My household is currently basking in the reflected glory of my 9-year fireballer, wielder of a big stick and thief of many bases.
There’s another tournament game tonight and, frankly, I’m much more hyped up than I should be. I’ve got the nerves on his behalf. So, let’s talk Little League here, so I can get it out of my system and tonight calmly pretend that it doesn’t matter if they win or lose. Parents aren’t supposed to put pressure on the kids by caring about the games.
Here’s what I think about Little League:
As noted, I think I’m taking it too seriously, but that’s nothing compared to some of the coaches and parents. This leads to the $300 bat and the $350 glove phenomenon, not to mention arguing calls and getting ejected from games.
Coaches shouldn’t swear in front of the kids, even “hell” and “damn.”
It’s a team game, boys. Just because you struck out to end the game (losing 6-2) doesn’t mean that you lost the game for the team. The guy with the 2-run homer made 2 errors.
Thank you thank you to all of the umps and coaches and managers and everyone who has taken the time to play ball with my son.
The boys involved seem to be uniformly decent and willing to overlook each others’ mistakes–they’re toughest on themselves.
It is proper etiquette to ignore the boy crying in the dugout after making a mistake–calling attention to him makes it worse.
You are allowed to do a touchdown dance if you throw the guy out at first after fielding a single in right.
The teams that win are the ones that make the fewest errors. Aggressive base-running is also a key.
One of the reasons to love the game is the feeling the boys get when they execute a skill correctly.
I know it’s hot, but it’s best not to fill your cap with water and put it on your head until you leave the field.
Talk to me. Tell me what you like/dislike most about Little League. Did you play when you were a kid?
I’ve been covering Little League tournament games for the newspaper here (easy $$), and I have this observation.
I’m 21. If they had the bat technology they do now a mere 9 years ago when I was Little League age, I would have hit at least 50 points higher, and been one of the best players in the league. I didn’t strike out very much, but I didn’t have much power either. I grounded out a LOT.
But if I had one of these new fancy bats, I would have been Tony Gwynn. It’s ridiculous. When I played, the only kids that ever hit home runs were the genetic freaks that were 5’10’’, 160 when they were 12. In the past few weeks, I have seen plenty of peanut-sized kids hit some monster home runs.
Forget the big leagues, folks. The real juiced bat scams are in Little League. And I feel sorry for the poor kids that will inevtiable get hit by those line drives.
I obsess about my kids because of the glorious immediacy of the feed-back they get–they either lose or win the game; they get a grade at the end of each semester; they perfom in a recital and then it’s over. Since I grew up that way too, I keep looking for that kind of payoff in my own little slice of reality; Real Life, on the other hand, is of course completely oblivious to my socialized needs. (I’m a girl, dan, but no problems.)
The bats they have now (and there is a $300 bat on the team) are really cool. Actually, I’m surprised they don’t seem to make a bigger difference in the outcomes–good pitching is still more important, and lots of kids still strike out/ground out. In the 6 tournament games my son’s been in so far, I think there have been only 3 homeruns, both teams.
One thing I love about LL is watching the shortstop bounce a throw to first, and the hilarity that ensues when the ball makes it to the outfield, and remembering how high the level of play felt to us back then and how COOL we thought we were.
Well, how about this. When my nephew is playing ball, his grandparents are there. His mom is there. His stepdad is there. And his real dad is often there. All the adults in his family get together and are there for him. There have even been times when his stepdad and real dad have been sitting side by side in the stands. Not something that happens anywhere else.
My dad is on the Little League board of directors and was in charge of umpires this year. The father of two unathletic girls is getting a second chance with his grandson.
In a previous job I worked with a dotcom setting up the websites for all LLB teams worldwide. As a result I went on a few business trips to Williamsport, PA and spent time at the home office and the Howard J. Lamade stadium.
I played Little League ball as a kid but was never into too much, but I have to say it’s impressive being in Williamsport. I didn’t have much in common with the staff there, but you could easily see the dedication and love of the game in them. These guys love the sport, the kids, the game. It’s really quite an amazing place.
If you get the chance to go to the Little League World Series, go. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere else.
Ya know, Cranky, I also see the divorced parents being civil to each other at their child’s games. There is one child on my son’s team whose parents’ divorce is less than a year old; both parents have already remarried. The civility is a very, very good thing, but I wonder whether it is distracting or saddening to see them all there, especially with the wounds being still fairly fresh. I suppose absences from anger or discomfort would be worse. Poor guy.
I’m off to the game–time for the mantra: Do your best, be a good sport, have fun. ::repeat as necessary::
The parents should be herded into an auditorium and required to watch the game on closed-circuit television. Faxes will be provided in order to send encouraging messages to the children (“1 – ‘Way to go, son/daughter!’ 2 – ‘Good catch, son/daughter!’ 3 – ‘I’m very proud of you, son/daughter!’ 4 – Other.”). Any parent trying to escape the auditorium for the duration of the game will be executed.
What do I like best about Little League? The fact that my son’s Little League will actually eject a parent or coach for misbehavior.Other sports leagues he’s been in didn’t, and the fact that this one does seems to make a big difference in behavior.
What do I like least? The kids who don’t want to play.Not the kids who don’t play well, or who just don’t feel like playing on a particular day . Every year, there are one or two kids on my son’s team who have no interest in baseball, and it seems that they are only there because their parents want them to play.I don’t understand why parents do this.
Titanium. But do I know titanium from plutonium? No.
We (note how I continue to identify with the team) won last night, in the biggest blow-out/sloppiest game so far. I don’t understand the rules for how many consecutive days/innings they can let their pitchers pitch, but the other team apparently ran out of its best pitching and there were many walks and stolen bases and errors.
I need to add a corollary to item 7 up in my OP: if you throw the guy out at first from center, you may do a touchdown dance and will get rubbed on your head by every player on the team.
This means that we play again tonight. I think I require ice cream–for the nerves, ya know.
I have umpired LL for the past 5 years. Mostly 10 to 12 year olds. I usually call the game as evenly as possible unless you have a good team clobbering a bad team (I call balls and strikes a little closer for the good team) and as a long time bench warmer, I always give the last guys to get in a game a break.
Just last week I gave a kid a break and he will probably have a memory to last a lifetime. His team was losing by 7 runs in the bottom of the 6th (6 inning games). His coach was throwing in the towel and decided to let this kid get an at bat. I called a couple of close strikes as balls and called a foul tip on what should have been strike 3. The kid hit the next pitch over the fence in straight away center field. His team mates were in shock, his parents (they were screaming the loudest) were thrilled. amd the kid had a grin on his face as he crossed home plate that no one could take away. His team ended up losing by 6 runs but it didn’t matter, that kid was a hero for a day.
Titanium is the stuff that, if you touch it, you don’t glow in the dark.
I know they make golf-club drivers out of titanium (at least the tips), but bats?? Ye gods and little fishes. If I ran that league, those would be banned quicker than you can say Danny Almonte.
I sat on the bottom level of the aluminum bleachers last night, watching the little sisters of the playas digging in the dust and making piles of rocks and sticks. This was one of the nice fields, with a scoreboard and concession stand–ya start getting perks like that when you advance in the tournament. (The kid posting the scores accidentally made it show 89 to 2 in one inning.)
The umps were really good, racer–that seems to be another perk of the tournaments. I for one thoroughly approve of letting the lesser lights get a moment of glory in the regular season. Don’t think many of the folks there last night would think it was appropriate for tournament play. Their kids have always been the best ones, they’ve committed as coaches year after year. This is the first year my kid made it–the last selection–and the worst player on the team. Not that he’s anything less than blindingly glorious, of course.
Anyway, as I sit there, poking the gray dust with my toes, the wind kicks up and I get grit in my eyes. In the hair and on my good work pants too. And it’s like a Proustian moment–I suddenly can remember how my mitt used to smell and I’m back in 7th grade with the sweat and the crunch of the ground and the haze of that same gray dust.
It’s all good.
We won. Play again tonight. I may have to do shots at lunch.
At the beginning of last year I nudged Tark into helping coach our son’t first t-ball team.
Next year he’s taking over as manager as my kid moves up to the Rookies and my daughter starts t-ball.
Some of the parents really rack me off…but for the most part everyone is fantastic. The coach we’ve worked with has been REALLY good about emphasizing, “This is about learning and having fun.” At the beginning of the season he tells all the parents, “I’m not here for YOU; I am here for your KIDS. This team is not playing to WIN; it is playing for the KIDS to have a GOOD TIME and learn teamwork and sportsmanship.”
Tark took on management of the B-list t-ball All-Star team and they lost both of their games. It was disappointing because you know it would have been fabulous to keep going (AND surpass the A-team), but a huge relief because we finally have the occasional weekend day off now that the season is over.
From watching the t-ball team I have rediscovered my love of baseball. I’d love to see some t-ball shenanigans happen on a major league field though…“TIME OUT…the pitcher’s shoelace is untied!” “TIME OUT…our shortstop has to pee!”
Here’s a true-life T-Ball story from my daughter’s first year.
She’s playing first base. The batter, on the other team (duh), is her friend Maddie from preschool.
After a couple of whiffs and a couple of helmet adjustments, Maddie hits a little dribbler down the third base line. The pitcher and the third baseman both run for the ball. Smack–they bang heads and both collapse on the infield in spasms of grief. Parents rush the field with sympathy and water bottles.
Meanwhile, Maddie runs (you know how at 5 they still don’t quite run with an adult gait?) to first base.
My daughter holds out her arms to her friend (like in the cheesy lovers running across a field of flowers scenario) who responds in like fashion. They meet at first and hug each other, jumping up and down until they fall down together.
Maddie’s Mom and I laughed until we cried. That’s something I will remember the rest of my life.
Posted by Humble Servant:
“8. The teams that win are the ones that make the fewest errors. Aggressive base-running is also a key.”
You’ve just about got this figured out, Humble S. I have been involved with Little League or Babe Ruth League baseball for over 20 years now. Most of these games aren’t won, they are lost by errors. The fast and aggressive base running is an exception, a team can win with this. I once talked to a Little League coach whose teams had won 60 consecutive regular season games. He said at player selection time, he drafted players based on foot speed alone. In his opinion, all other skills could be taught.
Through the years, I have seen far more problems caused by parents than the players. Players have a better understanding of why every player on the team can’t play every inning. They also grasp who the better players are much more accurately than most parents do.
It has been mentioned that there are a number of kids playing who don’t like it and are only there because their parents want them to play. That’s one of the things I have enjoyed about Babe Ruth Baseball. The players are 13 through 15 years old, and those who don’t like baseball are old enough to have told their parents “No”, so the only ones playing are those who enjoy the game.
Youth baseball can be an activity that builds character in the players, promotes fellowship, and provides quality time for families and communities to spend together. The few parents and coaches that cause problems are a small minority, and I feel that it’s a shame that the actions of these few get more notice and publicity than the tens of thousands of families that benefit.
Hope your boy’s team wins all the way to Williamsport!
Humble Servant–I’m a sports correspondent for the daily paper here, I’ve been working there part-time since 1998. I cover high school sports, college sports, amateur golf tournaments, and Little League tournament games this time of year.
It’s not the big time, but it’s not the boonies either.
Didn’t care, played anyway.