For Those Who Were Listening To The Radio This Morning

I was a guest between 6 am and 6:30 on the Sytman and Boze show on KTTH this morning talking about the baseball league rules post. This seems to have touched a nerve with a lot of people, more so than I ever anticipated. I really did not see this as that big of a deal, just your typical everyday Seattle lets all feel good about ourselves regardless of how well we really do attitude that I guess I am use to.

Anyways... I would like to revise and extend my comments from my early morning daze. Who knew that big ball of fire in the sky is out at 6 in the morning? I hope I made myself clear that I am not upset with all of the rules and in fact think a number of them make sense. What bothers me is how we seem to have such low expectations of our kids. Believe me, they know a whole lot more than what we give them credit for. When we show as much enthusiasm for the kid that had to hit off the tee and 5 or 6 swings later hits a dribbler half way to the pitcher as we do for the kid that puts one deep into center field, the kids see through that and frankly they think we are insane. Now I am not saying we tell the one kid that he sucks but lets also not jump up and down like we just hit the mega millions jackpot when junior manages to run from home plate to first base without falling down. Losing and failure is part of life. Sports is suppose to teach you to learn how to win AND lose.

While I was on for half an hour, it seemed like 3 minutes tops. I was hoping to discuss some of the things I would change. First off, back in the day, when I was at that level, we played 2 games a week and practiced another 2 times a week with each practice being an hour and a half. Nowadays the kids play one game and practice just one day, for an hour. Not sure if that is a fields availability issue or lack of coaches like the caller mentioned. I know I have seen substantial improvement in our teams skills and wished there were more practices or maybe another month of practice before games started. Another thing I have found odd is when I played, kids always walked to practice or rode a bike. On Andrew's team, almost all of the kids are driven or a parent walks them and most parents stay for practice. Parents were never at practice when I was a kid. Not sure why that is either, maybe just a sign of the times.

I also wanted to mention some of the rules and regulations are probably lawyer / lawsuit driven. I get the feeling that if some kid gets hit by a pitch, instead of rubbing some dirt on it and walking to first, he may instead pull out his cell phone and call a personal injury lawyer. Once again, sign of the times.

The one comment I made that I would have liked to change was at the end, I was asked for a closing comment and I fumbled around with something along the lines or rewarding kids when it is not the best effort. I should have said something more along the lines of the kids would be better off if we raised our expectations of what they can accomplish.

On a more personal note, Andrew played catcher for one inning last night. Wore the full catchers gear and during that whole inning, of maybe 50 pitches he had to throw back, once again, wearing the full gear, only one of his throws was not catchable. If you would have told me that a month ago, I would have told you to cut back on your crack usage.