Um, no. Why would you say such a silly thing?
The No Asshole Rule looks like an interesting book about assholes in business.
Sutton apparently also explains how to deal with assholes, a useful lesson in Little League, too, IF the coaches teach it. Unfortunately, it appears that there are as many asshole coaches as nurturing ones.
Let’s look at kids picking on and taunting each other from a different direction. Say there’s a father who is verbally abusing his son, even with something as mild as the classic “We want a pitcher,” taunt. If this acceptable behavior, or do we agree that the guy is a jerk who would benefit from a lesson in manners from a Louisville Slugger? Then how is it any better when the kid’s peers do it?
That is a good point, but mostly because the umps are just kids, themselves and not because the rule is “weaker.” The umps have facemasks and chest protectors but the players have bats and the coaches are twice their size. There is an obvious need to upgrade the umpires’ weaponry. I’m thinking that sawed-off shotguns should level the field. 
Well, I’m fairly sane and I am glad my local LL organization has banned it, but I live across the street from three baseball fields and afternoons during the baseball season were as annoying as a yearly return of the 17 year cicadas. 
Let us not forget that in the incident that sparked this ruling, a kid physically attacked an adult. I don’t know what prompted the attack, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that the adult was shouting remarks at someone else’s kid, remarks offensive enough to spark a violent attack.
And, though he had at hand that most highly developed, finely balanced, weapon, the baseball bat, he chose to use his shoe. Unexpected, but effective.
I was always a solid straight-to-the-second-baseman hitter but if some adult was taunting my teammate I’d’ve been tempted to demonstrate the automatic-double-play line drive on his head with one of Mr Hillerich’s masterpieces, 34", medium barrel, ash, not aluminum.
Allow me to put Cheesesteak’s response through the irony translator for you, Wee Bairn:
“You’re a fucking moron.”
Glad to help.
Absolutely. As i suggested, someone like Cal Ripken does (did) this all so naturally once he got on the field (because of all the hard work he did off it) that he would, indeed, be able to find time for some chatter if he felt like it. Actually, if Will’s account is right, most of the chatter Ripken engaged in was friendly banter with runners who made it to second base. He said that he could sometimes get information out of them about other members of their team, and how they were hitting.
For me, #2 would be sufficient deterrent, in and of itself. 
In bringing up the pros, i was simply trying to counter the argument that we should allow kids to harass each other because it somehow builds character and prepares them for more serious baseball down the road.
Right. Hell, the article linked by the OP stated very explicitly that this new measure was seen by its proponents as a “necessary response to increased incidents of taunting.” Some people have been arguing as if this new rule was simply plucked out of the league’s ass for no other reason than to deny the kids some harmless fun.
I play in a city softball league. It’s a recreational league, and we are in it for the fun, but we also take the game itself seriously, play our hardest, and do our best to win.
Last year, during one game, we were in the field and their batter popped up a high fly ball that was coming down in the vicinity of one of our weaker fielders. As it fell, one of the players on the other team, sitting in the “dugout” area, started chanting “Drop it! Drop it!” Our player missed the catch, and we all looked at each other for a moment wondering what to say or do about the bad sportsmanship, because none of us had encountered it in our league before. But before we could say anything, the heckler’s own team-mates told him to shut the fuck up.
The umpire hadn’t said anything, so i don’t know if the rules prohibit that type of heckling. But the players in the league feel that we can all play our hardest and have good, competitive games without being assholes to each other. And it makes for a much more pleasant day if you can have a talk and a laugh with the opposing team, rather than sniping at one another.
Geez, someone actually shows some deep moral fiber, and WimpCo shouts him down? What’s next, replacing outs with group hugs?
Maybe my definition of “chatter” is different than some- mine is “hey batter batter” and generic insults like “we want a pitcher” or “little baby batter can’t control his bladder” things that wouldn’t offend an eight year old, not “your mother’s a drunken dago cunt”. If the latter, or anything similar is the reason the ban, then I am out of order, and offer a mea culpa. If my opinion of chatter is being banned, then I stand by my statement.
And furthermore, as a fifth grader, my feelings got hurt a hell of a lot more by losing than any chatter.
And I seriously doubt any little league is allowing foul language or otherwise offensive chatter in the first place- I’ve gone to a few high school games and don’t hear any vulgarities. Parents sitting there, school admins, and fifth graders are cursing? get real.
Do you know how 5th graders talk these days? Anyway, here we are talking about poorly trained and supervised 5th graders, their sociopathic parents and coaches, and young and small umpires who may be too intimidated to assert the rules.
What statement? The idea that abandoning heckling and taunting is somehow a slippery slope to banning keeping score? Because that is the asinine suggestion you made previously.
If you can’t tell the difference between those things, you’re an idiot.
Yet people in this very thread have stated that they have seen just the sort of behavior that you apparently believe is nonexistent. And the article upon which this whole thread is based states very clearly that there had been “increased incidents of taunting” in that league, and describes a situation in which verbal abuse led to a physical assault requiring 15 stitches.
I guess that’s all irrelevant, right?
Good point- actually I have no idea what kids today do or say and could be dead wrong. If 5th graders are saying your momma jokes to other players on the field, and worse, then I am really out of touch and need to get back to yelling at the kids for being on my lawn. Mea Culpa.
My playing days were 1978-1981 in little league and obviously no one dared say anything foul out loud in front of adults, even if we secretly cussed with no one around.
For one thing, these were not 5th graders. The article said that the kid in question was 14, and attacked an adult.
That’s exactly the data we don’t have, and I think that Dopers on either side of the debate are of differing opinions on what was actually said. If we knew, we’d probably all be in general agreement. But the article did state that the chatter was getting bolder and more offensive.
Perhaps if you’d bothered to read what people have been saying in this thread, instead of diving in with an irrelevant and sarcastic shit-bomb on page 4, you might have worked out earlier that your own experiences may not be typical or representative of al little leagues.
No I’m not.
The point is that YOU want the league to CHANGE the rule in order to allow players to taunt the opposing team. If “abusive” is too strong a word for you, substitute “heckling”.
Don’t want to play the semantics game - I’ll gladly retract the word “abusive”. The point is it IS all negative. I’ve never heard “Hey, batter - I really hope you get a hit” from the opposing team.
I can only assume you are being deliberately obtuse, as you keep saying this is a “blanket ban on chatter”, when I have pointed out twice now that it only bans negative chatter directed at the other team.
The question here is, why are YOU so hell-bent on having these kids heckle each other? Why is it so necessary for you to have that happen?
This is all in complete violation of little leage rules.
Little League REQUIRES that everyone plays.
Little League REQUIRES that everyone plays both infield AND outfield.
Little League REQUIRES that every kid that shows up has a chance to make a team.
If you want to play smash mouth baseball and leave an 8 year old kid on the bench - you can sign up for Club level baseball.
If you want to play old fashioned baseball, you had best not insult another player when I am behind the plate as the ump. I will give you one warning, and yank you after that. I also do that for tantrums, for coaches using cell phones on the field, or any of the other poor behavioral patterns shown as outlined in the rules that are prohibited in Little League.
I don’t know if anyone cussed during games, but I remember kids making “ching chong chinaman” noises when an Asian pitcher got on the mound and other really mature stuff like that. It was done right in front of the coaches, who must have missed it, because they undoubtedly would have put a stop to it had they heard it. That kind of stuff was kept in check, though, because we had adults around to set an example. As pointed out, the article is short on details, but maybe the coaches weren’t doing their job to keep things in control. In my league, the kids were constantly talking about how many kids they deliberately hit with their cleats. They were even making plans to beat up someone on their own team for making an error in a play. I think if you left the kids to their own devices, it’d go Lord of the Flies on you pretty quick.
I’m assuming you realize that you are agreeing with me, or that I agree with you, but from the way you responded, it kind of looks like you might think we are at odds. We are not.
Looking back, I think I did slightly misread you, I admit.
Just a bitter subject for me as a umpire. I spend the entire game hoping to just not get hit by a 9 year old pitcher, and then some kid starts mouthing off.
lowbrass, you’re so wrong it isn’t even funny.
If you want to use the word “taunt” then you are either deliberately misreading me or you’re just dense.
Sure, chatter directed at the other team is negative. SFW? The game isn’t antiseptic. The game isn’t played in a vacuum, and if you can get in the other team’s head without resorting to “yo momma’s a whore,” then why not? Oh, I remember why not. Some egshell of a kid might just maybe get his feelings hurt.
And of course nobody’s going to say, “I hope you get a hit” to the other team. At least, not sincerely. Why would they? They don’t WANT the other team to get a hit.
What you’re pointing out, what is, and what I’m advocating are three different things.
I’m not talking about cheering. I’m not talking about encouraging your own team. “Chatter” OUGHT to be distracting. It OUGHT to be nattering. Maybe even needling. And it should NOT be banned. I say negative chatter (as I have defined it) should not be banned because there is no good reason to do so. Abuse can be dealt with under “sportsmanship,” not a blanket ban on a real tradition of the game.
No, the question is, why are you so rabidly in support of a measure that kills a housefly with a cannon?
Why are you so rabidly against it?