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Many "star" players in youth baseball never end up playing high school baseball.  In fact, the player generally acclaimed as the greatest in Little League World Series history never made his high school varsity team.

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THE FACTS:

• Approximately 4.2 million children ages 6-12 play baseball regularly, or roughly 600,000 per grade.

• Approximately 15,000 high school teams have about 460,000 players and 135,000 starting positions, or roughly 115,000 players per grade and 33,750 starting positions.

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YOUTH PLAYER ODDS:

• Make high school varsity < 20%

• Start for high school varsity < 6% 

• Play Division 1 college baseball < 0.5% 

• Major League roster < 0.01% 

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So at your son's next youth game, statistically, the odds are that only 3 or 4 players total from both teams combined will ever make a high school varsity baseball team, only 1 will start for a varsity team, and none will play college or pro baseball.

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EVEN IF YOUR SON BEATS THE ODDS:​

If your son gets recruited by a Division 1 college, you will find that baseball scholarships are different than any other sport.  The NCAA sets scholarship limits for all sports.  Nearly all sports are full "head count" scholarships covering 100% of tuition, housing, meals, and other expenses, and the number of scholarships allowed exceeds the number of players on the active roster.  But not for baseball. 

 

The NCAA limits all Division 1 colleges (yes, even Florida, Florida State, and Miami) to 11.7 cumulative scholarships for the entire roster, which now thanks to Covid and extra eligibility is often 50 players or more.  They are divided up into partial scholarships, even 1/8th scholarships or less.  Full scholarships are exceptionally rare.  Yes, schools give other financial aid not officially for baseball, and players can qualify for the same need-based aid as other students, but the bottom line is that nearly every college baseball player is paying some money or taking out student loans.  If you're counting on your son getting a full baseball scholarship... your odds are probably better if you play the lottery.

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If a coach tells you his travel team or private lessons will result in your son getting a college scholarship... you will almost certainly spend far more money on baseball than your son will receive in scholarships.  More likely is that the coach wants your money.