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

My son played for the area association and it seemed every weekend tournament was nothing but misery. My kid was OK, played AAA one year, A the next and AA after that. Why he moved up and down and others didn't, I have no idea. It was crushing: too much pressure at AAA, devastation to get dropped to A (although it was probably his most fun season) and nothing but parental bitterness and anguish at AA, where they secretly rooted against the AAA team (which had friends of players and parents).

There was pressure throughout, as these teams didn't play in-house leagues during the week. They only played tournaments. Pool play with half the teams moving on to the bracket. No skills are learned. No baseball sense either. Pitchers aren't developed because there's no good time to take a chance on a kid. It's all about taking extra bases and scoring runs to move on (the dropped-third-strike rule at any level under 13 years old is absolutely ridiculous). To me, it's a sucky way to play.

That AA team had a head coach who was an OK guy but didn't know the game real well, an assistant who couldn't wait for the Coors Lights to start flowing after the game and another assistant who knew the game all right but spent most of his time keeping stats or working on the side with his son only. One time, I recall, during pre-game warmups, the latter assistant stayed off to the side with his boy while the head coach did soft toss for the rest of the players to hit into the net. The other assistant, who should have been watching and instructing the hitters, stood there looking at his phone. And I wonder why they got so mad when we lost.

Final story: My kid's always been a tall, gangly kid. Never ran super fast. Decent hitter -- when he had confidence. He's on third base with one out, leads off a bit and goes one step too far on a scorching line drive to the short stop. Of course, he's picked off for the inning-ending double play. He's on the ground ready to burst in to tears. The third-base coach, Mr. Coors Light, didn't even acknowledge my kid. He just stomped and stormed his way across the diamond to the dugout (in my head, he steps right over my son, but I don't think that really happened). I was so angry, but I didn't have the guts to confront the coach(es); I didn't want to be that guy. Every time I see that play happen in MLB (and it does happen ... and it is hard for the runner in that situation), I think of that prick who didn't have the decency to talk to my kid.

That was my son's last year of baseball. The next year, he said, "No more," and went out for lacrosse. Loved it. Best part about lacrosse (at least at that time): It was a fairly new sport in these parts, and the parents didn't know a thing about it. They couldn't complain or yell at coaches or refs or criticize the team or their own kids. Kinda refreshing (for a couple of years anyway).

 

Still one of my all-time favorites was when I officiated 6th-grade basketball and a coach wanted a "unimpeded to the basket foul"

 

That made me think of my son’s first T-ball team. There was one kid who did OK until it was almost time to bat. Then he’d start crying giant tears. They’d have to coax him to the plate and try to get through to him that he needed to swing. Finally he’d stop crying just long enough to knock the ball halfway to Georgia. Then more crying as they tried to coax him down to first base (as opposed to the inside the park homer he could have had if he’d run from the start.) Sometimes the talent is there but the want-to just ain’t.

 

Undefeated league champions!

Won our final 16-1 to finish a 10-0 season. Other team had their stud - a very good pitcher - available for just two innings, so they started him.

We gave up a run in the top of the first, and then we came up in the bottom of the first and went outfield blast-walk-outfield blast-walk-outfield blast-walk-walk-walk-bases clearing triple to right, and their ace didn't make an out in the first before they pulled him. We were up 10-1 after one and it was game over.

My kid has really blossomed as a pitcher this year - he pitched all four innings last night for the win, and finished the season with 11 runs allowed over 20 innings, just a .297 walk percentage, and a .538 strikeout percentage. Towards the end of the year it really looked like pitching, as he started to figure out when he had to throw (against the good hitters) and when he could get away with get-me-over pitches (against the kids who had no chance to hit the ball).

Our kid who never hit the ball didn't put one in play, but he got on base twice and scored the mercy-rule sealing run in the fourth inning, which to him felt like a game-winning run, and it was great to see him beaming and the whole team celebrating him.

 

You're probably never going to get that acknowledgement ... at least I hope you don't.

If I found out one of my partners said, "Yeah, he chunked that one" - even if I did chunk it - I'd have been pissed.

Even at lower levels, the only one who has an ump's back is the other ump.

 

This is bullshit. The best thing an ump can do if they know they made a mistake is own it. Shuts everyone up.

 

Here's a question for all the youth sports experts out there.

It is baseball tryout season. My almost 11-year-old is a very good baseball player. He is currently playing 10U, but he is going into sixth grade. So he is essentially playing down an age compared to his grade level. There are two other kids on his team that are in the same situation, so he isn't alone.

I love his team, he is a top-three player on the team, it is a very good team but with low pressure to absolutely win and everyone, for the most part, gets a chance to try what they want to try. It also is a great group of families with not a lot of the nonsense we see described here. I have no intention of moving him and he likely won't want to.

That said, as we start to get a little older I am wondering about aligning him to grade level. Does it matter?

There is one team, the next age up, I am thinking about having him try out for just for shits and giggles. He has two friends on it from other sports, one of whom he'd go to high school with. It isn't as good as a team and they play more league than tournaments, for better or worse. But I am kind of interested in seeing where he stands there and give him a chance to experience a tryout, etc. My wife is pretty much leave him be, what if he likes it or wants to change teams and it ends up not being great, what if it isn't as good of a spot, what if he doesn't play? I mostly agree, but in my own daddy ball way am curious. I know that is selfish.

I'll probably leave it as is and not worry about it. Maybe bring it up to him and just see. But my main thing is the age/grade level thing and if it matters. It doesn't matter tons yet, but two years from now? At all?

 

The guy who made the mistake? Sure, he should acknowledge it.
His/her partner? No way.

 

Tournament baseball is for the birds (and probably tournament everything in youth sports). There is part of my sports stats, common sense setup stuff that it just doesn't appeal to.

They play pool play, but it's not really ever pools. They take all the teams and jumble them up and everyone gets two games and then they have a bunch of tiebreakers that somehow spit the teams into a bracket for the next day.

My kid is playing in a "state" tournament this weekend. It is AAA and most of the teams are actually that. A few not so much. It is USSSA. They allegedly seeded this thing, but there is no way they really did. A team that is 0-5 in the setup (basically USSSA games against this level), played a team that is 2-11.

My kid's team ended up with fourth-best best runs given up, the top tiebreaker after wins, but lost both games to what ended up the third and fourth seeds -- two really good games, just not the right results! Got to win, it's really the only way in this setup, but it is a silly setup. At least take the time to do some true pools! Should get some good extra games in the crap bracket tomorrow, though.

 

This thread has become me ranting about the end of baseball, but I'll add one more!

My kid's season ended today. This was the first time they played three tournaments in three weeks, usually would do something like two in a row, a week off, one more, and things like that. I looked forward to it all season because I thought by the end of it they would really be humming. Instead, they just got worse. They did lose four one-run games over the course of these tourneys, including one today, and had the go-head or winning run in scoring position in each of them. Don't know if that's terrible luck or a sign they have a few things to work on!

This week's was a three-day tourney and had to do well to make the bracket. They did not do that. So it is over. Eventually, I will be glad because baseball can be a slog and practices started six months ago, but it ended at least a day and probably a few games too early.

Still, really appreciate the group my kid is with and that they can play like this and most everyone keeps a level head and doesn't get too down. I would love to see them all stay together longer to see if they can iron out some of these kinks and where it takes them.

That said, I did go ahead and sign him up for one different tryout, the older group with a couple of his friends. He wants to go. He also doesn't want to leave this team. I guess we'll see if any of that changes after this tryout, but it will be mostly up to him. He also has always been a football, basketball, baseball kid. I hope he mostly continues it, but I have seen him lean more and more toward baseball. He's playing football and will be very ready for it once it starts. He's starting middle school and in sixth grade they can run cross country and I wonder if he'll give something like that a go?

Am starting to wonder if we do some outside baseball lessons or anything or hold off. Definitely don't want to burn him out. His coach said when we first joined this team that the kids know in about two years if this level of game and commitment is for them, and he certainly isn't ready for the season to be over. So there's that.

 

Random thought from decades ago; I'm golfing with my buddy who was the All-Star SS when I was the All-Star 2B in our 11 and 12 yr LL teams. Back then of course LLWS was the ultimate (and only available) goal after the LL season. We made it out of the District and made the West Regionals. We were reminiscing about how the games were fun but the highlight was just practicing every day (this is summer) with all of us, the best in town. Maybe that's what travel ball is like nowadays (my oldest only played one year), playing with the best, but it seems like its all about games now and not so much about practice.

 

Both of our nephews play high level baseball that has almost bankrupted their parents. The oldest plays on a travel team that seems to be in the US every weekend and is going to some JUCO in Illinois in the fall but I believe he would be far better off ditching the baseball dream and getting an education at a school like the University of Toronto or Queen's. But I guess they will let him try it so he can't keep ragging on them that they wouldn't let him do it.

The youngest plays AAA for his local organization, they played out our way a few weeks ago so we went to watch. They got clobbered and I noticed the team has at least six coaches there and I don't recall any of them doing much of anything in the way of coaching. I was told one of the assistants - not even the head guy - didn't have a kid on the team and was actually a paid coach which made no sense since I didn't see or hear him do anything. The kid's father didn't seem to know what he did or how much he got paid.