right2bright on August 24, 2007 at 2:56 PM

I tend to agree with most of your points, but I do feel you’re looking at it from a rather simplistic angle.

So what is better? Putting a parent into situation where they can do more harm, or limiting the number of players in a league, dependent on the quality of coaches?

More harm than what? Telling a child he has to skip a year of baseball because there are no coaches? More harm than a kid having to jump to the Major division after missing a year of minors? More harm than telling a kid that he’ll have to sit and watch all of his friends play the game he loves for the next year and will not be able to participate?

I do see your point though, and your comment about arm injuries would be a possible answer …

I shudder at the number of kids who had worthless arms at the end of high school, because of the poor training in a young developing arm of a “prodigy”, or the coaches son whose are is blown out as a sophomore.

This has always been a problem in youth sports, but Little League Baseball has addressed that problem by changing the rules to limit players to a pitch limit. There are various youth leagues which do not set the same guidelines, so your point is still valid, but does not apply to ALL leagues or “professional coaches.” I coached a college player several years back who was throwing near 90s coming out of high school. While warming up prior to one of his scheduled starts, I noticed that he looked extremely weak, so I questioned him. He finally admitted that he had pitched both games of a double-header for an American Legion team just two days before being scheduled to start for his summer college program. This is absurd. He was one of those kids who always wanted the ball and would say anything to avoid being pulled, but his American Legion coach simply didn’t care about his health, instead sacrificing his future to win a playoff game. We scratched the start and were half-way through the season before he was able to throw again.

Maybe the parents who complain don’t coach because they know enough not to put themselves in a role they cannot fulfill.

Well, that could definitely be true, but I also know that many of the parents refuse to volunteer because they just don’t want the responsibility. Simply trying to staff the snack bar for an hour is like pulling teeth. But as I point out below, I would much rather see a parent volunteer than have 9 and 10 year olds be told they are not going to be able to play baseball for a year.

I am talking about the coaches who think they are the real coaches, you know them as the “professional” coach who has been around for years. They will do anything to win, and they teach the kids to do the same.

I’m not sure of your point here. First you say the kids should not be taught by amateur coaches who might do more harm due to their inexperience, but now you’re ripping “professional” or “real” coaches as somehow dangerous. I’m not sure what kind of bad experience you’ve had in the past with a certain coach, or coaches, but I know from experience that the majority of “professional coaches” do not fit the mold you just described. At least, not at the youth level. Do these coaches exist? Absolutely, and I’ve ran into many of them. But most coaches I’ve worked with teach morals, sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, effort AND … that winning is NOT the most important thing. While I teach kids that winning IS important and IS the ultimate goal of sports, I also teach them that losing is part of the game and should be a learning experience. I teach them that if you’re going to lose, it’s important to lose while practicing the above rules (morals, sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, effort). It’s important HOW you lose, just as it’s important HOW you win. Any coach that is teaching kids that winning is “not important” is teaching kids to live in an unrealistic world. You’re teaching them to fail. Classic liberal philosophy. Doesn’t matter if you lose, as long as you have fun. Everyone’s a winner. Blah, blah, blah. This world is brutal and those who try the hardest and understand that you can’t sleep through life are usually successful.

Naturally the “fill in” coaches of parents do a better job than those “great” little league coaches. The “fill-in” won’t win the league championship, but they have their pizza nights, everyone plays, they make sure their studies are up, they create the real athletes.

While this is a really sweet sounding comment, it’s not really true. Just as with “professional coaches” there are good and bad among them. Some “fill in coaches” will end up doing a great job, and others will make the kids entire season miserable. Believe it or not, there ARE youth players out there who WANT to play baseball and WANT to play professionally. It almost seems like you think all youth players are only playing because their parents are livig through them and forcing them to. I doubt these “everyone plays” fun fun fun, nobody loses coaches would be much help for these kid’s dreams.

We had a minor league team this season where the two “fill-in coaches” failed to even show up at two of the games which had to be canceled. But even then, the alternative would have been to have the kids not have a team at all. They played 12 games, had a great time, met lots of new friends, and two of the players were on the all-star team. I’m not sure the players would be okay with the alternative that you suggested.

The bottom line is that it’s up to parents, teachers, and coaches to teach these kids how to be good people. Csdeven’s theory that ‘it’s normal so just let them learn by their mistakes’ is pathetic but normal liberal garbage.

But to him, it’s the work of Nazis.

Gregor on August 24, 2007 at 4:18 PM

And your asinine statement that adults “let them learn by their mistakes” exposes you as a control freak.

csdeven on August 24, 2007 at 6:25 PM

You are one sick b@st@rd and by far THE most dishonest person ever to post on this board.

The above quote that you attributed to me was written by YOU, friggin moron. Get some therapy.

I hope to goodness you nazi’s realize that CHILDREN are not born with adult values. They learn those values by making mistakes!

csdeven on August 24, 2007 at 9:43 AM

Twice now you’ve called many in here Nazis, simply because we believe what these kids did was pathetic and unsportsmanlike. I’m not sure you have a solid grasp of reality.

Gregor on August 24, 2007 at 7:31 PM