Back in 1950, we never sang for our fathers - and we never danced our way into a game - but who knows? Maybe we should have. It's just not the way we were.
The Little League World Series in Williamsport. Pennsylvania and the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska are both on my “bucket list,” but, like the rest of you Houston area fans who didn’t make it this year, we probably missed one the best opportunities we shall ever have this time. With Pearland perched on the steps of winning the American division crown today and then facing the International Champion either Taiwan or Japan, tomorrow for all the marbles, we may have missed our best shot at being there as local support to some of our regional kids at the LLWS this very time around.
I really like the way the spirit of Little League comes across over the ESPN screen – and also the way commentators Bobby Valentine, Orel Hershiser, and Nomar Garciappara handle the coverage and their contact with the kids. Each is a walking role model for the players to follow on ow to walk around with a major league mentality about baseball and life.
Most of the coaches, especially Mike Orlando of Pearland and the two gentlemen from Japan and Hawaii have both impressed me in their handling of the kids. As for enthusiasm and obvious respect for authority, no other team beats the Japanese kids. They live and die with their in-game play outcomes – and they listen, listen, listen to their coaches. It’s not hard to see how they took over the automobile and technology industries for years.
One uncomfortable coach and player moment came about in the Thursday Pool B American Division playoff elimination game on Thursday. As Letterman likes to say, i wouldn’t give that coaching problem to “a monkey on a rock,” but it was there, all of a sudden, and the people involved were going to have play through it and eventually get over it.
Take Orlando's HR in the top of the 6th gave Pearland a 6-5 lead over Auburn, Washington.
Because of restrictions on the use of pitchers, the coach from Washington (whose name I cannot readily find – and it’s just as well – because my comments here are driven more to the situation than the man) so, as I was saying, the Washington coach had his own son pitching with the game tied at 5-5 and one man out.
It was a bad spot for both the coach and his son. What happened next is almost easier to tell in pictures than words. (By the way, the son’s name escapes me too.)
The Washington pitcher collapsed on the mound in tears. He had allowed the lead run to score in the last inning of play.
Coach said three things to his pitcher/son once he reached the mound: (1) "Will you stop?" (referring to the crying); (2) "Gimme the ball;" and (3) "Go to right field."
Look! Baseball is about winning and losing. And it’s a game that comes ready to teach us about the joy and heartbreak of each. We still need to remember that kids are not grown ups. Their abilities to feel OK about themselves are still tied to pleasing the important adults in their lives.
The Washington kid had just finished pitching his club out of contention in the Little League World Series and, if he’s anything like some of us, he had just given up a home run that he will see in his mind forever. I certainly hope that he heard something from his father/coach before the day was too far done – and way beyond the scorching tone of disappointment he got from his dad in the moments that followed.
I have to think that fathers and sons would be better off never being put in these kinds of game situations. We play baseball to win and we have to learn that it is a team game to win or lose, no matter who gives up the winning home run or makes the error that costs the game because, sooner or later, unless you’re Joe DiMaggio or Willie Mays, it’s going to be you.
I only coached my son in kid baseball a single season as head coach. That was enough for me. The rest of the time, I either helped out or watched quietly from the stands.
Maybe Little League needs to look at what they can do to here. Maybe coaches need to not pitch their own kids in games like this one.
What do you think?
Tags: Baseball, Little League
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 28, 2010 at 3:27 pm |
The crying isn’t as bad as it was when it was ONE and DONE. At least in this format there is room for REDEMPTION. Pearland lost the very first game they played and look where they are NOW….GOOD LUCK, KIDS…..
August 28, 2010 at 6:21 pm |
I played for my father for one season in Little League, and it was uncomfortable for both of us. Thereafter, he did not coach any of my teams, or my younger brother’s teams. In my judgment, that should be the rule. It might seem harsh, but it solves a lot of problems.
August 30, 2010 at 12:50 pm |
I pray the father consoled his son later. The memory of giving up the home run is bad enough, the memory of your father basically telling you that you failed and to bascially “go away” is worse. I know he did not say those words, but thats what his son heard.
August 30, 2010 at 1:54 pm |
People must forget Mickey Mantle crying in front of his locker after Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. I cried too, in the boys bathroom at Mark Twain Junior High, inside a stall, hoping no one would see me. We both knew the better team lost. And that’s baseball.
August 30, 2010 at 7:12 pm |
The Little League World Series epitomizes everything that’s wrong in youth sports. I identified this evil the year my son made his league’s all star team. All Star teams should be banned, flat out banned. Go ahead and name an All Star team, give them a stupid trophy, but never let them play together on a field. Instead, the ENTIRE team that wins a league should advance into the tournament – stars, studs, and duds- just like real baseball. If a coach suddenly finds himself with the bases loaded, two out, and trailing in a game and his weakest hitter in the on deck circle, he might start to do some really coaching for a change. Under the current system all the coaches do is worry about their sons and the 2-3 best players on a team. They do not coach the scrawney kids that aren’t any good to get them primed for their big moments. Most kids see this hypocrisy and give up on baseball as the playground of fathers reliving their lost or failed youth. Ask the kid who was ignored while the coaches worked with the all stars to see if he (or she) bothered to watch the LLWS. Coach the duds, coach, not just the studs. Let these kids at Williamsport cry. The forgotten kid back in Pearland cried too. Who cared about him?
September 1, 2010 at 5:11 pm |
Ok, here’s what I think….I do believe in many cases, the little league manager has a son playing on the team that he coaches and in many of those cases, the son stands out as one of the team’s marquis players or leaders. YMCA and Little League baseball is all about having fun and learning about the fundamentals of baseball. But as the kids transcend to a LL All-Star team or is selected on a USSSA or Nations tournament team, the element of fun is undoubtedly comprised by the competitive nature of the game. I find this every bit as true with the parents as well as with the kids. These days, with the time and resources invested in these kids’ baseball activities, I’m surprised that some of them don’t have agents. Personally (and many may disagree with me), there’s no place for the molly-coddled boy in competitve baseball. It’s not OK to strike out, to give up game-winning home runs, to stink up the field with defensive errors – mental or physical. But it’s part of the game. It’s up to the player to respond -make the appropriate adjustment or face inevitable replacement by the many who are waiting for their chance.