Youth baseball stories aren't what they seem; Solano, Napa has top players playing across the country

It's nearly impossible to read a newspaper sports section online or in print without reading about some baseball team winning a championship, often a state or national championship. There are multiple sponsoring organizations holding national championship events for players of all ages and, really, it takes a long, hard look at things to determine if the championship actually carries any weight.

For instance, the Little League World Series that makes its nonsensical appearance on national television this month, doesn't mean much in regard to showcasing the best young baseball players in America. Little League long ago stopped being the predominant youth baseball organization in America.

The Little League all-star team that won the Solano-Napa counties championship would have trouble competing with a good tournament team. Many of the area's top 12-year-old players don't even finish their Little League careers locally before moving to play for travel teams that play in tournaments throughout the region and the country.

The Fairfield Daily Republic featured a nice story about 12-year-old Tyler Reames, a Fairfield star who helped the Lamorinda Monarchs win the AAU 13-U national championship in Florida recently. (The story about Reames' considerable accomplishments appears at http://bit.ly/qaC22P.)

Readers would guess that young Reames and his mates are the best team of players aged 13-and-under in the country. Readers might be wrong. There are dozens of organizations who charge entry fees, rent stadiums and hold national championships. Reames played with Lamorinda at the baseball complex at Disneyworld.

My son celebrated his 12-year-old baseball season playing for the Lamorinda Baseball Academy at a 98-team national tournament held in Cooperstown, N.Y. A baseball businessman in Cooperstown hosts 98 different teams every week in the rural home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. So, clearly, Disneyworld and the Cooperstown, N.Y. tournament outfit makes a healthy profit on giving young players a national spotlight.

We just have no idea how big the spotlight is or what succeeding in the spotlight means.

As baseball players grow older, the most important tournaments are hosted at the homes of Major League Baseball spring training complexes. Games aren't played near an amusement park and don't come with a trip to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. The games are played on practice diamonds in front of a few parents, some coaches and loads of college and big league scouts.

My son's Nor Cal Baseball 15-under team played in a big, national tournament co-sponsored by Rawlings in June. There were games at a number of spring training camps. It's really handy for scouts who deal with Rawlings and, of course, with sponsoring organizations who field teams.

There were concurrent tournaments in Arizona, at the same sites, for players from 18 years old on down. So, arguably, the showcase for the top high school players in the nation was held in near private in Arizona.

So, what does it mean if a town team wins an American Legion baseball championship? The Napa 17-and-under Junior American Legion team finished second in the California tournament. Fairfield boasts a thriving Legion program. Clearly, though, the best players in the country were in Arizona in June (and in Chicago in July, followed by a tournament in Florida) while Legion tournaments that draw media attention were being hailed as state championship competition.

It's confusing, isn't it? Over time, let's sort out the different levels of baseball competition ... the value of a national championship teams have to pay to win ... and whether or not baseball is best served with top players traveling the country or with them playing close to home with their best pals.