Huntley Travel Team Writing Its Own Ticket

For Huntley parents looking to enroll their kids in a youth baseball program, often the options can be black and white, with traditional Little League at one end and enterprising travel teams at the other. And while one might think the space between the two programs is a gray area, it’s beginning to get a hint of blue, as in Huntley Blue.

A part-time program with just five teams last season, this spring the Huntley Blue is a full-time venture, offering a full slate of games as part of the McHenry County Baseball League, and fielding eight teams comprised of about 90 players ranging in age from 9 to 13. Win-loss records among Blue teams vary, but last month the program hosted its second Memorial Day Tournament, during which two Blue teams finished second and two others captured third. Overall, 37 teams from Illinois and Wisconsin competed.

Still, some of Blue’s success is being measured away from the diamond, as it tries to satisfy Huntley parents who want the benefits of a travel baseball program but with Little League backing. It was the absence of such a combination that prompted Mario Mescino, president and founder of the Huntley Blue, to create a “travel component” under the Huntley Youth Baseball Little League “umbrella”.

“We kept losing to kids to travel teams around the area because kids and parents wanted a little more competition, if you will, and a little better brand of baseball,” said Mescino, who is also HYBLL’s information officer. “So instead of constantly losing 20 to 30 kids every year, I said why don’t we build a program that bridges that gap between full-time travel and high school at a reasonable price. “

That gap, as it turns out, had an extra obstacle in parents who opposed the incorporation of a travel program.

“The naysayers didn’t believe travel baseball was a better brand of baseball,” Mescino said. “They thought it was parents living vicariously through their kids and spending money just to be part of the elite teams. That’s not the case. Let’s face it, when you take 11 of the best players out of a 9-U league, that team is going to be better than a Little League team, which has Little Johnnies and guys at the end of the bench. It is what it is. But I think, over time, parents are starting to understand that. With Little League especially, there is as very old-fashioned way of thinking. This is a sanctuary. But even Little League itself is starting to change.”

Among the changes Little League is making are adjustments to pitching distances and base path lengths, which increase drastically between Little League and high school competition. Travel teams have bridged that gap, making their programs all the more appealing. But travel teams also are more expensive. For Blue players who pass the annual summer tryout, the fee is $500, or about half of what other travel teams charge.

For players who do not make Blue, there is always HYBLL; however this isn’t to say HYBLL players are less talented than Blue players or vice versa.

“There are many kids in Little League that, for one reason or another, are not in Blue, whether it’s financial or they just don’t want to commit to a travel program schedule or whatever,” Mescino said. “So I’m not going to say (Blue) has the best kids in Huntley Youth Baseball Little League. That’s just not true. There are plenty of kids who are still in Little League that are better than the kids in Blue.”

Still, the sorting of the two groups is easier said than done, particularly when there’s a greater goal. Mescino says the HYBLL board and Blue administrators are trying to figure out a way to “tie Blue back into the Little League” so that the best HYBLL players have a shot at the Little League World Series.

If HYBLL can successfully do that, of course the next question is will travel teams supplant Little League, which in Huntley, is its own entity and not associated with the park district.

“I don’t think we’ll ever drop Little League,” said Mescino, who added he knows of several other towns that have begun incorporating travel teams into their Little League programs. “We all love and enjoy being part of it. I love turning on the Little League World Series, which will be on here in a couple of weeks, and watching it.”

Oh, and how did Blue get its name?

Mescino says it goes back to when HYBLL had two teams with players of the same age. One team was called “white”, the other “blue.”