Fundamental Baseball or dirty pool?

[U L Washington Rookie]

Hi All,

I help coach my 8 yr olds little league team. It's end of the season tournament time!

We did something tonight that we havent done all year. We told our batter to get up to the plate, dig in, but throw dirt on home plate.

The opposing team didnt catch on until after 15 batters or so took away the strike zone from the pitcher/catcher and the umpire. When the umpire would clean the plate, the next batter got up there and covered it up again. We had two 7 runs walked in innings (we have a 7 run mercy rule per inning) back to back. The other team didnt notice until or 15th batter got up there and walked all the way around home plate and kicked dirt on it. Then and only then, the other teams coach said something.

After their team said something, it became a pissing contest, the umpire would clean the plate, our batter would kick more dirt on it. So we told out batters to stop but only after we had a parent on our own team (most have no idea how the game of baseball is played) told his son not to kick dirt on the plate and if he did he would ground him for a week.

So, we won the game 16-1. We hit the last 2 runs in.

What says you? Good fundamental baseball or did we get one p on the other team and umpires?

Fordman

Supposed authority figures pushing that stuff on 8 yr olds is 100% jackassery. That you're posting here bragging about this instead of being embarrassed is quite telling. Each coach involved should have been ejected and probably kicked out of the league for a long while.

Kudos to the parent from the bolded. You could learn a lot from him - or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that your kid could learn a lot from him.

You've never seen the first batter in an MLB game step up to the plate and the first thing he does is kick around the dirt, erase the batter's box line and kick a little on the plate to take the corners away?

I was tought that at 8 yrs old!

Fordman

Perpetuating poor sportsmanship to the next generation isn't a good thing. Your kid isn't anywhere near the majors, so your first sentence there is irrelevant.

The tourny we're in is the best vs the worst, kinda like the NCAA basketball tourny. We faced a no.16 team, we're a no.1 team. The pitcher(s) only threw 9 hitable pitches the whole game, we hit those.

Fordman

So, you weren't acting that way for any reason (not that doing so to help you win would be a good reason)? Just being jackasses for the hell of it? Wow.

I'm not getting pissy.
Any how, when their pitcher warmed up, he was throwing decent pitches. When we stepped up to bat, he was a total different pitcher.

When the tournament was seeded, we asked if we can avoid the no.1 vs no.16 format. We wanted a blind draw but the powers that be wanted the seeding

Btw, we play in a select league that is very competitive. We play in a league that does a lot of traveling. We play in 4 states, 56 games a season not including tournaments.

Fordman

Sell me your Jay Bruce cards!

About getting pissy: you acted like you came here with a serious question, then tried to defend your jackassery at every turn; even when the general consensus is that you were wrong. That may not be acting pissy, but it's not on the up-and-up.

'Very competitive' at that age doesn't mean poor sportsmanship should be taught.

So, when these kids and parents signed up, they paid in upward $2000.00 just to play. They went through a tryout process and physical.

The parents knew the travel and game/practice commitments from day one. They knew/signed agreements that the coaches will make all on field decisions without parent input.

As for the game schedule, next season, it will be curtailed to 45 games including tournaments as the league's board agreed to disband 3 teams in the league.

The local community leagues don't have enough players to field 3 teams county wide, so if we wanted to play and get decent coaching plus play other teams at our level, we had to go with the select league.

Fordman

Sell me your Jay Bruce cards!

None of that is relevant to the topic at hand.

 

[byronscott4ever]

Dirty. Coached 9/10 kids who frequently have trouble pitching and have pitch counts. I've seen major leaguers do many things I don't want these kids to copy.

 

[hrbek14]

$2000 to learn how to work walks. Solid investment.

 

[MansGame]

I'm a competitor and I love to win and hate to lose... that all said, it's 8 year old kids and a part of me would want to teach fundamentals and try and play the game down the middle of the fairway to win. I give you a lot of credit for admitting it on here but damn, I can't see how anyone doesn't see this as dirty pool.

 

[deaconblues63]

This is embarrassing. It's horrible that you teach your kids to play that way and it shows a tremendous amount of obtuseness that you really thought that people here would defend your actions.

I too applaud the parent that stood up to you and told their kid not to do this. It sounds like you could use another 10 or 12 parents like this on your team.

 

[KLARNOLD]

If my team had an 8 run lead, I would make them switch to Vladimir Guerrero's way of hitting, swing at every pitch, to teach hand/eye coordination with putting the bat on the ball.

 

[fordman]

Wow, just wow!

I didnt think dirt on the plate would be such a sore subject. Yes, the other team's coach admitted he didnt catch us kicking the dirt on the corners of the plate. Yes, we hit the 9 hit-able pitches.

Yes, these are 8 yr old kids. Yes, we/they paid to play at a different level than recreational ball. Yes, we have a ridiculous game schedule (being curtailed next season). Yes, we teach these kids to ONLY pitch fastballs and change ups. No curve balls until age 13 at the least. Yes, we only pitch a pitcher 2 innings max. We teach all of our player two player positions and pitching. We have nine that can pitch at any time. The other five, they just dont have it, so we wont force them to try it.

No, we dont teach to stand up there and take walks. We lead our league in hits. We lead our league in home runs. We have a 19 home run hitter on our team. We lead the league in doubles and triples.

We lead our league in striking out the opposing teams batters as well. We lead our league in turning double plays. We have a 50-6 regular season record.

We have a 14 man roster with two of those being alternates at all times, yet they are at every game. We do change the alternates out, they're just not bench warmers.

We are a first year team and we have emails from parents and players around the area wanting us to take them on the team next year. Some parents have offered more than the league fees to take them, we've declined every offer and will continue to do so. Two of our coaches have been offered to take paid positions with other teams, they've declined those as well.

I'm assuming most on here have either never coached or have never seen this type of game play other than the local recreational leagues? It's fun to watch these 8 yr old's turn double plays as you wouldnt think it was possible at that age to do. I'ts fun to see a kid steal second and your catcher throw him out, again, you wouldnt think it possible but it happens.

As for the parent that didnt want his kid to kick dirt on the plate, we explained to that parent what we were doing, he thought his son was playing in the dirt at the plate. Plus this parent doesnt watch the games anyway. He's too busy stuffing his face at the concession stands (he's written letters to the league because the quality of some of the concession stands food choices were not up to his standards). We've gotten emails from this parent about concession stand issues and never one about game play.

Fordman

 

[fordman]

If my team had an 8 run lead, I would make them switch to Vladimir Guerrero's way of hitting, swing at every pitch, to teach hand/eye coordination with putting the bat on the ball.

No, we're not teaching our kids to swing at pitches above our heads, bouncing pitches, step out of the box and make contact (btw, you're out if you make contact with the ball outside of the batters box).

WE had 9 hittable pitches the whole game, we hit those!

Fordman

 

[finestkind]

+ Dirty Nice way to teach 8 year olds to learn how to play.

 

[deaconblues63]

If everyone that disagrees with you is wrong, why did you bother to ask the question?

 

[cbrandtw]

Did you once consider the feelings of embarrassment from the opposing team? Did you kick the opposing players while they were down? Sure it's nice to win but these guys are KIDS.

What is wrong with this world?

 

[Juan Gris]

Not dirty and 8 years is plenty old enough to start your players on "the clear".

 

[fordman]

Did you once consider the feelings of embarrassment from the opposing team? Did you kick the opposing players while they were down? Sure it's nice to win but these guys are KIDS.

What is wrong with this world?

So, if when we beat this same team in regular season play by getting 24 hits against them, that would make it better?

Each team and coach goes into this league knowing what it is and how its played.

This is a very competitive league where we have and accept winners and losers. We dont give out last place or participant ribbons/trophies!

Fordman

 

[MansGame]

Not dirty and 8 years is plenty old enough to start your players on "the clear".

LOL!!!

 

[Lancemountain]

Dirty and c'mon you kept doing it after you had the score ran up like that?

 

[fordman]

Dirty and c'mon you kept doing it after you had the score ran up like that?

We only played 3 innings (out of five) where their team batted three full times and we scored 7 (mercy run rule) in the first, 7 (mercy run rule) in the second and 2 in the third which made the game complete because of the 7 run rules, the other team cant mathematically catch up.

We didnt start our ace, we started out no.8 pitcher and switched to our no.9 pitcher in the second inning. We then put in an alternate in the third, thats how they got their 2 runs.

Fordman

 

[rickeyfanatic]

We only played 3 innings (out of five) where their team batted three full times and we scored 7 (mercy run rule) in the first, 7 (mercy run rule) in the second and 2 in the third which made the game complete because of the 7 run rules, the other team cant mathematically catch up.

We didnt start our ace, we started out no.8 pitcher and switched to our no.9 pitcher in the second inning. We then put in an alternate in the third, thats how they got their 2 runs.

Fordman

Are you delusional or what? 8 year old ace... I have coached many, many 8 year olds and not a single child that age has ace stuff. I can only imagine how many of these kids are going to make it to the MLB from your all world, dominant wrecking ball, LLWS soon to be champions team.

Total loss of respect for OP... This is not a man, but a boy trying to justify something missing in his own life.

 

[Gwynn545]

I'm assuming most on here have either never coached or have never seen this type of game play other than the local recreational leagues?

Fordman

For what its worth, I coached select up through 18u. I have traveled the country and I have seen this "type of play" (meaning good ball).
I've seen poor coaching and poor sportsmanship by coaches.
This falls into that category. You bragging about how "great" your team is does not support the idea that poor sportsmanship is allowable. You talking negatively about one of your parents (the 'one' who stood up to you) also helps define you as a coach. Two strikes...

 

[DaleMurphyCollector]

I've played some sort of ball for 35 years...started playing baseball (t-ball) at 4 years old, got a scholarsip to play D1 college baseball and play softball to this day. I have NEVER been coached to do this or considered doing it myself. If I would have done it as an 8 year old, my dad would have yanked me off the field mid at-bat and probably make me sit out the next game.

Sounds like a complete BUSH LEAGUE move and for you to be coaching 8 YEAR OLDS, who really should be worrying ONLY about the fundamentals of the game, is PATHETIC.

 

[MansGame]

Between the toes and nobody knows