Little League - do the coaches’ kids always get the best positions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to Daddy Ball. A privilege you get by volunteering your time and energy to the team and organization. The fact that the kids are among the better players helps. It could be worse. Also, I bet the best kid on the team, who is not the coach’s kid, also plays all innings. Right?

There is no such thing as fair playing time in baseball.

There should I’m in little league. My DH coaches, and everyone rotates sitting out an inning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah that’s BS

I coached 20 plus years of kid baseball at a variety of ages and levels. With 12 year olds and under - for sure - and at this time of year (early in a season) a couple of basics are going on.

1. The coaches don’t want anyone be getting hurt. But - if anyone is getting hurt, they want it to be my kid. So, if there is a position on the field where a kid is more likely to get hurt from a lack of skill/experience your kid is not playing it until I know your kid can play it. Catcher, and 1st base in particular.

2. Being the coaches’ kid sucks in large part. You are first to the field and get to spend time racking up any puddles, putting in the bases, and getting the equipment ready. You are also last to leave. You get to spend time putting equipment up and getting it to the car. Helping pick up the trash parents and kids left around because you can’t leave until the field looks good, and you often have to wait until some parent gets back to the field to pick up their kid because they didn’t know it was the last inning and ran out to get coffee and ran into a friend at Starbucks and didn’t hear their phone ring and only realized it had been 45 minutes - oops. I’m sorry doesn’t begin to cut it.

3. I need to know if your kid can play the position without getting hurt. I can’t put your kid at shortstop if your kid can’t get in front of a ground ball and make the throw to first base. Safely. Meaning without substantial risk that your kid will get hurt or that your kid will put the 1st baseman or the runner in danger from a wild throw. If your kid can’t catch the ball consistently I can’t play them at 1st or catcher.

4. What are your leagues playing time rules? Little League is the harshest on limiting the time. My area played “Pony” rules which are more lenient. Basically in a 6 inning game every kid plays a minimum of 3 innings - 1 in the infield. Pitch counts are kept now - game and weekly - so you have to deal with those too.

So - let’s take an example - You are the coach and you have 14 kids on your team. Print out a couple blank youth lineup cards for this example. Make out your lineup with the positions everyone will play each inning this game. Keep in mind you must follow the minimum play rules for each kid. For this example assume 3 of your kids cannot safely catch a ball. And 6 of your kids cannot safely make the throw from the left side of the infield. Coaches know this already but parents often do not - most outs will be made by your 1st and 2nd basemen with 12 and unders. So if you want to avoid too many mercy rule innings you likely want to put your best fielders there.

Now make up your card. Everyone sits a couple innings. Got it done. Now - take a pencil and cross out whoever is batting 8th because it’s 5 minutes to game time and they are not at the field and their parents aren’t answering their phones. You need to give your lineup to the opposing scorekeeper so rewrite it and let them know a kid may or may not show up but you will put them in batting last if they do show up. (It won’t be a big deal to the other coach because parents will have pulled the same crap with her.)

You also now need to redo your fielding assignments because you had that kid playing 4 innings and you need to get those positions covered. Hopefully the no show is not a kid you use in a more responsible position because your replacement options are limited. So - let’s make your no show a kid who you have pitching 2 innings because your pitch count tracking means you need someone to cover about 4-6 innings a week over and above your “regular” pitchers. (Meaning kids you hope can basically throw strikes to get through an inning without walking in some runs.)

So - start thinking about who has a pitch count that would allow them to pitch the 3rd (and oh to dream the 4th) inning since that player is a no call no show. Make sure they are sitting out the 2nd inning so they can warm up. So you need to shift the position assignments around to get that covered. But the kid willing to pitch is excited about the chance which is fun.

Got your new position assignments done yet? Good. Because now it is the top of the second inning and the kid just arrived. Grandma got the time wrong but they are sorry for the late arrival and really excited about him pitching. And you need to tell the umpire and opposing coach the player arrived and will bat last - and you need to rework your position assignments to get the newly arrived player in for 3-4 innings. Yes - the easiest thing to do is cut your own kid’s playing time to the required minimum so you do that and figure you will make it up along the way later.

That's a very long answer to say 'yes, because I haven't prepared your kid now to get hit by a ball or even trust you to show up.'

Yes thank you, and for the love of god please check the little box in the AP a few days before to say if you will be there or not! As pp illustrated, it’s very important.

[Anonymous]

My brother had kids involved in little league a few years before my kids were old enough to play. He said not to sign them up unless my husband was willing to be an assistant coach.

Husband did and it benefited our kids until he no longer had time to help out (he is a teacher and just had too much to grade and prep for). Our kids got the opportunity to play infield positions including pitcher and catcher and batted higher up in the line up. They got more opportunities and did better so got picked for all star teams, which meant they got to practice more after the regular season ended.

Our youngest kid quit baseball and I went with him to watch some friends play who were 12. Watching the gane it was still so obvious who were the coaches kids. A couple of them were still not great players and there they were playing short stop or pitching even though their pitching wasn’t great.

So yeah, baseball is the worst. Such daddy ball. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every youth football quarterback is the coaches son too!

Every point guard is also the coaches' son!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every youth football quarterback is the coaches son too!

Every point guard is also the coaches' son!

This is all true! My kids are college aged now. Had one dad-coach who was amazing and fair and his kid was one of the best players. An anomaly for sure.

[Anonymous]

Who are the coaches?

In general they are folks who like the sport and who want their kids to like the sport and have fun with the experience of playing. Mostly they were decent players when they were kids. They like helping out and they already are working with their own kid(a).

Baseball/softball is a sport built on lots of time and slow development, because kids simply cannot do multiple repetitions effectively. Your kid isn’t going to learn how to do anything at the piano in 10 hours and they are not going to learn how to hit a baseball in 10 hours.

If you want your kid to get a little better, and enjoy the sport you must spend time with them. It is what really makes the sport enjoyable.

What do you do? Step 1: but 50 little league balls (used is okay) buy a batting tee, buy batting gloves to avoid blisters, buy an appropriate weight bat (used is good), buy a batting helmet. Go to a nearby field - anywhere with a backstop is fine - set up the Tee work on stance and swing - a 10-11 year old will be good for about 20 swings before they get tired and their mechanics fall apart. Pick up the balls. Have them field 50 ground balls that you hit to them. Set it up so they throw to the tee who is in front of the backstop making gathering them easier. Work on the mechanics of fielding and prepping for the throw. Put a big toy ball on the tee as a target. Grab a water and do 25 more swings hitting off the tee. Keep good form. Hit 25 pop ups. Work on judging location and form for catching and throwing. At that age - catch. Outs are gold. Now finish with batting practice. You throw a bucket of balls until tired or 20 good swings.

Do that 3 times a week. Your kid will see immediate improvement and by summer your kid will be okay playing most positions but catcher and pitcher and 1st base. Keep doing it until weather prohibits and then hit indoor cages a couple times a month to keep the feel. Your kid won’t be the star necessarily, but won’t embarrass themselves. Keep in mind lots of kids will be doing the same things or more.






Hit 25 pop ups. Once catching is confident then

[Anonymous]

Baseball is particularly bad for this issue. You'd think they'd have come back with some solutions to this for other kids.

[Anonymous]

In my personal experience as a LL and travel baseball parents, catcher isn’t seen as a desirable position and it’s hard to find good kids to play there. If the coaches’ kids play there, it might be because their parents realize that no one else wants to catch and therefore their own kids end up there by default. With both of my kid’s current teams, the coaches were college players and therefore their kids play the same positions as their dads.

[Anonymous]

Yes! there is a famous meme about this!
Google something like "daddy ball meme positions baseball little league" for a laugh. And yes, go, volunteer, if you want your kid in the starting spots. Or, go to another sport with paid coaching or individual times like swim or run. it only continues and gets more political.

[Anonymous]

I have been coaching for almost 10 years and 20 year coaching guy above has it completely right. In my experience, the parents who complaint the most about playing time are the ones who do the very least to help the team, but have an opinion on every aspect the game. I often want to ask them - if you are such an expert on baseball, why don't you come to practice and help the kids get better.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and they are often doing their kids a disservice in the long run…seen it a million times. When they get older & join a non-dad coached team, what will they do when their daddyball position is already occupied on the new team, and they don’t know how to play anywhere else? Some can transition, others have a very difficult time skill-wise (and attitude wise).

If your kid really likes baseball, work on fielding skills on the side (grounders, fly balls etc) and don’t worry about where he plays in games at this age. It really doesn’t matter that much TBH. And if he is interested in pitching or catching, lessons/clinics are the way to go (at least for the basics- stay and listen so that you can reinforce what is taught when helping the kid practice)

And of course- hitting is #1 always.

[Anonymous]

This is why my kid now plays lacrosse. Baseball games took forever because coach’s kids couldn’t pitch or play first but were it there every game. Lacrosse can be daddy ball too, but there are plenty of club teams with independent coachs.

[Anonymous]

Only when the coach is a scumbag.

[Anonymous]

Yes.
If it helps, it is incredibly satisfying to watch your kid who was benched in LL make the high school team over the daddy ball kids. Keep working hard and things will eventually shake out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been coaching for almost 10 years and 20 year coaching guy above has it completely right. In my experience, the parents who complaint the most about playing time are the ones who do the very least to help the team, but have an opinion on every aspect the game. I often want to ask them - if you are such an expert on baseball, why don't you come to practice and help the kids get better.

+1. The biggest complainers are always the people least willing to help with even the smallest tasks.

I coached soccer for a few years when my kids were young. I tried very hard to make the substitutions fair so everyone got roughly equal playing time, but I slotted kids into the line up based on order of arrival so I didn’t have to make last-minute changes when someone was late or no-showed. This meant my own kid started nearly every game, but that’s because we were always the first ones there for warm-ups. If we had enough kids arrive on time for warm-ups for a starting line, I would start the other on-time arrivals before my own kid, but that almost never happened. If you didn’t arrive until after the game started and missed the start of what would have been your shift, then your kid got less playing time because I was not going to shift everything else around mid-game.

I was very transparent with parents about the process, but would inevitably get complaints from people who wouldn’t show up until 5 minutes before the game and then were upset their kid never got to start.