Select / Elite

It depends on where you are.

I'd say that in general you have "Rec" baseball that encourages every kid, boy and girls to play baseball. Those programs proves the first taste of "organized" ball for almost every one. that's where you get T-ball, coach pitch and the 1st kid pitch.

IOW, that's where the foundations are laid. Rec" ball can continue all the way up to 18U as in LL Inc's Big League. It continues to be for "everyone" in the sense that, if you sign up and pay your fees, you will be guaranteed at least a minimum amount of playing time.

Sometimes, this is the only place "unattached" kids can play as they get older. That would be home schooled, drop outs or any player who isn't able to make a school team.

The teams are generally made up from a predetermined geographical area and team are selected by some form of "draft" in an attempt to keep the relative skill balance of the teams equal.

It may be different in some places, but in general, "select" baseball is limited to only those who are "selected", or make teams by some form of tryout system. Again, in general, the players in "select" will not be the casual ball players. I'd say you can think of the kids in select as the ones who's parents have spent much more time with and have made some investment to improve their child's skills.

Some people get the idea that select ball is nothing but the All Stars from rec ball, but I haven't found that to be true. Just to avoid argument, let's just say the players are definitely the better rec players.

The reason I don't limit the players to All Stars is that the coaching at this level will also generally be better than rec coaching. That means there is a much better chance that a kid with potential will be recognized and with better coaching improve greatly. It also assumes that there are lots of unsavory political games going on in rec All Stars that will pass over many deserving players.

The biggest difference in rec and select is select is not generally limited to a specific geographical area. That makes the talent pool much larger and makes the corresponding teams that much better. I may be wrong, but in general, I think select teams are self limiting to areas because of the travel considerations for practices, games, meetings etc., but the boundaries are not limited by actual rules.

In some areas, there are actual leagues made up of select teams, but my guess is, for the majority of the country, select teams play lots of tournaments over a generally localized area with the area increasing as a team success warrants.

Elite is something else again. the very name implies "superiority" in every way. Better players, better coaching, "real" team managers and parents who are much more involved and dedicated.

These teams are generally made up of what the baseball inner circle believes are the best players available. I think it would be fair to say a player has done something considered "extraordinary" to even be considered for tryouts.

This level kind of skips over what people consider All Stars too. Since literally everyone trying to get on a team of this caliber has already had what almost anyone would consider an exemplary career, its really a level above all stars. This is not intended to be "fun" baseball. This is as serious as you can get without getting paid.

The expenses are generally much higher, even when there is corporate sponsorship because of the great deal of travel. The talent pool is definitely much larger and many teams will recruit players from across the country. Usually, you won't find this extreme in teams playing on anything other than the big field, but it is possible.

Of course things will vary in different areas of the county.