ARLINGTON, Texas _ A catcher on a little league baseball team that went all the way to the 2018 Little League World Series required bone replacement surgery in his elbow due to overuse.
The boy was 12, but he had caught every inning of every game in a schedule that would likely have exceeded that of some professionals.
For fear of alienating his coach, the parents asked that their son's name remain anonymous.
As insane as this example is, it is not surprising, for this is our norm.
There is scant evidence to suggest that our current culture of youth sports is good for the kid, and yet the kid keeps doing it against all of the advice from physicians, and those who actually reach the professional ranks.
Virtually all of them _ all of them _ attest that playing one sport year round is not good, and that we are burning out kids through all-star, select and whatever other leagues we "sell" to parents.
"The road is so long," said professional baseball player Matt Davidson, "and it really doesn't matter how good you are at 12. It doesn't. It only matters if you're good at 18, and at 21."
Davidson could have attended USC on a baseball scholarship, but he skipped that after he was a first-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2009.
He has played a little more than three big league seasons, and he's currently in the Texas Rangers' system. He might be considered an expert.
"The entire system sets kids up to fail," TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said. "It sets them up to not like baseball."
The only people who truly benefit from our current youth sports system are the adults. Everyone admits they are over-doing it, and no one does a thing to stop it.
I wanted to know what those who made the highest level think of all of this, and how our system compares to other nations who contribute big league ball players.
There is no perfect way, but take it from the experts themselves, the pros: If you think you are over-doing it, you are.
"Some kids are playing too much, yes," said the manager of the Texas Rangers, Chris Woodward.
He might be an authority on the subject.
"I'm reading this book called 'Range,' and it's about this subject. It says the general, non-specialized kid is better. People are too specialized now," he said. "I am seeing it from the professional standpoint. Kids are not as adaptable because they don't play other sports. They are training to do one move. Ask them to do something different, and they are not able to because they have been trained since they were 8 to do it one way.
"You see the kids who are athletic who play different sports, they are more open to change. And kids are getting burned out too young."
If parents know this, then why are we doing it?
"Because," Woodward said, "they think that's the only way their kids are going to make the big leagues."
Here is the lesson: They're not going to make it. Operate from that standpoint and you're good.
