Did ya'll see this from Utah youth baseball?

please MC..tell me you didn't wear batting gloves with the fingers cut out?

You know, the really sad part is this guy never played baseball beyond rec league..he is a joke!

One thing I have learned over the years, many young kids have great bat swings..it's when they get around some of these coaches that they get screwed up.

There is one guy playing college ball now. When he was 12 yo the kid had a beautiful swing...could really drive the ball. His dad took him to a hitting coach when he was 13 and to this day the kid still does not swing as well as he did at 12.

 

When I grew up there wasn't such a thing as batting gloves. Playing HS baseball in the spring in Naperville, IL, with blowing snow, I sure wish there was such a thing back then. Regarding the swing of kids, most of it is natural and flows. A lot of kids have become too mechanical at the plate with all the new coaching techniques. Metal bats have a lot to do with that too. With the wood you have to be loose and provide more of the power. If you watch a lot of professional baseball you will see very few swings that are alike. Some functions are the same, keeping your weight back and eyes to the ball, but the swings are free and loose.

 

new local rule??

I know in these rec leagues they are annually reviewing "local" rules to tweak here and there. Think they will consider banning intentional walks?

 

despite all what's wrong with the whole situation is the strike out kids response the next day .... "I'm going to work on my batting. Then maybe someday I'll be the one they walk".

classic kid.

 

YANKEES/RED SOX WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

 

First off, I do agree it was probably not a good move being that it is rec league. However, I would guess, after seeing many rec league games, that the coaches and players and especially parents of the losing team wanted to win as badly as the other team. So my question is this, do you think that everyone(media, parents, coaches) would be hammering this coach if the kid that was on deck had gotten the game winning/tieing hit instead of striking out?

 

No. We would be reading and watching stories similar to the Jason McElwain story that happened in February. About how a kid with everything against him went out and got the winning hit.

Although I agree that 10-year old baseball coaches should not take the game as seriously as higher levels, what they did was not against the rules. Ethically it was wrong, but in Little League, aren't all the players suppose to contribute? Isn't that why everybody gets a chance to play, to build self esteem and team skills? I guarantee you that if this kid did not have cancer and had not met the president, this would not even be a story. But because he is, the media embraces him and exploits this story to a certain degree to grab headlines and sell papers.

 

A tough call here. At first I went against the winning coach but after taking time to think about it, I'm not sure what I would have done had I been in his shoes. The article calls this a Championship game and apparently they kept score. Did they give out trophies? If so, were they just general participation trophies or did the league designate a 1st place and 2nd place. In reality, if this league was just about participation, they should not have had a championship game - just a cookout with a parent child game. In part, the league may have to share blame. Also, I'm sure the kids on both teams wanted to win so, in general, the coaches should do what they could, within the rules of the game and league, to help their team.

A similar situation happened to a team a friend of mine's son played on at this same age group in their league championship game - although the player in question didn't have a life threatening disease he was just one of the younger less talented players on the team. One run down, man on second and third, best hitter on the team up. The other team walked him to get to the younger player that had maybe three hits all season. He struck out, game over, other team wins the championship. Their players were elated. My friends team, totally dejected. The player that struck out cried, but he went on over the next few years to become one of the better players in the area.

Honestly I think it is a hard call considering the condition of the child. I believe you had to be there and really understand the climate. At this point, I really cann't pass judgement on the coach.

 

Lets be honest...

Just for the heck of it,,, I explained this situation to 3 of my co-workers and asked each of them what would they do if they were the opposing coach? I challenge each of you to do the same thing, but remember to explain that its a championship game,,,, be totally honest. All 3 of my coworkers stated that they would do the same thing as this opposing coach,,, that they would also walk the good hitter.

Folks,,, even though many of us can share stories similar to this where some little league coach took things too far, I think sometimes winning has just become engrained in our society to the extent that we are all to blame. Nobody remembers who finished 2nd,,, its a product of our society.

As for this specific cancer survivor who the article SPECIFICALLY states is not a very good hitter,,,,, I haven't seen a single one of you question why HIS OWN COACH had him batting immediately following the best hitter on the team. Is his coach that ignorant to protecting a good hitter, or was his coach just daring an opposing coach to do this? In fact, it almost sounds (to me) that his own coach was using this kids' illness (by hitting him behind the good hitter) to DARE the other coaches in the league,,, that "surely you guys had better never do anything like this to THIS KID".

Either way, the kids' own coach didn't help the situation.

I agree its sad,,,, and I feel for this kid,,,,, but unfortunately there are kids who go home from little league games everyday crying because they struck out, and some jerk coach or jerk dad reamed them out because they didn't hit a homerun. Our "win at all cost" attitude in society today is to blame, and as I said, his own coach didn't help either. Just my 2 cents.

 

I thought of the same thing when I read the article. Why was the batting order such that the weakest hitter was immediately after the best hitter? That's not the norm.