Youth Sports (i.e. the thing we all loved which parents have now ruined)

One of the biggest issues I encountered with umpires was getting one of the two to admit the other erred. I’d take the calm approach, talk about what happened, where the mistake was made, but they always stuck to their guns. Perhaps the worst was on a kid called out of the infield fly rule on a ball that went foul and was never touched. They even admitted that the correct call is “batter is out, if fair” but wouldn’t admit their mistake.

I never lost my cool but it was frustrating that they always had more interest in being right than in getting it right. In my snippiest of moments I looked at the ump who didn’t make the call and said “you know I’m right, you just don’t have the guts to speak up.” Not my finest moment in hindsight.

And just to pile on, parents are terrible on the foul tip rule. It’s an immediate tell on their ball knowledge.

 

In our last tournament, there was a pickoff at first, I think it was a throw from the catcher, and the first baseman still hasn't tagged our runner. But he was called out. Our coach, who I have never seen raise his voice on the field, asked the field umpire for an appeal and to ask the home umpire, who definitely had a better view anyway. The field umpire matter of factly, with no hesitation, said no. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Our coach was floored and I honestly thought he was going to start cracking up. That was also the end of that. Our coach chuckled and said OK and walked away.

 

"Careful the things you say
"Children will listen."

Original Broadway Cast of Into the Woods – Children Will Listen / Finale Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

 

My oldest graduated from high school in 2005, but returned as an assistant coach this spring. Somehow I let him talk me into running the scoreboard and doing the P.A. It didn't take long for me to remember why I sat behind the outfield fence when he played.

 

When my daughter was about 16, she was playing Tier 1 softball and the team energy was very weird. Playing time and the batting order were highly volatile, and kids and parents were stressed.

Another dad and I, he having been a very good baseball player, put our lawn chairs up the outfield line to get away from the whole scene. We got teased in a good natured way, but I had to do it.

 

Get back to the basics ...

 

Got a dad who has assisted with football and baseball. His son is a great kid. Heckuva athlete and Mr. Hustle, 100 percent of the time.

Dad is a royal pain in the ass. He is almost never on the same page with what we're doing. He "coaches" kids up with the wrong points of emphasis. And - to my great annoyance - when he's coaching first base, his attention is usually diverted using his phone to take videos of the hitter, instead of coaching the runner at first base.

Parents are divorced and mom has custody. She texted me and said, "Hey I'm going to sign <kid> up, but only if he can play for you." I told her, "Look I want your son on my team, and if I can, I'll for sure draft him. But <dad> will NOT be on the coaching staff, because we just have too many irreconcilable differences."

Example (and the point of this post)?

Last night its our baseball semifinal. We're managing to win a little bit. Everyone's getting in the game, but we're not necessarily playing all the different kids at infield spots, etc.

So our worst player is on deck. Kid has fouled one pitch off all season and otherwise hasn't touched the ball.

Coach Moron tells him, "Kevin! If you get a hit Coach Justin will put you at second base when we go back on defense."

Why would you say that? If the kid hits the ball, you're going to make a liar out of yourself and me.

"Justin you're too hard on me! I'm just trying to motivate the kid."

Fucking idiot. Don't ever put yourself in position where a kid knows you lied to him. They're 11 and 12. They're not idiots.

 

Because, of course, motivation is the issue there. Jeez ...

 

Probably not, but you never know. Regardless, not the way to do it. Hell, the kid might not want to play second base anyway. You definitely don't go rogue on the coach and team with that kind of statement. Especially in an important game.

As for motivation, when my now 14-year-old played he was a just fine player. He could hit when he wanted to, but also just didn't try. He kind of played because his brother did and friends did, but it wasn't really his deal. So effort could be an issue. I think sometimes it was his way to rebel (he always could have just told us he didn't want to play!). Late in the season with another at-bat gone where he just stood there, his coach told him he'd buy him a route 44 drink at Sonic if he got a hit. Sure enough, he smashed one in the next at-bat. See, motivation. He still sometimes talks about that drink!

The coach didn't say he could play second, though.

 

Exactly. Kid has been working his butt off trying to get a hit, and has come back from another strikeout in tears at least once a game.

Tell him to keep his head still. Tell him to get in his load early enough. Remind him he's got to have the courage to stay in the box if he's going to hit it.

But "Hey man if you just try super hard this time, we'll give you a reward," is a special level of stupidity.

 

I'm guessing here, but I highly, highly doubt the promise of a soda is what caused a hit to happen that particular time.

I'll leave it to the good doctor to discuss the correlational fallacy.

 

Oh, with this child, it absolutely did. Not even a question. We constantly have to deal with this type of motivation for a lot of crap he does. Our only kid who responds this way to stuff like that too.

He also hit well the rest of the season. It wasn't ability or luck or anything else. It was lack of trying. He found out he was going to get a nice treat if he came through, and bam. Trust me. Absolutely, 100 percent no doubt why he then started to hit.

I get that isn't the case with your player and in many instances. And I totally agree that your "assistant" handled it poorly. Just my kid, he's a special kind of something.