I sat through a 2 hr. LL game last night

[Michael N]

My experience with LL was that it was cheap daycare for most of the parents involved . I had parents who would drive up the street to the bar in plain view of the field while their kids were at practice and then I would have to call them to get them to come back and get their kids after practice was over (Coaches couldn't leave until all kids were picked up) and by then I didn't really want them going anywhere with their kids . The other coaches also had no concept of lifting the throttle to get a game over with like beating some poor team 36-1 over the course of 2.5 hours was some sort of accomplishment . Don't even get me started on Parents who didn't have the time to work with their kids outside of practice .Once DD got to 12U we bailed for an ASA travel team as it was just to painful to watch or participate anymore .

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Here they are. Anxious to get started, again today.

 

[marriard]

This isn't a LL league issue btw - this is a badly run and organized rec league issue. I see it all over the place.. but then I also see some well run rec leagues (including some LL leagues) with people who put 100's upon 100's of hours in very year to make them successful.


It isn't hard to do for the most part - it is is just massively time intensive and requires dedicated people who care enough to get stuck in and make it better for all the girls. Unfortunately average burn out is about 3 years plus the dedicated peoples kids are also generally the better players so they are one of the first to go full travel and the league gets turned over to hopefully the next dedicated person.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

^ We can drive to and play one of those organizations. They are national champs. If they have a 10U game at 5:30, they arrive at the park at 4:00. And that, is after a 40 minute drive. I always say 'Don't these people have jobs?" (Maybe not.)

While on the other hand, the other team straggles in at 5:00 and has to worry if they will have 9 players.

 

[Elk Grove Hurricane]

We go through a lot of that with my little 8U team. It took me 4 games to pare our pitching staff down to 2 from 4, one of the criteria I used to pick the 2 was who can catch the ball the best, as it looked like ping pong in the circle at times with the other 2. But they're coming along. The toughest part is my most talented player missed our big tourney, misses almost every practice, then gets offended if she isn't hitting 3 or 4. But I do have some dedicated parents who do whatever they can to get their kids out their, and those smiles on their faces keep me coming back.