Rick Reilly raises ethical dillema in youth sports

Very easily, though I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over again.

You roll out the ball and tell the kids to have fun.

And the coaches need to STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY, except to teach.

 

1. If the slugger hits one out, the losing team will have forgotten about it in a week and a half. Yes, the coach will have "done the right thing." Because at 9- AND 10-YEARS-OLD the kids should be doing whatever the hell they want on the field. NO FUCKING Tony LaRussa bullshit.

2. A running database? No. But let's be honest here. There's not a person at that ballpark that doesn't know that kid's story. And the coach had the kid on one of his teams previously. That's one of the most ridiculous arguments in this board's history.

 

I only read the first few pages and the last one in this thread, so I'm certain my thoughts have been stated elsewhere.

I coached 9-10 year olds in rec soccer league. I never really had a problem with other parents. I tried to teach the kids position. Some kids got it while others didn't.

One year, we lost in the playoffs due to a handball in the box being called for a penalty kick. I had questions about whether the penalty kick actually went in. The ball was well struck and the goals were a bit small, so the ball either hit the post and bounced away or hit the inside part of the frame and bounced away. I discussed this with the refs, but it was ruled a goal and we lost. After the other game, I was talking with the commissioner of the league, a personal friend, and our conversation was about something other than the sport. The opposition's coach, drove past us and screamed out his window, "Get over it! You lost!"

As I was walking back to my car, I had a father call me over to his car because his son was crying over the loss. I gave the kid a good little pep talk and sure enough, the following year the kid's parents requested that their son be on my team.

The following year, I called upon a few of the parents to help coach the team while I was out of the country on vacation during the middle of the season. I came back and was coaching the team for the final two weeks of the season and then the playoffs.

I played one particular kid as goalie. He was the only kid that actually wanted to be the goalie (I know this because I asked each kid when the season started what position they enjoy playing the most). While I was gone, the parents that helped coach played with the line-up a little. They didn't go with my strategy of playing the kids in the positions they most enjoy but the ones that enabled the team to win the most games.

When the playoffs rolled around, I had already gone back to my line-up. One of the parents, the one that needed my help the previous year with his son, asked why I was starting a certain kid as goalie. My explanation was received with, "If we lose this game, it is all your fault. Your fault!"

We lost the game.

That parent never forgave me and even went so far as to not bring their kid to the pizza party I set up.

While all of the kids on my team were deeply disappointed in the loss, they were able to play a position that they enjoyed playing while maybe not getting a chance to play that position in the future.

Did I do the right thing? I don't know. We lost and therefore my kids didn't get to experience the joy of winning.

I can't fault these little league coaches. They did what they felt is best for their kids. They wanted to give their team the joy of winning. In that sense, it is no different than parenting. There are different methods to obtaining objectives, they aren't right or wrong, they are just different.

 

Don't look now, Beef, but you've just lost the argument.

If the kids will forget about it in a week, why is it a big deal to walk the kid?

And if it's all about letting the kids do what they want, what if the kids wanted to walk the slugger?

 

Amen Ragu - that coach had chance to do something great - much greater than winning the trophy and he blew it. At 9/10 lLittle League baseball is about teaching and allowing kids to enjoy the game.  

If the coach opted to pitch to best hitter every kid at that game would have learned a much greater lesson - one of compassion and sportmanship.

 

Lesson learned is don't have a cancer survivor bat behind your best hitter.

I recall intentional walks all the time in little league when I played. Hell, it's even a central theme at the end of Bad News Bears.

 

Did you also read in that Salt Lake Tribune column that in this game, the regular rules, including four runs per inning, etc. were suspended because it was the championship?  What message does that send?

 

geez, i can't believe you are this much of a wack job. oh, sorry. i'm reminded of wack jobs like you all too oftern on little league feels. christ, if the slugger hits one out, good for him. and if any parent gives you shit for pitching to him, take the opportunity to call him/her a dick.

where does it end? like i said, high school and up is all fair game. until then, leave the "strategy" at home.  

 

shockey, since you've yet to make a valid point, why don't you do me a favor and fuck off.

 

Thanks Ragu.

 

ooooh, clever. i believe we've all seen the real you in action. thanks for the clarification. ;D ;D ;D

 

I'm not usually a big fan of Thomas Boswell, but one of his better columns was about growing up as a kid and not only playing baseball, but all manners of games involving a glove, a bat (sometimes) and a ball (sometimes a baseball, sometimes a rubber ball, sometimes a stick ball). Even though he grew up in the suburbs of D.C., there was no organized Little League, but he and his buddies played some form of ball all day, every day, whether it was an actual game, or 3 on 3, or stoop-ball, 500, pickle -- with no limitations other than a kid's imagination.

I had a similar upbringing. And Boswell made this point: "We recognized that the natural enemy of kids were the adults," meaning the adults who wanted to stick them in uniforms and start barking at them. He wrote that he had friends in Little League who would bat three times in one game, and pointed out that when he and his friends played, they'd get three at-bats in one inning.

As Bos wrote further: "no adult made me take on a 3-1 pitch ... I never got burned out on baseball because no adult was there to burn me out."

I covered J.D. Drew in college. He and his brothers (all three in pro baseball) grew up on a farm near Tifton, Ga., and played baseball with cousins and friends in the cow pasture. He never put on a uniform in an organized league until he was in high school. Drew told me he used to make fun of his friends in Little League who would play six innings, twice a week, bat 2-3 times a game and have to put up with coaches, umpires, parents, intentional walks and being told to "take it until he throws you a strike" etc. Drew said he and his friends/brothers/cousins learned the fundamentals just fine, thank you, without some jerk father with a clipboard. For example, he told me that you learned how to get in front of a ground ball and keep your head down after a few bad hops off the pasture into your face. Hittting came natural when you'd play 20 innings a day in the summer and batted 10 times a game.

I know every kid can't learn the game this way. And I know people will bring up the value of organized baseball with coaching, etc.

But I wonder how many kids are just hanging at the mall or sitting home in the A.C. playing video games because they're lazy, or because they know what life in an organized youth sport will be like?