For most people in America, the onset of fall brings the excitement of back-to-school, football games, crisp, cool mornings and the widespread infiltration of pumpkin spice into every darn aspect of our lives. For travel baseball moms, it also brings the beginning of the Fall Baseball Season which wasn't even a thing when my husband, brother or dad played baseball back in the day.

 

These days baseball - as well as almost every other sport - does not stay in its own lane. Fall Baseball, Winter Workouts, Spring and Summer Baseball are here to stay. This is not the 1970s when you spent your fall Saturdays watching college football, followed by The Love Boat and Fantasy Island and your Sundays watching the NFL, followed by 60 minutes and All in the Family. Those days are long gone, Friend.

 

Now your family togetherness must consist of traveling up I - 95 on Sunday evening in bumper to bumper traffic while you promise your kid you'll be more than happy to spring for new cleats if he will kindly throw those nasty things out the window.

 

Most of us moms are gearing up for some traveling with our little knuckleballers for a least a few weekends this fall and that can be cause for a lot of stress. As I cannot even begin to count the number of Hampton/Comfort/Holiday/Days/AnyOtherNameYouCanComeUpWith Inns I have stayed in over lo' my many years (ten and counting . . .) as a travel baseball mom, I thought I might offer you a little help.

 

Ben Franklin said "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail." And I have to believe that, in addition to founding the nation and all, Ben probably played back-up catcher on the Founding Fathers Softball Team so we would be wise to listen to him. It is in that spirit that I've put together a handy dandy (Un)Official Travel Baseball Essential Packing List.

 

(If someone can tell me how to make this an official list, let me know. If it involves cameras and perhaps some sort of signed resolution by a government representative, I'm all over it. Just call me. I can make it.)

 

Before we get to that though, I'll point out that in my experience I have found that in addition to the What To Pack list there appears to be a need for a NO! Do Not Pack That! list. Over the years, I have noticed some baseball parents/fans making some grave mistakes in what they bring to Junior's ball game. I'm here to help you avoid those mistakes, thus making you a delightful, enjoyable member of your team's fanbase as opposed someone who makes everyone on the opposite side of your game want to rip your throat out and throw it in the nearest trash receptacle.

 

Not that I've ever felt like that. I'm incredibly serene and calm at baseball games.

 

Ahem.

 

Let's start with the nos of packing for travel baseball tournaments.

 

(Disclaimer: Before anyone gets offended, because that's everyone's favorite thing to do lately, let's remember that I am not the boss of you. These are my humble opinions. Do as you wish, friend. It's a free country.)

 

No! Do Not Pack That . . .

• Airhorn
• Tambourine
• Cowbell
• Drum
• Whistle
• Rattle
• Screaming Chicken
• Any other noisemaking device of any sort or kind, neither natural nor man-made

You might think I'm kidding about these and I assure you, I am not. I've have seen/heard all of these at youth games.

 

(Well, except for the screaming chicken, but that is exactly what your noisemaking device will sound like to your fellow fans if you're still banging, rattling, shaking, etc. well in to extra innings.)

 

There should be no noise makers of any sort or kind. I don't care if you needed to keep your younger kids busy by giving them a craft in which they filled plastic Gatorade bottle with popcorn kernals. I've been there, Girlfriend, but you gotta come up with something else for the little buggers.  I know I sound like your cranky old neighbor yelling, "GET OFF MY LAWN", but I stand by this. Bring that noisy madness to the football stadium, if you must, not the baseball diamond. Please and thank you.

 

Ok. Deep breath. Here is a list of what to pack. The best thing is that you can copy and print this and hand it to your kid and have him do his own packing so that you aren't up until 100 o'clock the night before you leave. I'm sure there is something I forgot because there has rarely been a time I have remembered everything, but this should be a good start.

 

 

 

I wish you all a very happy, successful fall season with more hits than strike outs, more double plays than errors and a whole heckuva a lot of fun. Play ball!

 

(Disclaimer 2: I apologize if you are having flashbacks to all the nightmares you had after watching Fantasy Island. That show was super creepy, right?)

Jennifer P. Skinner

http://viewfrombehindhomeplate.blogspot.com/