There are little leagues, but it depends on which side of town you're in. Andy played in Oaks Dads for tee ball at 7, then we moved into West U LL's territory. West U had spring rolls from whole foods at the concession stand, which suited us just fine.
Lots of kids start at 5. Oaks Dad's was independent, and I don't think I'd recommend it anymore. A lot of our friends' kids from the north side played Timbergrove, which is very good, and covers the same area. No spring rolls.
West U LL was great in it's way, but had its mix of the good stuff and the bad stuff. Andy never had a terrible coach, really, but he had some obsessed coaches, and a mediocre coach or 2, and some really good coaches. He was on some very good teams. I'd rate his experience very high.
There is a Kyle Chapman Pony League on the West side which is also very good. Bellaire and Post Oak have good little leagues. If you haven't read Little League Confidential, it's pretty funny. There are probably an equal number of whacked coaches to whacked parents.
The little leagues all produced tournament teams that went year round from 8 or 9 up. It was pretty common at West U to have lessons, and it's quite a cottage industry here in Houston.
I think Little League costs, after the candy sales, and not counting the lessons and contributions for batting cages, but including the $15 for the practice tee shirt, are about $200 a season. There's also a gala, and of course your business is going to be asked to sponsor. Little League bats now run what, $70-$150? The cheap high school bats are $190? And then of course you've got to go to Rice for summer camp for at least one week, and maybe 2.
High school ball in Houston is very strange to me, just because of the tremendous number of kids who play. Bellaire has 3 sophomore teams, Lamar 2. We sat through a bunch of games at Kyle Chapman earlier this year, and listened to parents much more in the know than us explain the Bellaire high school funding scandal, and the Episcopal High School flare up over summer camp fees, and also explain how the real power houses are out in the suburbs, The Woodlands, Kingwood, Cy-Fair . . . Houston Christian, on the North Side, now has a tremendous advantage on recruiting out of Baseball USA. So yeah, high school coaches know a lot of kids early on, and it plays a part. And I'd guess the suburbs have had a lot to do with the death of American Legion.
This is kinda interesting:
http://www.kylechapman.com/Andy pitched part of a shut out with one of the drafted kid's younger brothers earlier this year--it was maybe as good of a pitched youth game as I've seen. The kid was from the Woodlands, so on a May school night his parents had driven him 100 miles round-trip to pitch 4 innings in a made-up, non-league ball game. They were playing a "volunteer" team of Bellaire High sophomores and freshman. That's Houston baseball right now.
HH, I'd guess in the 20 years since you played high school ball, the quality of the average houston player has improved considerably, and the number of potential players in any given high school has quadrupled. Just a guess.