Playing dirty? Totally fair?

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Jun 12, 2015
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https://youtu.be/lmgSedM98z4

Context: we are a first year (06) 10U team. Very inexperienced, all but 1 from 8U coach pitch last year, and that one 05 played rec until this spring. We play mostly A tournaments, against mostly 05 teams, and mostly lose. Any team could look at our record and see that, as I'm sure this team did before we played them. I say this to point out that this was not a situation of a close, high pressure game between 2 evenly matched teams. At the time this happened, the score was around 10-0. The team we're playing here is the 05 Birmingham Thunderbolts. We had almost no shot of beating this team even if they had a pretty bad day.

There has been some debate about where 1B is standing - in the baseline, not, etc etc. I don't care about the rules part of it (though feel free to weigh in on that if you're so inclined). What I want to know is from coaches - this is pretty obviously coached behavior to me. It's clearly intentional and unnecessary, and the coach was not remotely concerned about his player doing something like that. A girl on another team got an elbow to the face from one of their players this weekend too. Is it pretty common for coaches to teach their players to try to take out the other team's players at this age level? This is the first time I've seen something this blatant in person and it felt very extreme to me.
 
Feb 3, 2011
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Hopefully, your player was ok. Hitting someone in the back like that can cause injury pretty easily. That's why we no longer allow football players to get a 10-yard running start to hit someone in the back when they are not looking.

In sports, accidents happen, and sometimes the collisions are violent, but the video doesn't appear to show an accidental collision. I'm not saying it was intentional, I am only saying that it doesn't look like an accident from the 1 camera angle we have.

As for the rules and positioning, etc., as your 1B gains more experience, she'll learn to set up on the outfield side of 1B to take that throw, which will allow the runner the inside corner to make her turn. Some umpires would've called her for obstruction. As your team gains more experience, they'll likely look to prevent R1 from scoring from 2B on a shot to short RF.
 
Jun 12, 2015
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She's ok. She has a scraped up knee and a hole in her pants, definitely could have been far worse. She got up and finished the game. ITA that she was not standing in a good spot. She hasn't played 1B much lately and she's a bit rusty but I can almost guarantee she'll play that smarter next time!
 
Feb 3, 2016
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I found myself yelling at the umpire for allowing extra hard tags to the face and body of another team. I shouldn't even say anything as it isn't even a team that I didn't need to worry about. I think I yelled are you ok with tags being applied like that! Really!
 
May 11, 2014
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totally intentional and very lucky the runner wasnt more solidly built. my question is- just as the stronger team should have known this team was weaker and maybe take the foot off the gas, shouldnt the weaker team coaches have prepared their team for a team that plays hard and will run you over if you are in their way. just trying to see both sides.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
totally intentional and very lucky the runner wasnt more solidly built. my question is- just as the stronger team should have known this team was weaker and maybe take the foot off the gas, shouldnt the weaker team coaches have prepared their team for a team that plays hard and will run you over if you are in their way. just trying to see both sides.
There is only so much 9 year old can learn by listening. I'm sure she learned from this, though. They've been playing 05 teams all year, just not any that played like this. I'm not sure even the coaches were quite prepared for this kind of thing.
 
May 11, 2014
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not only 9yr olds but some coaches also, we have a girl (8u) that if she connects, the coach cant react in time to catch the ball(got nailed once and he said all he saw was a bug coming at him). we tell the other teams coaches to be aware but some look at you like you just cussed them out. thats why i kinda blame the coaches for not preparing the first baseman.
 

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