I was calling the plate on a 12u travel league game last night. I'm floored at the level of disrespect that some of these kids have for others, not to mention themselves, their parents, or the game.
When the pitcher would throw an inside pitch that was a solid 6" off the black and over the chalk, I'd obviously call a ball and instantly, I'd get the mouth wide open gasp and urggghh out of her and the groans from her teams parents etc... To add insult to injury this team was up by approx 15 runs and still was stealing every base poss and taunting the other team on nearly every play. Baserunners were literally doing the twerk dance while off the base (pitcher wasn't in the circle). I was totally embarrassed for these classless idiots. Parents were encouraging this behavior. I did put a stop to the nonsense, but by me doing that only added fuel to the non strike call fire. What kind of adults are we raising our kids to be with that kind of parenting or coaching....
As a coach, I teach aspects of the game of course, however I also use this game to teach values that will produce strong confident ladies who aspire to be leaders in life and not just idiots with some trophies.
When the pitcher would throw an inside pitch that was a solid 6" off the black and over the chalk, I'd obviously call a ball and instantly, I'd get the mouth wide open gasp and urggghh out of her and the groans from her teams parents etc... To add insult to injury this team was up by approx 15 runs and still was stealing every base poss and taunting the other team on nearly every play. Baserunners were literally doing the twerk dance while off the base (pitcher wasn't in the circle). I was totally embarrassed for these classless idiots. Parents were encouraging this behavior. I did put a stop to the nonsense, but by me doing that only added fuel to the non strike call fire. What kind of adults are we raising our kids to be with that kind of parenting or coaching....
As a coach, I teach aspects of the game of course, however I also use this game to teach values that will produce strong confident ladies who aspire to be leaders in life and not just idiots with some trophies.