Podcast: 3Step Sports CEO Dave Geaslen on travel ball reaction

3Step Sports CEO Dave Geaslen joined hosts Dan Guttenplan and Matt Feld on The Base Path Podcast. (3Step Sports)

Editor’s note: The Base Path Podcast co-host Matt Feld is employed by the Nor’Easter Runbird travel ball organization, which is owned by 3Step Sports.

The latest guest on The Base Path Podcast is the founder and CEO of 3Step Sports, Dave Geaslen. 3Step is a company that oversees travel programs like The Show New England, the Nor’Easters, Seacoast Pirates, New Hampshire Prospects, and the Bay Sox. 3Step also operates the Select Baseball League and many of the New Balance Tournaments at the New England Baseball Complex.

3Step has come under criticism recently for contributing to the rising costs of travel ball around New England. Geaslen believes that any criticism about 3Step’s role in making the sport more expensive is unfair.

“I’ll try and be nice, but I only saw one criticism, and I really don’t care what he thinks,” Geaslen said. “People get too caught up in high school kids playing in the fall, playing too much, and all those different things. We have nine sports. We had 3.2 million kids go through our events last year, and 64 percent of them aren’t even in high school.

“So, everybody gets caught up in elite baseball and whether you’re going to play in college. Can we talk about club and AAU baseball for 9s, 10s, 11s and 12s? They want to play more than once a week with one practice in Little League. We want these kids, especially baseball in New England, to get more time. Play little league, play town ball, do all those different things. And if you want to play additional baseball, play club baseball. Get a little more instruction.”

Geaslen said 3Step does not provide any guidance on the style of coaching; rather, the company helps travel ball directors with registration, scheduling, and other administrative tasks.

“Whether we own 10 baseball clubs or leagues, we’re not telling everybody how to teach, how to throw a curve ball, how to hit and run the bases, or turn a double play,” Geaslen said. “The consistency in the standard is scheduling good facilities, registration, and insurance background checks. It’s all the things that have nothing to do with what’s happening in the field. But we keep mom and dad happy because they have a lot of other things to do in their lives.”

Listen to the entire podcast with 3Step Sports CEO Dave Geaslen.

The New England Baseball Journal podcast is brought to you by the University of Nebraska High School.

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