I Spent $30K Last Year on Youth Baseball – Here’s How

There are certain types of expenses where people turn off their rational brains and are willing to spend ungodly amounts, like weddings and Disney vacations, and for me that’s baseball. So while I put off getting a new roof until the old one was leaking badly, I buy baseball stuff with little to no scrutiny.

My wife likes to bring up this contradiction when she wants to say buy new shrubs for the front of the house and I object to the cost. Recently, she wanted me to acknowledge how much baseball costs a year and I reluctantly did this inventory:

• $3,600 – club baseball team fees (Winter/Spring/Summer). This is generally how much it costs to play club baseball in the Northeast. Some teams are a little cheaper, and some are a bit more expensive, but you’re not going to find a quality team that’s considerably less than this. Up until a couple years ago, they wouldn’t tie winter, spring, and summer together, and you were free to shop around after every season, but now they lock you in. For this price, you get a couple practices a week and about 10 tournaments spread across the spring and summer.
• $1,200 – club baseball team fees (fall). Fall baseball is a separate season, and there’s a fresh charge for it.
• $350 – middle school team fees. My son’s middle school has a spring baseball team and they played 12 games during the week in the spring, mainly in May.
• $175 – rec league team fees. Our town runs a rec league for middle school/high school kids, and I signed my son up to get more reps on the big field. Overall, I think it was worth it and it wasn’t that expensive.
• $1,200 – hitting lessons. We go to an instructor who charges $40 per half-hour lesson. We go roughly every week during the cold months when you can’t practice outside, and then occasionally during the spring and summer when games are going on. It averages out to about 30 lessons a year.
• $1,650 – pitching lessons. It’s generally the same deal as with the hitting lessons, but the pitching instructor charges a little more ($55 per half hour).
• $400 – rental cage upkeep. During the winter, I often rent a cage to get my son some extra hacks. It’s $40 to rent a tunnel for an hour.
• $1,510 – bats. Last spring my son was still playing Little League and 50/70 travel with the USA bat standard. I got him the DeMarini CF drop 10 for $350. He needed to get a new bat in fall because he was moving to the big field. Thinking it would be too much to go straight from a drop 10 to a drop 3 BBCOR, I spent $350 for a drop 5 Easton ADV, which he used that season. For winter training, I bought him the DeMarini Voodoo BBCOR for $350. I also got him a wood drop three for $160 to train with, because it’s good to take swings with wood bats. Oh, and I got him a USSSA bat for some tournaments for $300.
• $500 – gloves. Thankfully gloves last for some time, so I didn’t have to buy my son a new infielder’s glove this year. But he didn’t have an outfielder’s glove, and I splurged for the Mookie Betts A2K for $400. I’m also including the batting gloves in this bucket, and they’re expensive and my son wears through them very quickly.
• $2,600 – overnight tournaments. We went to four overnight tournaments this year. One indoor one before the season started, then Ripken in Maryland, Diamond Nation in Jersey, and Hershey. We had to pay for tournament fees, gas, hotel, food, and pricey souvenirs. And we almost went to Cooperstown — which would have cost another $4,000.
• $200 – clothes. Teams generally don’t provide baseball pants as part of the uniform, so that’s something else we have to buy. We also bought a couple of heart guards .
• $170 – cleats and turf shoes. My son has really wide feet and the only brand that fits him is New Balance. Stores don’t carry his size and I had to find both pairs on eBay. The cleats were $90 and the turf shoes were $80.
• $500 – Snack bar expenses. My youngest kid gets dragged around to so many games and it only seems fair getting her a hot dog and some candy. Plus they overcharge for everything! Three dollars for a Gatorade?!
• $250 – batting cage upkeep. In this bucket, I have the $200 I pay to the local guy to put up the batting cage each year (I wish I could do it myself!). I also include the zip ties to fix the tears in the netting, and the heavy duty garden stakes to replace the broken ones.
• $1,500 – baseball accessories. This includes all the baseball knickknacks and training aids, like the Camwood bat, the WIN Reality VR, elbow guard, eye black, Lizard Skin bat grip, Oakley sun glasses, Boombah baseball bag, cases of Prime, seeds, and Vencer bracelets.

TOTAL: $15,555

And I have two sons! $15,805 X 2 (- $250 batting cage fee) = $31,360

To put this in perspective, note that the average fast food workers makes $26,060, a 10-night family trip to Hawaii is $13, 493, and of course money issues caused 38% of divorces.

HOW MUCH ARE YOU SPENDING ON BASEBALL? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.

For information about the emotional side of baseball, see:

• How to Break Up with Your Baseball Coach: 4 Rules
• Anger Management and Youth Baseball: How to Calm Down
• How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
• 4 Ways to Respond to a Coach Playing Favorites
• How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
• How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
• Is It Now Fashionable to Hate On Baseball Dads?
• Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?

For information on hitting, see:

• How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
• 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
• 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
• 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
• 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat

For information on pitching, see:

• Is the Cooperstown Baseball Tournament Safe for Players?
• What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
• 4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity
• Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
• Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
• Pitching and Head Injuries: What You Need to Know
• How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Basebal

For ways to get faster, see:

• Baseball Speed: 4 Ways to Get Faster