Taking it easy on weaker teams?

[Mark H]

Socaldad,

It's not the score that's the problem. They never stopped running. There IS no excuse for that. It's bush. It's against every unwritten rule of the game. It's against good sportsmanship. It's against common decency and it's a good way to get your kids hurt when someone takes offense and retaliates in some manner.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

Guys, maybe my point was lost somewhere. Teams should play similar competitiion where possible (no travel team 12U beating up on inexperienced 10U); no winning team that is pouring it on should verbally be disrespectful to the losing team; the losing team should forget the score and focus on the next play in the field (regardless of score); while I appreciate the gesture of purposely making outs so the inning is over don't have mercy on me or my team, we will play hard to the last out; if both of my starting pitchers are injured wave the white flag (I get that, thanks for not killing my 3 or 4th string pitcher); and I'll do my best to prepare my team so they do not get blown out. If we can't stop you, (and we are not injured) shame on us. We'll have lots of areas to work on next practice.

 

[calgofo]

Socaldad,

It's not the score that's the problem. They never stopped running. There IS no excuse for that. It's bush. It's against every unwritten rule of the game. It's against good sportsmanship. It's against common decency and it's a good way to get your kids hurt when someone takes offense and retaliates in some manner.

Yep......I have seen more than one player take one on the ribs in this scenario.

 

[rowdy]

Finish the game as quickly as possible and ensure all of your players display exceptional sportsmanship regardless of the score.

 

[MJs Dad]

No one responded to the question of: Does the director of the tournament bear any responsiblity to tell a team that are out of their leauge and that in fairness to all involved maybe you shouldn't play this weekend. In the original situation the umpire asked our team to "call of the dogs" before the other team ever got to bat. He must have known things were going to get much worse.

 

[mudbug]

Some weak teams are there to learn from better teams. They dont necessarily come with the goal of winning, their goal is to expose their weak points and improve them so they can be a better team the next weekend.

I would say that in most cases, the weak teams coach knows they will face some pretty strong teams, its not an accident. But, they may not know what really strong will be like by comparison to teams they have played before.

If a game truly gets out of hand, the simple thing is to discuss with the losing coach between innings what he would like to do. He may want you to keep stealing so his girls can work on that. He may want you to keep bunting if that is giving them fits and they need to improve. Its as simple as asking.

Of course if its still the first inning, it would be kind of obvious to call time and walk over to him, so you have runner leave base early etc if necessary to get out the inning and then address it with him.

 

[Mark H]

Can't argue with that.

 

[a softball life for me]

No one responded to the question of: Does the director of the tournament bear any responsiblity to tell a team that are out of their leauge and that in fairness to all involved maybe you shouldn't play this weekend.

Then the tournament director would have to return the team's money and we all know that will never happen.

I like the idea of asking the coach what they want the winning team to do. But if the guy's an idiot, you could be asking for trouble.

 

[mad hornet]

No one responded to the question of: Does the director of the tournament bear any responsiblity to tell a team that are out of their leauge and that in fairness to all involved maybe you shouldn't play this weekend. In the original situation the umpire asked our team to "call of the dogs" before the other team ever got to bat. He must have known things were going to get much worse.

Was this a showcase tournament? In Ohio you have to "apply" for a lot of the more competitive tournaments. If the TD doesn't think your team is competitive your application will be rejected. Of course, this is also subject to some local politics.

 

[MJs Dad]

Here we go again!

I just found out our first game this weekend is against the same team that started this whole discussion. I hope they have improved.