Big Price Tags Attached to Even the Littlest Leagues

 

By MIKE TANIER

Published: April 24, 2012 

Youth baseball and softball seasons are opening across the United States. It is a time for youngsters to field grounders and work on their swings while their parents determine whether they need to take out a home-equity loan before heading to the sporting goods store. 

If you have not outfitted a little slugger lately, prepare for sticker shock. The youth baseball circular for one major retailer advertises bats in the $219.99 to $249.99 range. There's a $129.99 glove, perfect for digging grounders out of dandelion patches. 

A batting helmet protects tiny heads for $39.99. A pair of Nike Jordan Black Cat cleats will make your child fast and fashionable at $51.99 until he or she grows out of them, probably in late June. Batting gloves cost $19.99, and there is no need to worry about Junior getting a hernia from lugging all that precious equipment if you buy a $44.99 wheeled bat bag.

Of course, these prices represent one side of the market. Deals can still be found. But the emergence of high-end junior league gear suggests that youth baseball is yet another frontier of the commodification of childhood, alongside budget-busting test-preparation courses and lavish birthday parties and bar mitzvahs. 

Mike May, the director of communications for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, said that high prices and seemingly limitless equipment options could be a burden for a parent. "It's dizzying at times," he said. 

When today's parents played in youth leagues about 30 years ago, they typically showed up for games run by the local parks and recreation department, often outfitted with little more than a glove and the clothes on their back. They now register their children for leagues run by independent local boards, which sometimes control huge budgets with little or no municipal oversight. 

In most parts of the country, the old parks and recreation leagues are long gone. John Engh, the chief operating officer of the National Alliance for Youth Sports, said the combination of slashed municipal budgets and the push to involve children in organized sports at a younger age resulted in the current system.

"It's been a gradual process, driven by the concept of all-stars and travel," he said.

Some parents now pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for youth sports. 

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