Complaint Review: Indy Tigers Baseball

 The Indy Tiger baseball club claims to have teams starting at the 12 and Under division and going all the way up to the 16 and under division.  This is really not the case as only a 16U team was playing during the 2013 season and even then, only 1/2 of a season when we paid for a FULL SEASON  (more to follow below).

My son wanted to play for a travel baseball team but we had missed most of the other team tryouts due to being on vacation for the 2013 spring and summer season.  We stumbled upon the Indy Tigers via the web.  We checked out the website (which did not include the Phenom's baseball academy at that time).  The website looked inviting so we placed a call to the number listed on the screen.

The coach / manager / owner, Keith Wood answered and promptly scheduled a tryout for our son.  The tryout was held and my son made the team.  The sign up fee was $1,500 for the season and that included travel for our son (transportation and hotel) as well as uniforms and 9 tournaments or roughly 48 games (is what we were told).  The list of tournaments that we would be attending was passed out for the season and parents started to make thier own travel and hotel plans based on this list of tournaments that we would be going to.

There were 14 kids on the team at $1,500 per kid would equal out to be $21,000 in income for Mr. Wood...  Keep that figure in mind for a moment...  So, prior to the start of the tournament season, Mr. Wood would try to talk to parents of kids on the team to try to convince them to become a "Partner" in his baseball academy business that he was attempting to get off the ground.  The financial investment required would be anywhere from $15k - $30k.  The vast majority thought this was very odd since everyone had just met Keith a few weeks / months prior and none of us had a personal relationship with him... 

As the team went into tournaments, we lost almost every game and soon had amassed a record of 1 -21...  Winning and losing is not everything as there are more important lessons to learn in baseball.  The problem is the way that Keith Wood would deal with his "Team" after a loss...  Keith would cuss the team out, yell at the players in front of the entire team and storm off the field.  There were even times where he would argue with the umpires just to get kicked out of the game so he could leave.  On three seperate ocassions, Mr. Wood informed the team that he would not coach them any longer and would sit in the stands until they could play ball.  Leaving the coaching responsibilites to his assistant coaches with 5 minutes until game time... 

The next thing we know he is getting the Phenom's Baseball Academy building up and running in prep for a grand opening..   He has 3 financial backers and claims that he spent $15,000 of "his own personal" money to assist in the start up.  That is funny because he had no problem telling anyone that listens that he is on disability and has no other income.  The $15,000 that he spent on the academy was OUR MONEY, the PARENTS MONEY... 

With 23 of 48 games complete, Mr. Keith Wood cancelled the entire season claiming issues with player parents and that the team was $8,000 over budget (meaning that he had spent in excess of $29,000 for 23 baseball games)!!!  What happened to the $21,000 is anyones guess....  Most of the tournaments that we played in cost less than $600 each and we only had 2 hotel stays...   It does not add up! 

If you learn anything from this message, please take this away with you:

THE INDY TIGER TRAVEL BASEBALL TEAMS ARE A JOKE!  Mr. Wood & his wife HOLLY are CON-ARTISTS that will NOT deliver baseball to your son but steal the fees and provide the worst possible experience to you and your family!   I feel sorry for you if you already handed this man or his wife any money.

Signed,

A very upset parent  (that is considering legal action)