I coach my daughters softball team, we truly are the "bad news bears." She is a very good 10 year old pitcher, but the rest of our team is a rag tag bunch of girls that just aren't that athletic or are in their first year of girl pitch. So everyone know that if you can get to our pitcher that their going to have a better chance of winning. Tuesday night we were playing an away game and as my daughter went out to start pitching the first inning, we were told that she was not allowed to wear sunglasses. The ball field we were playing at sets up with the sun directly in the pitchers and fielders eyes. I informed them that she will be wearing them, they proceeded to tell me that it was against the rules for pitchers to wear sunglasses. They even claimed it was a safety issue, which I retorted that if she can't pick up the ball coming off the bat because of glare, then not wearing glasses was the safety issue. After arguing about it for a couple minutes I told them that unless they could find a league rule or ASA rule and show it to me, then she would be wearing the sunglasses. They proceeded to waste 30 minutes of playing time while the scoured their smartphones for the rule. At one point the said they found it. I said, you need to show it to me and it was just some hearsay on a website, not the ASA rule. Finally after 30 minutes they gave in and we were allowed to play ball. I know this had nothing to do with her wearing sunglasses, but it was an attempt to bully and intimidate my daughter and it worked. She didn't pitch very well. Well enough to win, but still not up to her standards. Through the game the coach kept talking to the umpires and the umpires would come over and warn us for things like our first base coach not staying in the box, all while their coach would be leaning up against the fence, nowhere near his box, and that the runners on first base have to stand on the base outside the field of play instead of in the base line. Just stupid stuff. What really got me pissed was after the game their coach told their girls to shake the hands of the players, but not the coaches and then their coaches didn't even come out of the dugout to shake our girls hands. What are we teaching our kids today, youth sports is about learning how to play, not about winning at all costs. If you want to do that, go sign your team up for an ASA competitive league or Junior Olympics, not the local town league. Those girls are learning poor sportsmanship at a very young age. Win our loose, my girls will walk out of the dugout, head high and will shake your hand and tell you good game. I was just furious. By the way, I contacted the ASA Umpire in Chief out of Missouri and he confirmed that I was correct and there is no rule against wearing sunglasses, in fact he said they were recommended for safety if the field sets up in a way that you might not see the ball well. Last night we played another team, my daughter started off a little rough and walked the first three batters, but got it together and proceeded to pitch a no hitter. On top of that she went 3 for 3 with a single, double and a homerun. When we lined up and shook hands, apparently one of the girls smacked my daughter in the wrist instead of giving a normal high five. Hit her hard enough to make her cry and left a welt on her arm. Seriously, what is going on these days. Nobody likes to loose, but damn, respect the game and respect your opponent. Sorry for the rant, but I've been pissed about this since Tuesay!
I coach my daughters team and for the most part it's civil but there is always a few that make stuff up as they go along. The more your team wins the worse it gets. Last two years we took first and second place in the league and towards the end the parents stated getting more vocal about the way we played. I would tell them that it's little league we just let them play. Good luck
Ah, Little League, the one thing that always brings out the best in everyone. But please don't say "these days" like this is a new phenomena. This stuff has been happening ever since we starting forcing sports onto our kids at young ages.
I agree about that when it comes to boys sports, but I believe it is a more recent phenomenon when it comes to youth girls sports.
I coached my son from age 6-15 in baseball. That sounds like every road game we ever played. Who was the idiot that placed the diamond facing the evening sun??
This always gets me. Our 5-6 year old field has the sun directly in the hitters face. Do the people building this stuff not understand the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Build the darn fields north and south , especially with the youth. sent from my samsung note 2
My daughter's Jr. High volleyball team has some very athletic girls on it (my daughter being one of them). A couple of times one game my daughter set up another girl who spiked the ball back to the other team, who had no hope of returning it. Not saying it was an Olympic quality spike, but this team had issues returning hard-hit balls. That same girl who spiked the ball served (overhand HARD) 12 straight points during the same match, most of them Aces. When shaking hands after the game, someone on the other team scratched the spiker/server deep enouth to draw blood. I agree that crap like this has been going on for years. Probably took place when I was young, though I don't remember any incidents specifically. The other common extreme, though is (cue Bambi music) where we don't keep score, everyone is a winner, and even the kid who come in 17th place gets a trophy. I will take an occasional poor sport over the wimpy "we are all winners" mindset any day.
I don't like that not keeping score stuff either, but you don't have to hate your competition, you play hard and as long as you give it everything you had, win or loose, you can still walk away with your head held high and just know that that team was better than you on that day. Coaches need to set the example of sportsmanship to their players, they truly do mimic what we do.
