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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]this is not specific to LL... soccer, football, lacross... I've seen it everywhere[/quote]

there's a lot of craziness in the other sports, but baseball brings out a special craziness in dads for some reason. [/quote]

Happens in every sport but baseball is the absolute worst for this- so many crazy dads. The Little League years are the height of it- gets better as the kids get closer to high school. [/quote]

Other team sports there are sometimes opportunities to make something happen. If a kid is on a basketball team with a daddy ball coach whose son always gets to be point guard at least on defense another kid can get an opportunity to steal a ball and turn and take it down the court or get a rebound. Same in soccer a kid who wants to make something happen can try and cover a larger area and get the ball.

Baseball is the worst because if you are in the outfield you might never get the ball the entire game when you are 7 or 8 or 9 especially once they changed the bat regulations (kids hit the ball way further with the old 1.15 bats). Then if you bat at the end of the line up you might only get two at bats. Let's say one time at bat you get 4 awful pitches and walk then get hit by the ball the next at bat. Or maybe the kid gets a good pitch and hits the ball into the outfield. If you are batting behind the slowest player on the team who barely runs you aren't getting a double or triple because the kid who is on base in front of you runs so slowly. So you had zero opportunity to show you can play. Meanwhile the coaches kid playing second base has 6 pop ups and 5 grounders hit to them. On one they dive for the ball and get it and make a play. Even if they missed catching 3 fly balls and overthrew first base twice that kid's dad who is a coach will make a big deal about the one good play the kid made. So in the coaches mind his kid should play infield. [/quote]

Generally coach’s kids (or coach’s buddies kids) are on a long leash, while “disfavored” kids on a very short one. Baseball is a very mental game with confidence being important.  Here is what happens:

-Little Billy (assistant coach’s son) starts the game at 2B and boots 2 easy grounders in the first inning. He is still sent out to play 2B the next inning. If he makes further errors- maaaaybe they will decide it isn’t his day and send him out to play CF. But Little Billy will still start at 2B next game. No problem- “things happen- get ‘em next time”. VS
-Little Larlo (disfavored kid) gets rotated into 2B and makes a nice play but also makes an error. Coach thinks “ahh yep just as I thought-  Larlo isn’t ready to play infield” and it will be quite awhile before Larlo sees any more infield time.

This type of scenario is common & really messes with kids’ confidence. Little Billy will play loose and confident- secure that he will get his chances. Little Larlo will play tight and nervous- knowing if he makes an error- he will be relegated to rotating in corner OF for the next 5 games.

Same with batting- coach’s kid can bat #2 & have a bad game & go 0 for 3 with 3K, no big deal. If he struggles for many games, he may be moved down the order a bit- no biggie. “You’ll get ‘em next time”. Coach’s kid is loose and confident at the plate. He knows he has a pretty secure spot. But if another kid were to have a bad day at the plate - he will be moved down the lineup for next game for sure. This jars the kid who is then nervous at the plate- looking for walks or pressing too much. Resulting in poor performance.

That is how it goes typically. Eventually Little Larlo thinks “I suck at baseball…it obviously isn’t my sport…I don’t want to play next season”

This is pretty much how it goes, after watching 2 sons play baseball growing up (and mine are both still playing- one in HS, one in MS). A lot of kids quit are very put off early by coaches who crush their confidence- when if they had stuck around, could’ve turned out to be pretty good players. 
[/quote]

Looking back, this is what happened to my son the first half of his first season in kid pitch.  My kid was only able to overcome this bias/invisibility because he is very tall and undeniably good.  It took about three plays (over three games) where the coaches and parents for the *opposing* team were oohing and aahing over some play he made before his own coach seemed to realize that he could actually play.[/quote]

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