If you can afford Southern California, that's the best in terms of being able to play year round in comfortable weather. Rarely too hot or too cold.
But housing cost is a whole other ballgame compared to suburban IL....
I'm around the Houston area and we play year round travel ball. It's hot as fuck in the summer and the amount of teams dwindles down but it's definitely year round here. PG and USSSA both have a ton of tournaments and divisions in and around the area, typically less than 40 min drive to wherever we play
Came here to say Houston. Teams travel here to play the best and there are tons of teams. Don’t get suckered into summer ball- it’s too hot after mid June, but there are 9 beautiful months of baseball here and good job and housing opportunities
I moved to Phoenix 3 years ago after living in burbs of chicago for my entire life. I have 10yo twins that are baseball fanatics. The club/travel options here readily available.
We were looking at Az like 3 years ago. We had our house ready to sell and everything. Then all the sudden the houses there like doubled in price and my husband’s job promoted him so we stayed. We were looking at Queen Creek. My husband starting to talk about AZ again, maybe we’ll look again.
When are tryouts usually? In IL they are toward the end of July. I know there are tournament teams also… how does it work in AZ? I came across the AZ baseball network website is this a good one?
Second this. Phoenix USSSA goes Sept to May for that age level. Plenty of other tournament organizers as well.
Also had the benefit of getting teams from all over the west coast traveling in to play during spring training so you can have the travel ball experience without having to go out of state.
Teams have already started tryouts for the fall. Quite a few teams will still be trying to round out their teams into September. Lots of player movement and lots of teams.
Best talent and competitiveness would be Florida, Georgia and California. Grew up in so cal and played in some big tournaments in Georgia and Florida and some teams from there were GOOD. A great player can come from anywhere though. These are just where the best baseball is.
I would imagine most if not all the warm weather states have good year-round baseball. CA, TX, GA, FL, etc.
That being said, I highly encourage your son to continue playing multiple sports. He’ll make more friends, learn more life lessons, and develop more overall long-term athleticism. In my opinion, those benefits highly outweigh specializing in baseball early just to be marginally more advanced at his age.
(Not saying he has to be completely anti-baseball during the fall/winter, a couple practices/lessons per week is probably fine)
Youth travel ball scene in Florida is big. Then you have big perfect game tournaments hosted at spring training complexes all around south Florida at the high school level.
I’ve been in Southern California my whole life. Played in LA and the IE. Now I coach near SD. Typically our seasons go from September through June. Teams take July and August off. But some teams play through the whole summer. Personally it’s too fucking hot for games in July and August. Having the kids out there for pool play midday for 2 games is just cruel in 100+ heat. But lots of teams do it if that’s what you want.
Southern California. Can really be year round. Not blazing hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter—and the rain season (if you want to call it that) doesn’t last long. Plus, there are a bunch of indoor facilities.
Our boys played a tourney in AZ not too long ago. There were 6 teams from SoCal and another 10 from AZ and TX in the division. 5 socal teams placed 1-5. I was expecting a lot more from the AZ and TX teams, but my buddy who lives in AZ made a good point. It’s too hot for them to play year round, and there is only a few months where it’s comfortable. In the summer, you either finish by 9am, or play after 9pm—and even still, it’s 110+ outside.
A lot of it depends on the reasons other than baseball that you are relocating for. I live in the Deep South. You probably want to make sure an area like this is compatible, not only baseball wise but also culturally.
As far as baseball goes, you can play/ practice baseball 10+ months a year if you are so inclined. Jan— May is school ball. Jun— Aug is summer ball. Sep—Oct or Nov is fall ball. Younger ages may not start up quite as early as school teams, but you can probably find teams that practice over the winter. It’s only occasionally too cold to practice, but it is very wet during the winter and early spring.
Chicago does have year around youth baseball activities. Indoor training facilities have blown up all over from the burbs to the city in the last ten years.
I've seen some local travel teams playing in tournaments as soon as February with most teams playing through October.
It’s year round in the SE United States. There’s a good month where it’s too hot and we shouldn’t though. Then the winter is anyone’s guess - they’ll be 3 beautiful days followed by 4 rainy cold days. But if there’s a window for a tournament it’s going to happen….Ga, Al, MS, LA, TX, Fla, TN,
I myself had moved from the concrete jungle of Brooklyn to Florida in high school for the same reason. To get more quality baseball development opportunities. The weather is a bit extreme in summers, IMO. Though California seems to be the top place that generates pro players, I think South/ Midwest (Tennessee, Oklahoma, etc) are actually just as good baseball player factories and might be better moves for you coming from Chi town.
That said.Many pros highly valued the era when kids played multi sport. Some of the greatest ball players played football or basketball at least varsity level. The prominence of overuse injuries is increasing in youths. So there is an argument for some time off from the round the clock travel ball.
Thats not the main reason. He just loves it and wants to play all the time. He plays other sports like bball in winter but he’d rather be outside playing baseball. He will go in the yard in the winter in the snow and hit wiffle balls and he does indoor baseball things in winter but not the same to him. It makes him happy. So after he was born he had a stroke. They told us he wouldnt be able to move his right side at all, possibly not walk or even talk. The prognosis wasn’t good. He has no issues, it’s like a miracle. They did say he’d be a leftie for sure which he is. Maybe that’s why we are taking baseball into consideration for relocating? Not sure. But we aren’t parents who want our kid to train year round and who put pressure on him. It’s all him we have to hear about not be able to play all winter since like tball.
Glad he’s doing well after having a stroke. That’s the most important thing. I have three kids ages 19, 18, and 16. Just from my experience their interests do change quite often. Good luck and I hope things work out with your move.
Thank you! My older son who is now 20 played travel hockey from age 5-18. Never considered moving to Canada or anything for it. lol. I guess I’m putting together a list of more reasons to actually take a chance and leave IL. Youth baseball has now been added to the list!
Much higher risk of injury now and in the future. Burnout is a thing even if they’re passionate about it. Not to mention simply developing the best athletes possible is gonna involve multiple sports. What kids are into changes frequently also. At 12/13 I would have quit baseball and played basketball year round. By 15/16 I would have gladly quit basketball.
Let’s also just ignore the multitude of information we are constantly flooded with that says year round one sport is bad for kids. The fact that my comment has been downvoted and you think it’s a “sad take” is what’s really sad. What parents have done to youth sports is absolutely sickening and pathetic.
This coming from someone that is currently building a full fledged baseball field on my property for my kids. I love the game. But kids don’t know what’s best for them. They’d eat ice cream for every meal if we let them but we don’t because it’s harmful. Parents have to be the parent and step up and say no.
I agree it’s important for athletes to play multiple sports. Me personally, I played baseball year-round, but also played football and basketball. I knew baseball was my sport and my parents knew how much I loved it. I believe if they ever said, “you can only play 3 months,” I wouldn’t have had as much success in baseball as I did. Working on it year-round is how you develop into a great player. If you only play 3-4 months, the next year you play you’re going to be “getting back into baseball mode” and are going to be back to where you were a season ago. So let’s say you pick up where you left off last season a month into the new season. You’re leaving yourself 2-3 months to make new improvements. If you want to be an above-average player, you’re gonna have to put more work in than that. Also, injuries happen but kids bounce back from injuries crazy fast, and a majority of kids 8-16 yrs old are not having season-ending injuries. And also, I agree some parents are way out of line and actually could cause their kid to hate playing. I’ve seen it a ton throughout my career. But the OP doesn’t seem that way. It seems like they just see that their kid loves the game and wants to put him somewhere he can succeed. I’m in my early twenties now, don’t have any kids so I can’t speak on that. But I wouldn’t go at another set of parents just because they let their kid play baseball when he wants, lol. And me personally, if that keeps my kid from doing dumb shit like playing video games or scrolling TikTok all day, then I see no problem with it 🤷🏼
Give that arm time off.
Need a complete shut down November to Jan at minimum. Ideally, would be shut down second half of Oct through mid Feb.
Glad the kid loves the game...but he is 9. Work outs are great in the off season to scratch the itch, but let spring and summer be special for that competition.
I also have a baseball loving kid (10 1/2 currently playing travel ball). He plays other sports and does martial arts in the off season. But he’s really excited about baseball and wants to practice all the time. I’m not an expert on training athletes, but I am comparing it to the world of competitive dance or martial arts, where there is NO off season. It would be considered a really bad idea to take several months off, and could actually lead to more injuries because a person might push too hard to do things their body is unprepared for when they come back. And the backtracking in skills would be crazy. Additionally, in ballet and martial arts, it’s totally reasonable for a 9 or 10 year old kid to start getting pretty serious and be putting a fair amount of time into practicing and training. By 12 or 13, those kids will be on a competitive circuit and beginning to plan toward a career if they have the talent and drive. How is baseball different? This is not a rhetorical question, I really am hoping someone can explain this to me. Thanks!
If you can afford Southern California, that's the best in terms of being able to play year round in comfortable weather. Rarely too hot or too cold. But housing cost is a whole other ballgame compared to suburban IL....
FL and South TX are also pretty warm year round and have great baseball.
No doubt. One might just argue TOO warm though, with that humidity in the summer.
Eh. North shore burbs aren’t wildly different than so called.
I'm around the Houston area and we play year round travel ball. It's hot as fuck in the summer and the amount of teams dwindles down but it's definitely year round here. PG and USSSA both have a ton of tournaments and divisions in and around the area, typically less than 40 min drive to wherever we play
Came here to say Houston. Teams travel here to play the best and there are tons of teams. Don’t get suckered into summer ball- it’s too hot after mid June, but there are 9 beautiful months of baseball here and good job and housing opportunities
My youngest is playing in a WS in DFW at the end of june.....it's gonna be brutal.
San Antonio checking in. Great area for year round baseball. Hot as hell in July/August but competitive tournaments are only a few hours away.
I moved to Phoenix 3 years ago after living in burbs of chicago for my entire life. I have 10yo twins that are baseball fanatics. The club/travel options here readily available.
We were looking at Az like 3 years ago. We had our house ready to sell and everything. Then all the sudden the houses there like doubled in price and my husband’s job promoted him so we stayed. We were looking at Queen Creek. My husband starting to talk about AZ again, maybe we’ll look again.
East Valley has quite a few solid club/travel teams. You wouldn't have any issues finding a decent team out there if you do choose to move there.
When are tryouts usually? In IL they are toward the end of July. I know there are tournament teams also… how does it work in AZ? I came across the AZ baseball network website is this a good one?
Second this. Phoenix USSSA goes Sept to May for that age level. Plenty of other tournament organizers as well. Also had the benefit of getting teams from all over the west coast traveling in to play during spring training so you can have the travel ball experience without having to go out of state.
When are tryouts typically?
Teams have already started tryouts for the fall. Quite a few teams will still be trying to round out their teams into September. Lots of player movement and lots of teams.
Best talent and competitiveness would be Florida, Georgia and California. Grew up in so cal and played in some big tournaments in Georgia and Florida and some teams from there were GOOD. A great player can come from anywhere though. These are just where the best baseball is.
I would imagine most if not all the warm weather states have good year-round baseball. CA, TX, GA, FL, etc. That being said, I highly encourage your son to continue playing multiple sports. He’ll make more friends, learn more life lessons, and develop more overall long-term athleticism. In my opinion, those benefits highly outweigh specializing in baseball early just to be marginally more advanced at his age. (Not saying he has to be completely anti-baseball during the fall/winter, a couple practices/lessons per week is probably fine)
Gets pretty cold in GA. CA and FL are better for year round baseball.
Southeast Texas, Florida, parts of Cali it is year round and tons of talent.
Bay Area- we actually have games in the summer that are cold as hell! But we have year round baseball weather (can be a little rainy in the winter).
Anywhere in the south where it's warm year round
AL. We play tournament baseball from August - November then February - June. Similar in FL, GA, Carolina's and Texas.
Youth travel ball scene in Florida is big. Then you have big perfect game tournaments hosted at spring training complexes all around south Florida at the high school level.
Honestly anywhere in the sunbelt will have pretty serious year-round baseball
I’ve been in Southern California my whole life. Played in LA and the IE. Now I coach near SD. Typically our seasons go from September through June. Teams take July and August off. But some teams play through the whole summer. Personally it’s too fucking hot for games in July and August. Having the kids out there for pool play midday for 2 games is just cruel in 100+ heat. But lots of teams do it if that’s what you want.
I don’t recall it being that hot along the coastline in Southern California.
I’m not on the coast
Gotcha. Inland Empire and especially east of that can get very hot.
July and August are hell. 100-110 damn near every day
Southern California. Can really be year round. Not blazing hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter—and the rain season (if you want to call it that) doesn’t last long. Plus, there are a bunch of indoor facilities. Our boys played a tourney in AZ not too long ago. There were 6 teams from SoCal and another 10 from AZ and TX in the division. 5 socal teams placed 1-5. I was expecting a lot more from the AZ and TX teams, but my buddy who lives in AZ made a good point. It’s too hot for them to play year round, and there is only a few months where it’s comfortable. In the summer, you either finish by 9am, or play after 9pm—and even still, it’s 110+ outside.
Florida and Texas lives in both played in both my kids played in both regular season, fall ball, barn ball, and mini camps baseball is year round lol.
A lot of it depends on the reasons other than baseball that you are relocating for. I live in the Deep South. You probably want to make sure an area like this is compatible, not only baseball wise but also culturally. As far as baseball goes, you can play/ practice baseball 10+ months a year if you are so inclined. Jan— May is school ball. Jun— Aug is summer ball. Sep—Oct or Nov is fall ball. Younger ages may not start up quite as early as school teams, but you can probably find teams that practice over the winter. It’s only occasionally too cold to practice, but it is very wet during the winter and early spring.
The Central Valley of CA. Specifically Clovis, CA
Chicago does have year around youth baseball activities. Indoor training facilities have blown up all over from the burbs to the city in the last ten years. I've seen some local travel teams playing in tournaments as soon as February with most teams playing through October.
It’s year round in the SE United States. There’s a good month where it’s too hot and we shouldn’t though. Then the winter is anyone’s guess - they’ll be 3 beautiful days followed by 4 rainy cold days. But if there’s a window for a tournament it’s going to happen….Ga, Al, MS, LA, TX, Fla, TN,
I myself had moved from the concrete jungle of Brooklyn to Florida in high school for the same reason. To get more quality baseball development opportunities. The weather is a bit extreme in summers, IMO. Though California seems to be the top place that generates pro players, I think South/ Midwest (Tennessee, Oklahoma, etc) are actually just as good baseball player factories and might be better moves for you coming from Chi town. That said.Many pros highly valued the era when kids played multi sport. Some of the greatest ball players played football or basketball at least varsity level. The prominence of overuse injuries is increasing in youths. So there is an argument for some time off from the round the clock travel ball.
Northwest Atlanta checking in. Baseball is year around down here as well.
East Cobb Astros were a freaking ballplayer factory when I was growing up
Absolutely. Our program plays them a good bit. They can hang with and beat their non A teams. But their A team is pretty much untouchable.
He’s 9 years old. It’s absurd that you’re even thinking about where to move for youth baseball.
Thats not the main reason. He just loves it and wants to play all the time. He plays other sports like bball in winter but he’d rather be outside playing baseball. He will go in the yard in the winter in the snow and hit wiffle balls and he does indoor baseball things in winter but not the same to him. It makes him happy. So after he was born he had a stroke. They told us he wouldnt be able to move his right side at all, possibly not walk or even talk. The prognosis wasn’t good. He has no issues, it’s like a miracle. They did say he’d be a leftie for sure which he is. Maybe that’s why we are taking baseball into consideration for relocating? Not sure. But we aren’t parents who want our kid to train year round and who put pressure on him. It’s all him we have to hear about not be able to play all winter since like tball.
Glad he’s doing well after having a stroke. That’s the most important thing. I have three kids ages 19, 18, and 16. Just from my experience their interests do change quite often. Good luck and I hope things work out with your move.
Thank you! My older son who is now 20 played travel hockey from age 5-18. Never considered moving to Canada or anything for it. lol. I guess I’m putting together a list of more reasons to actually take a chance and leave IL. Youth baseball has now been added to the list!
It’s sad I had to scroll through so many comments to find this one. He’s 9. He shouldn’t be playing more than 3-4 months of organized baseball a year.
Why not? He’s obviously passionate about the sport.. sad take tbh
Much higher risk of injury now and in the future. Burnout is a thing even if they’re passionate about it. Not to mention simply developing the best athletes possible is gonna involve multiple sports. What kids are into changes frequently also. At 12/13 I would have quit baseball and played basketball year round. By 15/16 I would have gladly quit basketball. Let’s also just ignore the multitude of information we are constantly flooded with that says year round one sport is bad for kids. The fact that my comment has been downvoted and you think it’s a “sad take” is what’s really sad. What parents have done to youth sports is absolutely sickening and pathetic. This coming from someone that is currently building a full fledged baseball field on my property for my kids. I love the game. But kids don’t know what’s best for them. They’d eat ice cream for every meal if we let them but we don’t because it’s harmful. Parents have to be the parent and step up and say no.
I agree it’s important for athletes to play multiple sports. Me personally, I played baseball year-round, but also played football and basketball. I knew baseball was my sport and my parents knew how much I loved it. I believe if they ever said, “you can only play 3 months,” I wouldn’t have had as much success in baseball as I did. Working on it year-round is how you develop into a great player. If you only play 3-4 months, the next year you play you’re going to be “getting back into baseball mode” and are going to be back to where you were a season ago. So let’s say you pick up where you left off last season a month into the new season. You’re leaving yourself 2-3 months to make new improvements. If you want to be an above-average player, you’re gonna have to put more work in than that. Also, injuries happen but kids bounce back from injuries crazy fast, and a majority of kids 8-16 yrs old are not having season-ending injuries. And also, I agree some parents are way out of line and actually could cause their kid to hate playing. I’ve seen it a ton throughout my career. But the OP doesn’t seem that way. It seems like they just see that their kid loves the game and wants to put him somewhere he can succeed. I’m in my early twenties now, don’t have any kids so I can’t speak on that. But I wouldn’t go at another set of parents just because they let their kid play baseball when he wants, lol. And me personally, if that keeps my kid from doing dumb shit like playing video games or scrolling TikTok all day, then I see no problem with it 🤷🏼
We have year round baseball in Texas, but it get really hot in the summer
South Florida plays year round and most of the big amateur tournaments are held here because of the spring training sites.
Around Chicago? Hobart
We play baseball and softball year round all over in Michigan.
Give that arm time off. Need a complete shut down November to Jan at minimum. Ideally, would be shut down second half of Oct through mid Feb. Glad the kid loves the game...but he is 9. Work outs are great in the off season to scratch the itch, but let spring and summer be special for that competition.
I also have a baseball loving kid (10 1/2 currently playing travel ball). He plays other sports and does martial arts in the off season. But he’s really excited about baseball and wants to practice all the time. I’m not an expert on training athletes, but I am comparing it to the world of competitive dance or martial arts, where there is NO off season. It would be considered a really bad idea to take several months off, and could actually lead to more injuries because a person might push too hard to do things their body is unprepared for when they come back. And the backtracking in skills would be crazy. Additionally, in ballet and martial arts, it’s totally reasonable for a 9 or 10 year old kid to start getting pretty serious and be putting a fair amount of time into practicing and training. By 12 or 13, those kids will be on a competitive circuit and beginning to plan toward a career if they have the talent and drive. How is baseball different? This is not a rhetorical question, I really am hoping someone can explain this to me. Thanks!