it could turn into something bad, where he's, like, frustrated with you, starts to resent you because he's not playing for himself anymore. He's merely playing because he's afraid of what's going to happen if you tell him or if he tells you that he doesn't want to play anymore. And so that leads to kind of a different point here where, you know, parents, how. How are you? What is your role in this? Right? You're. You're a guide but, but this isn't your career. You're not the one competing, right? You're, you're there to add value to the experience, not take away value. And so that's where I think a lot of parents need to look in the mirror and really ask themselves, is that how I'm acting with my son? Last thing I'll say on that point is I did an event with a mental skills coach who works a lot with professional athletes, baseball, you know, soccer, basketball, Olympic players. And he and I did this event in San Diego and we called the event the Parents Playbook. And he and I are working on various other events that we're going to do and we're going to release an ebook and we're going to do a bunch of things on this. Because what we recognized in response to this event was that parents, they're so hungry for the information. And what I ultimately, and we ultimately want to provide to them isn't just this concept or this theory. It's, it's really to give them the actionable steps of things that they should consider, things that they should do and steps that they need to take in order to ultimately get to a place where their relationship is solid after the fact. So that being kind of the cornerstone of all of this, because I do believe, because I've seen it happen, players can play at the highest level and become the best versions of themselves and still have a fantastic relationship with their parents. It's not an either or, right? There's a dad that comes to mind who was a father of two NFL players and he takes the opposite approach. And his, his, his attitude is basically, I create killers, right? Look at my sons. My sons made it to the NFL. And let me tell you how I did it. I beat them into the ground every single day. I, I taught them really what it means to work hard. Now in, in his specific example, it worked, right? He has two NFL players. But I would, I would get really curious and I would almost wonder, even though his sons got to the NFL and are flourishing in the NFL, what is their relationship like? And maybe it's good, but don't be a parent who just assumes that like, oh, well, I'm going to do that too. And there's no negative that can come from it. More likely than not, and I've seen this happen a ton of times, the parent who takes that hard ass approach, more likely than not, there is a negative residual outcome where the parent and the son are disconnected. And even if in the off chance your son makes it and Gets to the big leagues. Because I've had players who have done this, too. You know, oftentimes there's this negative piece and, like, the. The kid and the. And the. The dad primarily, that they don't have a good relationship. Right, right. They don't talk. The player still resents them. They. They deal with adults in a certain way, all based on how their parent treated them. And so just recognize, like, if you want to take that approach, it's your right. You're his parent. But don't think that there's no negative repercussions from doing so. So that was a. A very long winded answer, Mike. But I think it was an important point that this father raised. So if we move on from that one, let's go to the next. Do we have another question today?

B

All right, Tom from Louisville writes. All right, Matt. Is travel ball actually develop my. Developing my son or is it a status thing? Half the families on our team look down on rec leagues like they're beneath us. And I can't tell if I'm in it for him or for me.

A

Oh, interesting. That is a common thing.

B

It's a status thing. It seems like a status thing.

A

It's also great awareness by this. By this dad. I think the fact that this father has already acknowledged that he's asking the question, am I in this for me or am I in this for my son? The question specifically was, is travel baseball developing my son?

B

Yeah. Or is it. Yeah, let me. Is traveling. Yes. Travel baseball actually developing my son, or is it a status thing? So it looks like maybe in his community, he's kind of getting a little bit of, like, the side eye, you know, like. Or. There's not a whole lot of question.

A

But yeah, he. He did say something interesting, though, is he said people look down on rec ball.

B

Yes. Yeah.

A

Yeah. I do think that there are a lot of parents today who think if you play, like, locally, let's just say in Babe Ruth or like, Little League or rec league, that you can't possibly develop or eventually be a guy who becomes a star player in Major League Baseball. And. And the reality of that is, like, no, that's. That's completely false. You have to ask the question. We talked about it on this episode. There's. There's a benefit of playing travel baseball, but there's also a cost. So the benefit of playing recognize what that is. And. And think about if we're just playing rec ball, are we getting the same benefit? And maybe you are. If your son is nine years old. But in my experience, as you get older, on some level, you're going to have to get to a place right. Like early. We talked about the three ages, right? The three age groups recognize that if my son is now 16, if you're only still playing rec ball, you're probably not developing because you're not adding that competition component to you, to your, to your son's game. And so maybe he's not getting as good as he possibly can be. He's not being tested as much. Maybe he's being surrounded by a bunch of players who really aren't as good as others. And so there is an element to this where travel baseball does allow you to play against better players. So if you're choosing to play rec ball, do so knowing maybe what you're giving up by playing that. So I personally, I don't think the answer is parents should think of rec ball in like a black and white fashion. Like it's either good or bad. No, rec ball can be really good, but up to a certain point. And then at that point, you really do need to test your son's game against some of the better competition and see where he's at. So I would just, I would challenge this dad and first I want, I would compliment the dad by saying, good on you for having some self awareness. But also I think where I would challenge this dad is to say, think about, you know, if all we're going to do is, is play rec ball, what is our bigger goal here? And more importantly, what is your son's bigger goal? If he wants to play at the next level, then you're going to have to get outside of that comfort zone a little bit, assuming that's in the cards for them financially.

B

Yeah. And I think one more thing before we kind of take it home for this episode is status seems to be a pretty big topic within travel baseball because then it becomes maybe a reputation thing where it's like, oh, my son's the best player. My son's playing travel baseball. And I'm assuming with your interactions of, with parents and families who have these aspiring pro baseball players that they are sometimes a little bit maybe inundated with, you know, what does this look like to everybody else? What does it look like for me that my kids either playing in a rec league or playing travel baseball. Some thoughts on that?

A

Yeah, I think the mistake parents make is they get bought into the whole ranking system. And look, what does the ranking system do? Right. I think if the outcome is, and this is actually a conversation I had with a player who, who we're advising currently. I had a long conversation with them about what brings them confidence. Right. Does the result bring you confidence? Meaning if you're getting ranked, is that why you're confident? Are you confident because you go four for four, but the minute you go over four, you're not confident anymore? Like, if that is what is happening, I think that that is a huge mistake. And what you're ultimately building behind the scenes is a player who is solely relying on playing a game of failure, which is what baseball is expecting. Perfection, right? So the only time this player is ever going to be confident is when he performs well. Well, guess what? Like, you get out, right, you're going to strike out. You're not going to be perfect the rest of your career. And so if that particular player is not built for that, then the chances of him having success at the next level become less and less. And so I think as a family, we need to sit back and recognize the value of failure. And like, think about this. What, what is failure really? Failure is an opportunity to get better. It's an opportunity. So how do we train our kids to recognize that that's what failure is? They've got to fail. They've got to experience it, they got to go through it. I've talked about this thing on the podcast before. Austin Riley gets drafted in the first round, goes to the lower level of the minor leagues, is over 26, with like 19 strikeouts to start his career. Right? That's a perfect example. Like, he had to go through that failure and he had to experience what it felt like. And then more importantly, he had to make an adjustment and figure out how to get out of it. And what that ultimately added to his game was now he recognized down the road when that will happen again, because undoubtedly it will. He knows that he can get out of it. And he's not just going to hit the panic button and say, my career's over. And so those things show themselves all the time in a player's career. And so I think when you think about the ranking system, the reason why so many families and players both are so attached to it is because it makes you feel good. It's artificial, though. It doesn't mean anything. It's not that if you get ranked number one in the class at 13, that you're guaranteed to get a full ride scholarship to the University of Texas. No Texas is going to evaluate your son when he's 16 years old. And more importantly, you, even if your son is number one at 16, years old and he commits to Texas if for some reason now, at that point, at 18 years old, that player no longer develops and isn't one of the better kids. All Texas will do, all any program would do is say, look, man, you know, you're committed here, but you're, you're not going to play here. Like, you haven't done what you've needed to do to develop. And so what good is it to be ranked high if the development piece isn't taken care of? And so again, going back to our first component of this interview or this episode, that's why development needs to be the most important piece. So again, every family listening to this, I, I know that what you heard in this episode is a lot of it depends. And what I want you to understand is it does, it depends on a lot of various things. And so it's not binary. It's not either good or bad. It's not that you're going to have success or failure. If you're failing at nine, doesn't mean you're not going to be, you know, good and having success at 18. It's all possible, it's all in the cards. But there are very strategic steps that you as a parent need to take leading up to getting to be 16, 17, 18 years old that will have an effect on his success down the road. And that's where I want to make sure that you're at least aware of that stuff so that you're doing things well in the beginning. So, everybody today, I appreciate obviously the, the time and attention that you're taking to listen to these episodes. As I've said here before, this entire podcast is built to add immense value to you. So we, you know, Mike and I both, we take it to heart when you guys send us questions. These are things that I want to address on the podcast. So if, if you guys have a question listening to this for a future episode, send me an email@mattostvaluableagent.com you know, shoot me the email if you don't want us to tell them your name. No problem. I'm more interested in solving the problem for you and really any other family going forward in the future. So thank you again. If you like the episode, like it on YouTube, share it with, with another family who's potentially going to benefit from it. And until next time, we'll see you.