Reply to Little League and parent arrogance

Forum Index » Sports General Discussion

Reply to "Little League and parent arrogance "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Years ago when my son was 8, he played Little League (Vienna) and had the misfortune of being on teams two seasons in a row where the dads/coaches really thought their sons were headed for the big leagues. The coaches barely played the lesser skilled kids (my son was in this group) and ignored all but a handful of players. The boys are all in high school now and the kids who were going to be Cal Ripken aren’t even playing baseball (or any sport, for some of them) anymore. I occasionally wonder if the dads ever think back on how they coached those teams and regret being so myopic. Just wishful thinking on my part?[/quote]

When my son was 5 and we were signing him up for Little League T-Ball my brother who had kids in Little League warned us- don't sign him up unless you can be at least an assistant coach. Turned out to be excellent advice. I ended up volunteering for the Board and DH was an assistant coach for both our boys so they played the best positions, got tons of time pitching and catching, and batted at the top of the line up, played in all stars up until 10U. One son stopped playing baseball after that and the other one didn't want to take it so seriously after that and stopped playing at 13.

Absolutely no regret from the coaches. DH hung out with his coach friends. Kids are in high school and half of their kids no longer play baseball. They were talking about how they all had a good time and were glad their kids had the opportunity to play whatever position they wanted. The best kids who didn't have dads coaching really did get a lot of playing time as well.

Your son was "less skilled". Did you play catch with him, take him to the batting cages, get a batting coach? [b]So much about life is who you know and your connections or you have to work twice as hard. Why would Little League be any different? [/b][/quote]

And people wonder why LL is declining in numbers….at least this poster’s DH and his friends openly admit it. So gross.

This is more or less how our LL was run also. No sour grapes as my DSs always made the all star teams (both pitched well at those ages) but many of their deserving friends did not, over the years.

Doesn’t end up mattering in the end (most of the dadball kids are not still playing in high school anyway) but it is truly sad that little league is this way. It is one of the reasons kid move to club ball- same issues there but at least kids are free to move to a different team if there are problems. It is also one of the reasons kids drop the sport- being parked in RF for 2 innings a game while the coaches’ kids play the more exciting roles has to be so boring at that age. [/quote]

The question OP asked: I occasionally wonder if the dads ever think back on how they coached those teams and regret being so myopic. Just wishful thinking on my part?
And the answer is: Of course not. What parent coach is going to look sit around looking back at what happened 6-8 years ago with regret and think, " I should have played that kids who wasn't very good more".

It is a big sacrifice for most parents to coach. My husband is a teacher and there were a lot of days he did not look forward to spending all day with junior high school students, hustling away from work,  then spending more time supervising rowdy kids in the late afternoon/evenings.  So why is it gross? It is laughable that if he has regrets it is going to be over the kids who played RF. The vast majority of the bench/right fielders had parents who couldn't even be bothered to ever play catch with them or take them to the batting cage or merely watch a few games of baseball so they knew how baseball was played. [/quote]

I would have more respect for you if you just said your husband didn't care about coaching or helping develop young players and instill passion for the game and instead was motivated by making sure his son got as many reps as possible at the expense of the other kids because his experience was the only one that mattered. Because that's what happened. This is why rec sports are in serious decline and why people just say "No, thanks!"[/quote]

Two things can be true at once. Yes the coaches kids got more playing time but at the same time many players were developed. If not you can't win games. My husband had on his team a tall thin 10 who couldn't hit the ball. He was new to his team but had recognized him from previous sessions where he didn't get playing time. My husband realized he was a lefty who had some zip when he threw AND was so incredibly coachable. DH and another coach taught him to pitch and really worked with him all season. By the end of the season he still couldn't hit but wow, what a good pitcher he became. DH went to go watch him play high school and he still such a good lefty pitcher.

Kids who you could tell didn't want to be there (they admitted their parents were making them play), kids who wouldn't listen and just goofed around so they were so uncoachable, kids whose parents never bothered to watch a game of baseball with them or play catch with them so they were so uncoordinated and clueless, those kids did play way less. None of those kids are developing a passion for the game no matter what you do. [/quote]

DP but it’s weird that you think your DH should get extra credit for simply doing the job he signed up for… coaching kids.  But I guess just coaching one kid is a success for him.

You keep trying to blame the parents for not teaching baseball to their kids?  Well that’s what the coach is for!  (Did it ever occur to you that the parents may not know anything about baseball?  They might not be capable of playing catch?)

I assume your husband brings this same sh!tty attitude to his teaching job, too.  “Why should I be bothered to teach Timmy chemistry when his lazy parents didn’t even bother to teach it to him before he got to my chemistry class?  That means I will actually have to work!”  His poor students.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics