This happened once on my son's team and the coach immediately said that language isn't tolerated on this team. It never happened again.

I've noticed similar behavior on my son's Little League team. His team is 8 and 9 year olds. There are a couple of kids who go after other kids. Example: Coach says that Bobby is playing first base. Nasty kid starts yelling that Bobby can't catch the ball and shouldn't play first base. Some other kids pile on. Nasty kid(s) will taunt the weaker hitters when they get up to bat, etc.

I think the key here is that the coaches and parents create a team "culture" where this kind of nastiness is not tolerated. One warning and the nasty kid is out of the game. Some parents won't like this, but you need to nip this crap in the bud, IMO. Little League should be just as much about sportsmanship as it is about building skills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Changing teams won't work--kids do this on all teams. Tell him it's wrong and that he needs to ignore it.

Don't go shouting down a pack of mouthy kids unless you want your kid to become the target and the other parents to think you are a loon. Focus on yourself and your kid.

Why can't the decent people be in the majority and the parents who approve of their kids chanting their hatred for a former teammate be the ones who look like loons?

Because on DCUM there is always at least one idiot who says exactly this. We got lucky with this thread - it seems there's only one. Usually the admonishments never to stand up for anyone lest your own child become a target are the majority.

Ask the coach to encourage other ways for the kids to build camraderie.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find another baseball team for your kid to play on. I'm always surprised when parents in this area let their kids be mean. When do they think these kids will "grow out of it" without being told to stop -- or do they just not care that they will grow up to be mean adults?

Yes, it's just here. Nowhere else are there mean kids, nor do kids grow up to do horrible things elsewhere.

There are a lot of mean people here -- a lot more than in most other places. If you are not aware of that, then you haven't been here long.

THIS.

It is passed on to their children, unfortunately. We had one coach who could not think of anything nice to say about the children he coached all season. Yeah, parents wrote in and complained about him. I highly doubt he will be back, if the parents have as much say as I think they do. What an a-hole.

Yes PP, that's what I would have done too. No need to yell it as one PP suggested however. When you're trying to teach respectful behavior, yelling about it may not be effective. I would have stepped in and said" hey guys, that's really u cool. How would YOU feel to know your former teammates were talking about YOU that way? It takes a lot of maturity to refrain from joining in, and I KnOW that severL of you are almost there and the rest of you will get there soon. Okay guys? Thank you!"

I probably would have said, "Hey, guys, that's not cool. You're being mean and I'm sure your parents and the coach would agree that's not the way to behave" or whatever.