Rick Reilly raises ethical dillema in youth sports

dog --

If he's really disabled, should he be playing? And batting with the game on the line? What if he had gotten hurt? What burden does his coach bear?

And have you ever seen little league teams with true asshole coaches go after a team with a really weak catcher? I mean one who can't get the throw down period.

I've umped little league games with upwards of 30 stolen bases, all because the scrawny kid behind the plate -- who was the only one who would catch, likely so he knew he would play -- can't make the throw.

That's more bush-league than this, in my opinion.

 

zeke

you're a moron.

you steal on a weak-armed catcher, that's kids playing the game. go from first to third on a weak-armed right fielder, that's the same.

those are examples of on-going plays during the course of the game, all made by kids vs. kids. the pitcher here unintenionally intentonally walks the slugger to face the weak hitter, that, too, is kids playing the game.

the coach ORDERING an intentional walk to the slugger to face the weak hitter is WRONG. that's an ADULT vs. KID situation. and it sucks every which way you try to defend it.

any time an ADULT makes a strategic decision aimed to capitalize on a weak kid, it is wrong. and the notion that the game MEANS SOMETHING is also an incredible copout. a 9-10 year old championship game does NOT MEAN A FREAKIN' THING, except to those adults who must live vicariously through their kids.

i won't ever write, "what's so hard to understand," ever again. clearly, this is all a concept that's IMPOSSIBLE for you to comprende. god help us all.

 

You're a genius, shockey.

Because a coach never tells players to steal, or go first to third. Why, they'd have to have a special place for coaches to stand on the field to do that kind of coaching...

Maybe next time, try more smileys. They're the only parts of your posts that don't expose you as an unmitigated fucking dolt.

 

oh, and if the pitcher "can't pull it off," big freakin' deal. the slugger belts one so one team wins the plastic trophy and the other doesn't? big friggin' deal!!

the chickenshit coach then takes the opportunity to have everyone congratulate the other team and buys everyone ice cream. rough stuff, huh? my 11-year-old's team beat a team full of good friends for a little league title in june. a real "grudge match." the next day, one of the "losing" kids called to invite the little shockey to the beach for the day. kids get over this WAY quicker than the asshole adults.

 

You two are becoming the new dog and DyePack. Keep it rolling.

 

ouch again. because i live to earn your respect, zeke.

why don't you just pick on a kid again. that's what yoiu're good at.


oh, but i'm done now. really. someone's gotta play the adult, and it's taken me an embarrassingly long time. too long.

godspeed, zeke.

 

Have you ever won an argument this way? Do you just frustrate other people into walking away from you?

Of course kids get over things quickly. The kid in the story already had. All the more reason why what the coaches did wasn't wrong.
Of course, I'd guess that it takes quite a while to get over having a moron for a father, but that's another thread.

I win again.

But, by all means, keep trying completely random aguments on the possibility that you hit on something cogent. Since you are pathologically unable to adress anything resembling an argument.

 

It's almost a mathematical formula that the young a kid is the more the parents are into whether his/her team wins or loses.

Most "help" I ever got as a coach from parents was coaches a 4-5 year-old soccer team (by help I mean suggestions on strategy, not any physical help).

Most overwrought I have seen parents get is at 7-8 year old coach pitch playoff games.

Not sure why that is.

 

You're WAY too dismissive on this whole issue, shockey. You don't have the market cornered on the right answer for this.

 

Not sure I'm adding anything new here, but whatever....

Bottom line, for me anyway, comes down to this:

At that age, in a game that means zero in the grand scheme of things, walking the best hitter to pitch to the worst with the game on the line is weak ass bullshit, cancer or no.

Sack up, coach, put your best against their best, and may the better pre-pubescent, spoiled little grade-schooler win. If you have to call time out to bring in your flame-throwing, 9-year-old Latino closer to have him face the 10-year-old with a mustache, awesome. But don't go around slapping yourself on the back because your best was better than their worst. Christ.

If I were the parent of the cancer kid, though, I'd be cool with what went down. As much as you want to protect your kids, life is going to shit on them plenty of times. Being embarassed and humiliated is an important part of growing up. People with character react in a positive way to those situations. It takes guts and courage to beat cancer, even at age 10, and the kid probably (cliche as it sounds) will learn more about real life from striking out than he would hitting a home run and having Rick Reilly write about it.

 

Perfect.

 

Everyone plays... everyone gets pitched to.