Little League Father/Coach

I wish all coaches made their parents read this before each season:

Posted by ECU78

After visiting this site for awhile, I saw this thread and just had to add my special memory. My son liked to play baseball but was never great at it. He wasn't talented enough to play high school ball but he played summer ball whether it was Little League or Babe Ruth, He never made any all star teams or such. He was just good enough to start. Most of all, he liked to play Babe Ruth ball with his friends. The boys just had a good time even though success was hard to find. During a Senior Babe Ruth game one night, my son was playing first and a fly ball was hit behind first into short right field. He turned and hustled to make an over the head catch that Willie Mays would have been proud of. I just stood there not believing what I just saw. I was in awe. Before I could make my way out of the dugout (I was on scorebook duty) to congratulate him, he had already returned the ball to the pitcher and was in stance for the next defensive play. With the next pitch, a ball was hit to second and he dropped a perfect throw at first. I told him when he came in how pretty the fly ball catch was and then asked him what happened on the throw from second. I can remember how fast his smile changed into a lowered head. To this day, I regret not making a bigger deal out of the great catch. And now I can't. My son was killed almost two years ago, months after making that catch. I responded to this thread so I could tell the dads out there to make sure you appreciate the memories you have and ones to come. Make sure your son has a smile on his face after the game. More importantly, make sure you do to. Always be positive and somehow forget the "bad". Believe me, winning or losing

 

It's just not dads who are coaches that act irrational towards their sons/players but I am starting to think baseball parents in general have gone berserk. My oldest son is a senior at ECU and is coaching a 13 yr old Babe Ruth team here in Greenville for the 3rd year in a row. He has 14 players on the team. There is not a game this season that post-game a parent (usually a mom) hasn't stopped him to question why their kid did not play a certain number of innings or get a certain number of at-bats. It is like they don't understand that 14 kids can't play every inning of every game. The most common comment he hears is "well my kid was a all-star in Little League." One game his cell phone rang during a game and he answered it because he thought it might be an emergency. It was a mother of a player. She wasn't at the game but the player's grandmother was and had called the mom to tell her that her son was not playing in the game yet. So the mother called my son during the game to find out why. Geez!!!

 

After typing this response, I will be using my left hand to duct tape my right hand/fingers. I will then use my teeth, arm pit and elbow to try to duct tape my left hand/fingers. ALL SO I WON'T TYPE A RESPONSE TO THIS! "Geez!!!" is an understatement! Welcome to the world of shaping young men. If someone would just shape their parents.

Oh, almost forgot.
Taping starts no-

 

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!

Do any of you "coaches" ever have anything positive to say about parents???
ENOUGH ALREADY,!!!!

 

No IQ tests for having kids...and their are many avenues in life to support my theory.

 

It's called calling a spade a spade....I'm excited for my boy to start playing ball. At 4 yrs old he can rake but I dread having to sit next to all the parents who think it's their lot in life to yell at their kids, umpires, coaches and any other person who is in earshot of their ignorant verbal assaults.

My wife and I will be the parents sitting far down the right/leftfield line away from the nonsense.

 

Short answer:
YES.

Long answer:
You have pointed out something very glaring - at least on my part.
I have made many negative posts concerning parents over the last year. While I have normally been joining in on an already negative discussion, that doesn't make it "right". Now, don't expect a 180 per say, but I do want to say that in my 21 years as a HS coach, and specifically 7 as a head coach, there have been some absolute gems! However, in my 7 years "at the helm", I can really only think of, well, maybe 5-6 that have been "set apart". Many, at times even most, have been problematic in one way or the other. I'll give you straight numbers here: In this season alone, with 33 jv and varsity players total, I had 22 different contacts (email/text/phone call/after game ambush/meeting with administrator) that were "negative". In every case - every one - it boiled down to playing time, or it at least "came up". Period. There were other pretexts to start some of the dialogues, but every time it revolved (though not always admitted) around not playing. That can sour one. Again, no excuse for returned negativity.

I could name those 5-6 that have been exquisite, but here's the thing: Those 5-6, because of who and how they are, they don't need to be openly celebrated. Further, they shake their heads at my troubles as much as I do.

I will say that some that I have had problems with were able to "mend fences", so there is always hope - and I myself much prefer to make trhe peace. But more times than not, they don't want peace. They want their way. Their 1 far outweighs the other 32, and a few of those other 32 can tell it as well.

I apologize to the "good ones" for any offense. If you have been offended, well, maybe the guilty dog is just feeling like barking. As somewhat stated above, the "good ones" don't mind when a coach complains. They usually amen right along.


Sincerely,
Paying my dues


P.S.
Curious as to what your "coaches" inflection means?
I know I'm not hypothetical...

 

It takes a pretty special father to coach his son well; especially as he matures and develops as a player.

Your rec league can reduce its reliance on dads if they'll make a concerted effort to recruit young, local guys with baseball experience as coaches. Our league did this as the major piece of a commitment to ensure that every team had quality coaches.

In Charlotte, some of us who had sons playing in the league worked in companies that had a number of 20-somethings who were glad to devote some time to coaching. All had played baseball through high school and many had played in college.

Once recruited, some served as assistants to dads who were good coaches (Our assessment included how they coached their sons.). Others were head coaches and were assisted either by dads we felt were good coaches or by other young guys.

In the process, we had to approach a handful of dads who had coached in the past and suggest to them that they might contribute in ways other than coaching. We lost a few to other leagues in the process; but, not as many as we thought we might. Meanwhile, it left us with a combination of dads who were very good coaches and younger guys who brought enthusiasm and knowledge to our league.

Frankly, none of us who engineered this imagined going into it that it would improve our league as much as it did. Word got around quickly that if you played in our league, you'd get good coaching; and it was amazing how much it improved almost every aspect of our league's program.

 

Wow! Now that is a true of example of making it "about the kids."
A lot of planning, but I bet it has been worth it in terms of player development results.

I'm having a hard time getting (seasoned) young guys to committ to the HS level with our number of hours and little or no pay offered past the three on-staff positions. They," want to," but it doesn't materialize.

I do get several parents who want to be on staff each year! (C'mon, you knew I couldn't resist!)

Hey - I love parents! I have two (truly, thankfully) and I is one!

 

Catcoach...........

... A sincere tip of my cap to you. A quality response!!