Part of the Game or Cheating?

Your cheatin' Heart, will tell on you...

In honor of Hank Williams, and Jr. (who's catching some flack not asking "are you ready for some football?"), I thought I'd share a story about cheatin in our favorite american pastime at the youth travel ball level.

So, sit back and enjoy the story.....



Never thought I’d face parent-coach collaboration stealing signals, but this actually happened …

There was a 12u travel ball dad involved who had helped coach a 12u premier team. At 12, the dad’s together handed over the coaching to two young local JV HS coaches. Smart move. Good kids. Ballplayers. Still had them at 13u. I reckon they are 14u now and still together.

Anyway, a dad was in the bushes behind home plate at Martha Rivers during a fall 12u open championship game. Behind the backstop, in the bushes, in line of sight to my catcher, and trying to decipher my pitch signals to my catcher. It wasn’t hard. I was hiding signals by a catcher’s mitt behind my bucket, but I wasn’t encoding them. I was bringing the catcher along, but he wasn’t ready to call his own championship game yet. A little too enamored with the “deuce” when a well placed chg-up would do. Besides, this opposing team at 11u beat GBC a couple of times before their star pitcher got injured. They were pretty good.

Anyway, the dad was relaying my signals from the bushes to the coach (positioned on the homeplate side of the dugout). Coach was saying to the batter "sit on it" on FB's, or "stay back" on off-speed. At first, “I’m thinking, this coach is giving good advice.” Maybe we should find some coaches to turn our boys over to.

It was late on Sunday and getting dark quickly. I was tired. Third game of the day. Wish I had the energy to help my kids understand what to expect on each and every pitch count. Then it hit me. I got really irritated. He’s either a pitch count genius. Or I'm being too obvious. Or that pinhead in the bushes is cheatin’ with him.

See, most "paid" coaches are not that verbal. They realize that “less is more”. Dad’s are the blabbermouths. A dad will give a kid a whole batting lesson each-and-every at bat, even at 12u premier. Paid coaches, or good coaches, use brief concise cues. Something was up with this coach. He was reading my thoughts. His guys were very balanced in the batters box. A little too balanced.

So....I pitched the next kid backwards to test my theory. Yup.

The next inning, I asked the umpire to remove the dad from the bushes. The umpire said, "NO… I control what's inside the field". Told him they were cheating. It’s a little bit embarrassing but my voice inflected like a pre-pubescent kid. “But their che-eee-tin’!!” Umpire looked at me with no concern for my feelings whatsoever. Just turned his back on me.

The opposing twenty-something coach looked at me and grinned. I went back to my white cylindrical throne outside the dugout. I began to hate that little grin. No fair. No way was I going to let that short, stocky, flat-bellied, tan, twenty-something know-it-all coach steal a game from our kids. He was grining....at me. That little nationsbaseball "Elitest". No respect. I was putting on my baseball "sox" long before he was born.

I said “Ok fine”. It was time to pow-wow with my catcher. So we went to double-signals, or signals-after-the-deuce, I can't remember. It worked. The verbal cues stopped coming coming from coach. We caught a few leaning. Off balanced. Jammed a few. Made a couple reach. The bush-parent went back to the stands or his chair. We shut them down. Scored a few runs. Won the championship. Got shiney dark royal t-shirts as prizes.

To add insult to their injury, we let a pitcher from their home town of Gastonia close out the game, filling in for one of our kids who were getting over strep throat. He was the best, biggest and only triplet we ever borrowed. He threw pure smoke. Still does. Signals were no help in that final inning. Just let the big dog eat. Funny thing is that he’ll probably be a pain in those HS coaches side for about 4 more years.

If you have a cheatin' heart, eventually, it will tell on you. That night, they tried cheatin, but they could not View the Forest from the trees. (If you get my drift.)

At least that’s how I remember it. Just like it was yesterday, driving the back way down Union Road past Lake Wylie into south Charlotte, looking at my son, dirty with clay and sweat on his face, exhausted, wearing his shiny new blue Nationsbaseball championship t-shirt....grinning. "Dude...they wanted it so bad, they put a dad in the bushes".

My good coaches and parents….winning should not be your ultimate goal. Player development should be. And from that will come good memories.

 

Base runners

should steal signs and should use signs to help them be better base runners. There are many signs in the game if you know what to look for. Does the catcher set up differently when he is expecting a breaking pitch? Does he flash the glove in the dirt before the pitch? Can you pick up his sign from 1st base on your primary lead? This is not cheating this is being a smart baseball player. Anticipating the dirtball and reading the pitch out of the pitchers hand. Seeing on the secondary that the catcher is dropping to block. Reading the pitch and the defense.

There are many signs to read if you know what to read and are looking to read. Playing the game one step ahead and not reacting after the fact but anticipating before hand. With a rhb and a set up inside can you extend a little more on your secondary? Maybe that one step will be the difference in you being safe at home or out at home?

There is a big difference in players yelling out pitches making absurd signals from 2b and players reading the game within the game.

 

We probably all agree , trying to get signs as a base runner is different than giving signs to a batter. Also keep in mind were talking 15U. Do I agree no, as a opposing coach I worry more about what my kids need to do than what the other team is doing. Having been involved in this kind of stuff has made me adjust to what I am teaching. Now instead of teaching fundamental's I have to spend time on how to avoid cheating. Guess they have seen it now and have an idea how it works, make it right NO.

 

It's not cheating.
No different than someone picking up on "tipped" pitches by stance of a catcher or digging in glove of a pitcher.
Paying attention and doing something with the info is not cheating.

Is it cheating if you know the opposition's shortsop's signals for a pick at 2B by tapping his cap or tugging his ear, and you call out "hot" to keep your kid from being picked? Or do you just watch it happen and tell him,
"tough luck," on the way back into the dugout?

 

Part of the Game

Definitely part of the game. Its no different than the caoches picking up on the other teams signals from the base coach. Its the other teams job to alternate signal rotations to avoid this.