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

Not from The Onion, not a fake ... this is where we are.

 

6 and under multi-state tournament. For fuck’s sake, those parents need help.

 

“Remember, kids, every day before and after school, you’ve got to run your outfield gassers.”

 

And their right fielder is 4 years old.

Good lord.

 

Technically this isn’t youth sports but I feel like it fits the spirit of the thread. Friend of mine who used to be a copy editor got back into coaching this year after a few seasons away.

 

So my buddy’s kid is one of the top frosh in the nation and playing for a top 20 team in the tourney, which is mind blowing.

Watched him since he was 8 and never would have thought that kid shooting at the 10 ft bucket using our ball would be a potential NBA guy. He’s a good but not mind blowing athlete.

What I’ve seen is all these parents treat youth sports as this is going to happen to their kid and it’s such a long shot. Let your kids be kids.

 

Four year old players?

The Soviets say, "Hold my vodka."

 

I think back to my sports kid being that age. He played t-ball at 4 I believe. And he had already been around sports and balls forever and kind of knew what he was doing. He knew to go to first with a play. He knew if a runner was coming to second and he was there to touch the base. But he couldn't throw far or accurately and it was still bunch ball.

I am sure there are some random 4-year-olds who their parents have had them throwing since they could and it looks OK, but why would you subject them to long days of games and travel at that age? They don't care and aren't going to remember it. It will make it so it isn't fun and they won't want to play for long.

 

Marv Marinovich approves.

 

This isn’t about the Reynas ruining the US World Cup team!?!

 

This might fit better on the politics thread with the work-permit discussions, but my oldest umped his first game last night and already has a story of an asshole parent/coach.

It was a machine pitch game and some tiny little kid (and they really do look tiny now) hit a roller that my son correctly called foul. The coach running the machine dressed him down for a minute and accused him of not knowing the rules. I was fuming, but also paralyzed - he was working and I didn't think it was my place to say anything. Thankfully, the VP of machine pitch was there, called him over and told him to cut it out.

 

We can debate the downfall of youth sports in terms of travel ball until we all turn blue, but ugh on packing up a ton of crap for the potential of a full day on Sunday, driving an hour away and being there an hour early to warm up only to be run ruled in less than an hour and have to go home.