Top 10 Tips for New Travel Baseball Moms

If you are new to my page or new to baseball in general, please read my 15 THINGS I WISH I KNEW AS A FIRST-TIME BASEBALL MOM.  After writing that lengthy post, I decided to give my travel baseball tips separately since recreational baseball and travel baseball really are two different animals.  

My top 10 Travel Baseball Tips for New Travel Baseball Moms:

1. Bring cash and cards.
2. Bring extra baseball socks (blisters, blood), a clean change of clothes for the ride home, and a pair of slides to wear in your vehicle (cleats can go in a bag or a truck-bed).
3. Always be ready for pics & video.
4. Make sure your cooler is BIG and has tons of ice.
5. Bluetooth speaker / walk-up songs.
6. Activities between games.
7. Food suggestions for during the tournament.
8. Good sportsmanship & good manners.
9. Plan food for the ride home.
10. Keep the siblings happy, at all costs.  🤪

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Let's break down each one of these tips into more detail:

• Bring cash and cards.
  • ​All parks take cash at the gate, some may accept a card.  Same with concessions.  You never know and it is always good to have plenty of cash.  Some tournaments don't have a gate fee (it's included with the tournament fee that your coach / team / organization paid.  Children may be free or a discounted rate.  Most parks offer military and senior discounts as well.  It depends on which travel league is sponsoring the tournament.

• Bring extra baseball socks (blisters, blood), a clean change of clothes for the ride home, and a pair of slides to wear in your vehicle (cleats can go in a bag or a truck-bed).  
  • ​I have even taken an extra uniform (your coach may request that so be prepared), but I definitely take extra socks.  Foot blisters are real and painful.  I keep my son's change of clean clothes and slides in our vehicle and he changes in the vehicle.  He usually cannot wait to get out of his sweaty uniform and into shorts and a tee with slides.  He likes to travel with a blanket and pillow too in case he wants to sleep on the ride home.  All good things to have "just in case."
  • I also pack plenty of cooling towels in my cooler.  Overheating is common and scary for the players and even some of the bystanders.  
  • Please refer to my original post on sunscreen, bug spray, and medical care.
  • Be ready to wash uniforms on night 1 of the tourney, no matter how tired or hot you may be when you get home.  🤪

• ​​Always be ready for pics & video.
  • Make sure your phone is cleared out enough so that you can take pictures or video.  
  • While I don't video the entire game or anything, and you never know when an awesome defensive play may be made, I try to get a few pitches and at-bats from each game.  I started using TikTok to make videos for my son since he will never get this time back.  He loves the TikToks and it boosts his confidence.
  • I've also been able to capture some of our teammates' hits or plays and that boosts team morale and relationships with the other parents if you capture their child making a great play.  Ultimately, we are all one TEAM coming together to support these players and their growth both on and off the field.

• ​Make sure your cooler is BIG and has tons of ice.​
  • ​We usually have a soft-sided cooler or thermal tote for most of our food items and use ice packs in it.  For drinks and ice, we have a hard-shell cooler with TONS of ice.  You'll want ice for drinks possibly, ice for injuries in the dugout, ice to keep your cooling towels cold.

• Bluetooth speaker / walk-up songs.​​
  • ​Most leagues and parks allow for songs to be played while pitchers are warming up during a pitching change or while teams are warming up before the game begins.  Most umpires allow for walk-up songs to be played as long as they are cut off before play begins for the new batter.  This seems to keep both the kids and the fans pumped up, and it can often unify the stands and reduce tension.  Obviously, we choose clean songs.  I've never been in charge of the music, but perhaps someone can leave a comment with which software or app they use to build the batting playlist.  Most teams announce the players name and number as part of their walk-up song.
  • Most teams tend to eat together and hang out together between games, so the music can come in handy then as well (as long as it is not disrupting another nearby game in the park).

• Activities between games.​
  • ​Most coaches don't allow players to leave the ballpark between games.  They also do not want players horsing around and burning all their energy between games.  For this reason, I always bring my player his own tailgating chair, a portable fan if he seems overheated, the aforementioned cooling towels, slides / flops if he needs to take a break from his cleats, and something he might enjoy doing for some downtime.  The boys often go watch other games with teams they will be playing later in the day or the next day.  Some rest / nap.  Wi-Fi is not usually available at most parks, so electronics are not usually an option.
  • He also eats between games (see next tip for details).

• Food suggestions for during the tournament.​
  • ​Ballpark concession stands usually offer ice cream, shaved ice drinks (think snow cone or kona ice). hot dogs, burgers, fries, nachos, pizza if you are lucky, chips, candy, Gatorades, water, and sodas.  Honestly nothing from a ballpark concession stand is going to sit well on your player's stomach or fuel them for their remaining games.
  • I often pack grapes, apple slices, orange slices, watermelon, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, cheese-sticks, sandwiches with ham, turkey, or chicken salad, chips and pretzels, cookies, crackers, beef jerky, carrots with ranch, those Sargento balanced breaks kits, almonds, cashews, peanuts, and sometimes lettuce wraps with ham or turkey in them.  When it is really hot at some of these tournaments, my player may ask for just fruit and a lettuce wrap of ham.  He is too hot to even stomach bread or chips.
  • We eat all of those healthy snacks and meals at the park as well.  It saves money and calories for the entire family.
  • ​Bring PLENTY of waters, gatorades, etc - you can never have too many!  I try to have my player start hydrating with extra water the day before a tourney.  We dilute his sports drink 1/2 and 1/2 with water in his thermos.  That's just a personal preference.

• Good sportsmanship & good manners.
  • ​Hopefully your coach and your fellow parents will already be practicing these concepts, but we can also lead our players as parents.  Encourage your player to congratulate an opponent on an awesome play.  If a batter comes up from the other team and is in earshot and you saw him make a great catch, let him know.  "Hey, #3- awesome play in right field!".  This fosters community and positivity and again helps unify the stands.  Our children are watching us.
  • Most teams and players know to take a knee if someone is injured on either team, but I have seen teams who do not do that and it baffles me.  Please refer to my previous post linked below on how to respond from the stands if there is a serious injury with a player or bystander.  (15 beginner baseball mom must-knows).

• ​​Plan food for the ride home.​
  • ​Some teams or families plan ahead and have a designated eating spot for the ride home.  Many of us have other siblings in the car who are whining from the torture of a 2-day tournament at a sport they care nothing about.  Scope out restaurants or fast food places on your drive home AHEAD OF TIME and try to have somewhat of a gameplan.  Bear in mind that the closer to the park you stop, the more vehicles you'll see loaded with other starving players and parents and you may have a long wait.
  • We usually give our kids a small stack for the ride from the park to the restaurant (or to home if we planned ahead and have something in the crockpot waiting on us).
  • All of this takes some foresight on your part, and I highly encourage it... especially for Sunday tournament days when everyone has work and school tomorrow.

• Keep the siblings happy, at all costs.  🤪
  • ​Again, Wi-Fi might not be available so try a HotSpot on your phone or have movies / games downloaded on a device if you have kids who do better with electronics.  Some of the younger siblings stay at the park playground the entire time, so pair up with a few of the other moms who have younger kids so that you can each take turns checking on them.  
  • My player is my youngest, so I just have a whiny pre-teen to contend with and he can usually manage with access to YouTube, some art supplies and a sketchbook, or having other pre-teens to hang out with during games or breaks.  Homework is also an option, but they hate that too!
  • I've seen moms of toddlers bring play-doh, sidewalk chalk, glow-sticks for night games, Duplo and other toys, bubbles, anything to keep them happy!
  • Another way I've keep my pre-teen occupied is by letting him keep the pitch count when his brother pitches or help run the scoreboard.  That seems to hold his interest for at least one game.
  • Mamas to multiple children, may the force be with you!

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​I hope you found this post helpful.
We are entering our third season of travel ball, and I am still
learning all the ins and outs.
One other tip I did not mention is to never burn bridges.
You never know when your player may play with a former teammate
or coach again, and keeping options open
for your child will always be in his best interest.  Baseball really is like family. 
We all have a crazy Uncle Larry (sorry to any Larrys out there),
but we still love Uncle Larry if he has the team's and the
​players' best interests at heart.  
❤️

*** Disclaimer:  I did not mention the First Aid Kit that I have stocked and loaded since I'm the team nurse / NP.  I may do an entire post on it since I have tweaked those supplies MANY times during our 11-12 seasons of baseball now!

Some of the other basics like sunscreen, sunglasses, chairs, tents, blankets, umbrellas, etc are all covered in my original post "15 beginner baseball mom must-knows"
​linked below.
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Follow my son's current travel team on TikTok

15 Beginner Baseball Mom Must-Knows

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14 lessons learned in my first decade of motherhood

how i plan meals a month at a time

how to start a car fund for your child

shop my baseball favorites

planning for the entire year ahead

how to have a productive doctor's visit