Little League baseball

I never enjoyed LL. I made it 3 years in the Minors back in the 70's and then bailed. It always seemed like coaches that wanted to see their kids do really great and not much else. I did have ONE good coach in 3 years but a team of the d-bags of kids in the town. It was me and just a bunch of guys that are likely in or have-been-in jail since 1979. LOL

We did it for 2 years with my son when he was young. Farm and maybe a year of minors. Same bullspit. A really good coach. But the parents. Your kid is 10. He's not the next Mickey Mantle. Calm the F down.

I was just stunned at the sameness of my son's experience and my own, 35 years apart in different towns. LOL.

That said, I think the teams that go places ARE very different. They aren't your average LL team.
 
My son playing LL made me remember that I liked baseball. I had quit watching as I was carrying on a boycott from when they went on strike, I think it was the 90s. I like watching my kid, it helps that he's actually pretty good. But yeah, the way some parents act, especially regarding the softball team, you'd think the major league scouts (do they even HAVE major leagues for softball?) were camped out in Colebrook just waiting to scoop up some kid and give them (and their parents) a multi million dollar contract.
 
Dennis in MA said:
I never enjoyed LL. I made it 3 years in the Minors back in the 70's and then bailed. It always seemed like coaches that wanted to see their kids do really great and not much else. I did have ONE good coach in 3 years but a team of the d-bags of kids in the town. It was me and just a bunch of guys that are likely in or have-been-in jail since 1979. LOL

We did it for 2 years with my son when he was young. Farm and maybe a year of minors. Same bullspit. A really good coach. But the parents. Your kid is 10. He's not the next Mickey Mantle. Calm the F down.

I was just stunned at the sameness of my son's experience and my own, 35 years apart in different towns. LOL.

That said, I think the teams that go places ARE very different. They aren't your average LL team.
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Agree about coaches. I played high school ball for 2 months before I quit since I was an "out of towner" and the coach played only his local boys.
 
3 daughters, two play softball, not super competitive though. Lots of traveling softball leagues around here, girls are wicked good.

Good Little league program out here too, I have no problem donating every year when they ask, I grew up with Little League baseball, great memories.
🥰
 
greencobra said:
i had to try out for the teams in my day. never could hit a ball to save my live. long before the days of everyone plays and gets a trophy, so yeah, never played little league.
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I am of that vintage also. I had to try out for Little League as well as school sports. It was quite competitive and emotionally devastating when your name was not on the list of players that were good enough to make the team.

Kid's are spoiled these days, everybody makes the team and then expects a "participation trophy"

These days having to try out for a team or to only win a trophy for outstanding performance is considered unfair. But you learned some life lessons early rather than later in childhood.
 
tuna said:
My son playing LL made me remember that I liked baseball. I had quit watching as I was carrying on a boycott from when they went on strike, I think it was the 90s. I like watching my kid, it helps that he's actually pretty good. But yeah, the way some parents act, especially regarding the softball team, you'd think the major league scouts (do they even HAVE major leagues for softball?) were camped out in Colebrook just waiting to scoop up some kid and give them (and their parents) a multi million dollar contract.
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a boycott? Was the grudge held it the players for wanting a career or just got fed up with management that would bungle things so badly that a strike was launched?
 
bigbravehog said:
Agree about coaches. I played high school ball for 2 months before I quit since I was an "out of towner" and the coach played only his local boys.
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My son went through that as well. This year I told him to assert dominance - he’d randomly jump up and grab either the rafters or door jamb of the dugout and knock out 6-10 pull-ups. Coach couldn’t ignore him too much after seeing that.

SpeedwayMike said:
a boycott? Was the grudge held it the players for wanting a career or just got fed up with management that would bungle things so badly that a strike was launched?
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I forgot what the strike was about. I was ahead of boycotting everything before it was as popular as it is now. As it is I only listen to static, shave with a rock and eat ice cream made from locally sourced moon rocks and sand. I just know that baseball kissed me off and I stayed mad for 30 years.
 
The politics in all kids sports is disgusting! The politics travel all the way up into high school. I coached LL in one capacity or another for about eight years. I coached only one player who I thought had a chance to play in college. Once he hit high school, he became a basket case, just like his Mother, and drinking and smoking weed caught up to him. Goodbye any chance at a baseball career.

Some coaches have their own pitching and hitting businesses and if you pay for your kid to receive lessons, your kids make the summer or travel teams and sometimes high school no matter how bad they suck! They'll never play an inning but they can say they made the team and Grandma and Grampa can watch them warm the bench each and every game!

AAU teams used to be comprised of the best local players around in the 90's? Now it has become "pay to play" and they are a waste of weekend time at a minimum price of at least $3,000 per player for the season. The hours wasted traveling up and down and through New England each and every weekend to watch your future major league Hall of Famer is comical! The coach or the owner of the team will tell you that your son is going places but in the meantime, he is laughing all the way to the wall depository box outside the local bank with thousands of dollars of your money!

Good Luck to the teams from Canton and Easton! They seem to be a great bunch of kids with an awesome coach who realizes it is just a game, and he is letting kids be kids!
 
kerryman71 said:
I love hearing how no one can understand the drop-off in youth sports at around the age of 12 or 13 years old. Not really rocket science, it's the kid saying f@ck you dad/coach etc. I'm done with this BS!
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For some kids, they realize at this age 👆that they themselves suck and their parents only dropped them off to be babysat for free for a couple of hours. It was so sad to see the poor kid(s) get dumped off game after game and never have anybody stay to show any support.
Or it was just a way for Mom or Dad to socialize and get shitfaced over the next couple of hours with the other Mom's or Dad's. I had one Dad who always had the largest DD styrofoam cup in his hand, except it was filled with beer he had in a cooler on ice in the trunk of his car. That cup seemed to get refilled every inning. It didn't matter if the game started at 8AM either. One hothead, blockhead, drunk Father showed up for a night game on his Harley. The dumbass realized he lost his keys in the parking lot as it was getting dark and the park had no lights. He and the other drunk stooges never found the keys and had to have the bike towed to his house the next day. Probably the best thing that could have happened to him.
Mother's would bring Yeti type thermoses filled with booze to every game and would get hammered and obnoxious while cheering on their kid and then drive home with the kid. The thermos got refilled during the game too! Thankfully none ever crashed going home but none got busted for DUI either!
 
In the 60's & 70's all we had were scouts & Little League for organized activities.

Little League promotes "Character, Courage and Loyalty," Boy Scouts promotes "Citizenship, Character & Fitness"....

Staying in the batter's box when the out of control orb is hurtling towards you develops courage..... Being on a team that only won 1 game all season develops character.

In Boy Scouts, though, I learned everything I've ever needed to know, except how to change a diaper ;)
 
I never really played any organized ball. We just played.

I don't like putting kids into a national/international spotlight when they should just be developing fundamentals. This is more about adult egos than it is about kids learning to play baseball.
 
KBCraig said:
I never really played any organized ball. We just played.

I don't like putting kids into a national/international spotlight when they should just be developing fundamentals. This is more about adult egos than it is about kids learning to play baseball.
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Absolutely. Parents living vicariously through their kids. I coached youth football for two years when my son played before I had enough. Kids would be coming up to me crying because they weren't playing. The coach told parents that we had at least four or five future D1 players on the team!! They were third graders!

The parents behavior, the coaches behavior, it all sucked. I would sit further and further away from it all, sometimes with binoculars, just to watch games in peace. As I dealt with it more and more through the years I found myself telling my son to just go have fun, even through his HS years, and seriously looked forward to it being over.

He's off to college in the fall. He was approached by a few schools for lacrosse mainly, and some football. Nothing major, but he said he has no interest in playing, wants to focus on his career. I always loved watching him play and will definitely miss that part, but not the rest.
 
greencobra said:
i had to try out for the teams in my day. never could hit a ball to save my live. long before the days of everyone plays and gets a trophy, so yeah, never played little league.
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I think it was less try-outty and more "let's make the teams somewhat level." Majors back in the 70's was a "try-out" league. So I quit when forced, thinking I might not get picked. Plus the uniform was completely foreign to me. (Gimme a t-shirt and a shitty foam trucker cap like in Minors.) I didn't discover this until many years later. NBD - I didn't LOVE baseball anyhow. But I wish I got a bit more coaching to make me better. I have good hand-eye. But I froze at the plate. :(

What I'm amazed at is there are a lot of FOOTBALL programs that fill up. Taunton and DR are filled up with wait lists. Crazy.

PaulR said:
3 daughters, two play softball, not super competitive though. Lots of traveling softball leagues around here, girls are wicked good.

Good Little league program out here too, I have no problem donating every year when they ask, I grew up with Little League baseball, great memories.
🥰
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Traveling anything, a lot of the time, is just wealthy kids having an off-season activity. The "best" don't always play traveling. It's expensive and a hassle to get all over the state to play.

kerryman71 said:
I love hearing how no one can understand the drop-off in youth sports at around the age of 12 or 13 years old. Not really rocket science, it's the kid saying f@ck you dad/coach etc. I'm done with this BS!
Click to expand...

Drop off? DROP OFF? You wanna talk drop-off?????

Remember when our parents would drop us off for Little League? Or scouts? Or whatever???

Now parents are expected to sit there and watch like the next all-star came out of our loins.

Let the damned kids go be kids.

My mom came to my games (well, some of them - usually she had to go home and cook dinner before my dad got home) only b/c she was driving. But there were no bleachers. No fan sections. Any parents that hung around sat in their cars or stood at the fence. MAYBE you'd get one or two that would have lawn chairs. (The old fold-ups with the wide weave plastic strapping.). Usually if you had younger siblings, Mom was over on the monkey bars with them.

No one watched. It was all you. That's the way it SHOULD be. Once parents started painting their bodies and holding up signs for Kody and Brewster, it was all over. Participation trophies and such. As bad as my LL experience was, it was a place for me to be me, not a showcase of my parents.

I've tried to do the same with my kids. My son did Karate. My wife went 3x a week. I went about 1x every 3-4 months. I'm not high kicking Master Lima today, so I don't need to be there.

My middle daughter has been doing horseback for. . . . almost 20 years. I've been to the barn (not just pickup) 20 times. Been to 3-4 shows ever. She's 24 now. It's HER thing, not mine.
 
Dennis in MA said:
Traveling anything, a lot of the time, is just wealthy kids having an off-season activity. The "best" don't always play traveling. It's expensive and a hassle to get all over the state to play.
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Agree to disagree.
Traveling=Devoted parents and kids. Parents will find a way to make it happen if the kids love it and want to do it. At least that's what I see with these parents. Although yea, most in my area have the bucks. I bitch constantly about bringing my kids everywhere, but that is second to their love of doing whatever they are doing. If they don't show interest, I do NOT push them.
 
What the heck is D1?

My son mentioned it the other night, and I thought it meant Division 1 here in NH but now I see it in this thread. When my son mentioned it, he said "it's not like we have any players that are D1".

His season was finally done in early June. He started practicing for the upcoming season (May of 24!) last week. He loves the game, doesn't think he'll be in the majors, but wants to hit a home run.

I was a part of three teams last season: Junior High assistant coach, because I'm an idiot and helped out the actual coach, and then watched my daughter's softball games and my son's LL games. Softball sucked, because as a freshman she wasn't played much, and I don't really enjoy watching a bunch of high school girls - it just seems creepy. But not as creepy as all the parents who knew EVERY kid's name and number, I felt like sitting on the opposing team's side for peace and quiet.

My son's games I truly enjoyed. He had no pressure from me to do anything but have fun, the drive he has is all his own fire. I cheered when his plays went well, and basked in hearing people say "that kid is tough, he never even flinches when he gets hit by the pitch" (he crowded the plate and got hit most games). Those games were fun for me because they were truly fun for him. Win or lose I didn't care, and neither did he.
 
tuna said:
What the heck is D1?

My son mentioned it the other night, and I thought it meant Division 1 here in NH but now I see it in this thread. When my son mentioned it, he said "it's not like we have any players that are D1".

His season was finally done in early June. He started practicing for the upcoming season (May of 24!) last week. He loves the game, doesn't think he'll be in the majors, but wants to hit a home run.

I was a part of three teams last season: Junior High assistant coach, because I'm an idiot and helped out the actual coach, and then watched my daughter's softball games and my son's LL games. Softball sucked, because as a freshman she wasn't played much, and I don't really enjoy watching a bunch of high school girls - it just seems creepy. But not as creepy as all the parents who knew EVERY kid's name and number, I felt like sitting on the opposing team's side for peace and quiet.

My son's games I truly enjoyed. He had no pressure from me to do anything but have fun, the drive he has is all his own fire. I cheered when his plays went well, and basked in hearing people say "that kid is tough, he never even flinches when he gets hit by the pitch" (he crowded the plate and got hit most games). Those games were fun for me because they were truly fun for him. Win or lose I didn't care, and neither did he.
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D1 is Division 1, as in NCAA. That's what the coach I was referring to was talking about...3rd graders nonetheless! Your son was probably saying it sarcastically meaning just that, it's not like we have a bunch of D1 players on the team.

There are so many parents who eat it up, thinking their kid is it, when in reality, the percentage of kids going on to play at a high level in college in miniscule. But it's a money maker. Someone mentioned AAU, which has been watered down big time. My son played club/tournament lacrosse. The club he played for was great; one team of 20 players per high school grade, and they had one fall tournament and three summer. You made the team or you didn't. There are clubs out there that add more teams each year, and play all year round. The club he played for wanted them playing for their high school teams and playing other sports.
 
kerryman71 said:
D1 is Division 1, as in NCAA. That's what the coach I was referring to was talking about...3rd graders nonetheless! Your son was probably saying it sarcastically meaning just that, it's not like we have a bunch of D1 players on the team.

There are so many parents who eat it up, thinking their kid is it, when in reality, the percentage of kids going on to play at a high level in college in miniscule. But it's a money maker. Someone mentioned AAU, which has been watered down big time. My son played club/tournament lacrosse. The club he played for was great; one team of 20 players per high school grade, and they had one fall tournament and three summer. You made the team or you didn't. There are clubs out there that add more teams each year, and play all year round. The club he played for wanted them playing for their high school teams and playing other sports.
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There is a whole industry playing on parents fantasy that the kid is gonna get a free ride scholarship and a lucrative pro career.

And the travel programs and training academies and camps and coaches all line up to collect their share of the dough for a future that likely will never happen.

Aided by towns that setup facilities to run the tournaments with the local hotels and restaurants egging them on.

But they won't tell folks the truth because then the money tap might slow down and they'd need to get real jobs.

They just wait for the current crop to hit reality and move on while they bring in the next set to be fleeced.
 
caboose84 said:
There is a whole industry playing on parents fantasy that the kid is gonna get a free ride scholarship and a lucrative pro career.

And the travel programs and training academies and camps and coaches all line up to collect their share of the dough for a future that likely will never happen.

Aided by towns that setup facilities to run the tournaments with the local hotels and restaurants egging them on.

But they won't tell folks the truth because then the money tap might slow down and they'd need to get real jobs.

They just wait for the current crop to hit reality and move on while they bring in the next set to be fleeced.
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The sad part is the let down for the kids who have been propped it to be the next star, and for some, a large portion of their childhood gone, for nothing.

I grew up with a kid who played hockey. This was in the 80's, and his father had him going non stop. We'd ask if he wanted to hang out, but he had to shoot slap shots in the backyard for a couple hours. While we were being kids, chasing ass etc, his socializing was hockey in the yard with dad in goalie gear.

He went off to private high school, played hockey, went to a really good college, played hockey there too. He was definitely good no doubt. Put his whole childhood into it. Good enough to get drafted by the Bruins! Played one AHL game for Providence and that was it, they cut him. Those socialization skills he built up, or should I say lack thereof, cost him a good job. Trying to make the moves on a woman who wasn't interested, wouldn't let up when it was obvious she wasn't interested so hey, what better way to win her over than jerk off in front of her!!
 
caboose84 said:
There is a whole industry playing on parents fantasy that the kid is gonna get a free ride scholarship and a lucrative pro career.

And the travel programs and training academies and camps and coaches all line up to collect their share of the dough for a future that likely will never happen.

Aided by towns that setup facilities to run the tournaments with the local hotels and restaurants egging them on.

But they won't tell folks the truth because then the money tap might slow down and they'd need to get real jobs.

They just wait for the current crop to hit reality and move on while they bring in the next set to be fleeced.
Click to expand...
Couldn't have said it better myself!
I know of one parent who had her kids play baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, and soccer. She has spent thousands upon thousands on all those academies and club teams. I'm guessing over $50K on all of them combined, only to have each and every kid end up hating and quitting the sport they were pushed to play by the time they were high school eligible. If they made the high school team, they played during garbage time or didn't play at all. She "indirectly" threw money the coaches way in order to get or "buy" her kids more playing time and it didn't work. She was know throughout the leagues as the "schmoozer"! Weekend after weekend wasted chasing tournaments for hours upon hours. Getting up, sometimes before 0600, to make a game out of state while sitting in traffic for nothing! She even bought one of her "stars" a baseball bat that today is worth over $500 thinking that it would make him a better hitter! She couldn't accept the fact that her husband's glorious D1 career wouldn't be carried on to her offspring. The poor kids!
 
I always enjoyed playing sports, but I was never very coordinated. A bunch of us played football and street hockey pretty much every day after school growing up. Once, contrary to my usual lack of skill, I was a wide receiver and I made a diving catch. Unfortunately, on the other side of my dive was the neighbor's mailbox. 1/2 pint of blood and 6 stitches right next to my eye later........
 
kerryman71 said:
Absolutely. Parents living vicariously through their kids. I coached youth football for two years when my son played before I had enough. Kids would be coming up to me crying because they weren't playing. The coach told parents that we had at least four or five future D1 players on the team!! They were third graders!

The parents behavior, the coaches behavior, it all sucked. I would sit further and further away from it all, sometimes with binoculars, just to watch games in peace. As I dealt with it more and more through the years I found myself telling my son to just go have fun, even through his HS years, and seriously looked forward to it being over.

He's off to college in the fall. He was approached by a few schools for lacrosse mainly, and some football. Nothing major, but he said he has no interest in playing, wants to focus on his career. I always loved watching him play and will definitely miss that part, but not the rest.
Click to expand...

That living vicariously thru their kids thing is definitely something I'm going to have to keep in mind. My wife and I have been trying to find a sport that would interest my son. We had him do soccer last year at 4, and he didn't seem all that interested. The coaches didn't seem to understand that active kids - want activity and action though. They had them doing drills and stuff like that. The interest lasted about two sessions and then it was done.

We just got back from his first lacrosse class. He beaned one kid in the head with his stick making a goal and got into a fight with another kid over the stick incident. So he might be a natural. We'll have to see how things develop.
 

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