But baseball was terrible even for the rec-level teams. (At least for me)

I played for 1 year, and even as a player, I couldn't take the constant meddling and politicking of parents, often at my own expense. And because my parents wouldn't participate, I often just got benched, or more often became a pawn in the coaches game of politics.

I wasn't a terrible fielder, but I pitched like I was a batting machine (Right down the middle, super slow), and I remember the coach started me as pitcher one game without any pitching experience and knowing I would get slaughtered, but viewed it as an in-your-face to another kid's dad when the other kid had been scheduled to start that game (The coach told me as such). But we were ranked first by about 3 games, and had already locked up the 1st seed in the playoffs, so the coach didn't see it as a big deal to throw the game by putting me on the mound to embarrass myself for 4 innings or so. But it was insulting to an annoying parent, so the coach went for it.