Private Youth Sports! Why Are Parents Spending So Much Time and Money on It? Are Kids Sports Careers Over If They're Not Playing? Is the Income Inequality Any Different than Other Youth Activities?

The Best Paragraph I've Read: “I need you to take him.” The father on the phone was upset. If his 10-year-old son did not make the team at the $2,500-per-season private baseball club where I coached, the boy would lose friends and the family’s routines would be upended, he argued. They would have to drive to another suburb for ball games. Looking for a deeper, more forceful argument, the dad added: “This team is our community.” The privatization of American youth sports over the past 40 years is one of those revolutions of late-stage capitalism that should shock us more than it does. We have commodified the play of millions of children into a $19.2 billion business, weakening volunteer-based programs that promise affordable sports for all children. It is a trend mirrored by our schools, hospitals and military. Once-proud public institutions are being privatized, with many unintended consequences. For millions of American families, paying private for-profit clubs—euphemistically termed “travel teams”—thousands of dollars a year to organize athletic games for their children is now an unquestioned way of life that shapes family routines, work schedules and commutes. That is why I was sympathetic to the angry dad’s argument and, in the end, took his son for the team. This paragraph comes from www.americamagazine.org.  The article is titled: "How America Sold Out Little League Baseball."  The article is written by John W. Miller.  You can read the rest of the article here: https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/05/19/catholic-youth-sports-little-league-club-baseball-243016 Zac and Don talk about the rise of youth sports culture.  They wonder if its good for parents and kids to take sports so seriously at a young age.  They talk about why parents are willing to spend so much time and money on club sports.  They also talk about the future of baseball in America.