Clues That The Scorebook Is Cooked

Hawk_ said:

I don't keep books for my team, all I know is that if my DD doesn't put a solid hit on the ball "that's an E". When she get's a good hit I give her credit but if she get's on base any other way I'm giving her hell. 10u BTW

Click to expand...

I hope you played at a high level because starting at about 12U if she's smart she is going to start with the "let's see you get up there and do it.." and unless you are pretty confident that you can hit a kid with a good changeup and a 55 mph fast ball from 50 feet away you are not going to have an answer....

pattar said:

I hope you played at a high level because starting at about 12U if she's smart she is going to start with the "let's see you get up there and do it.." and unless you are pretty confident that you can hit a kid with a good changeup and a 55 mph fast ball from 50 feet away you are not going to have an answer....

Click to expand...

I did and I actually step in during practices. But yes that rise ball is going to buckle me in a few yrs lol

Hawk_ said:

I did and I actually step in during practices. But yes that rise ball is going to buckle me in a few yrs lol

Click to expand...

Well that is good, but Eric's post still has value. My kid is playing 10U as well and while I am no saint I've learned to talk about the positive things
and leave the negative stuff I saw to rattle around in my noggin. BA,errors, etc. mean nothing at 10U, hell they don't mean much in general regardless of age as if
eventually your DD is good enough (and wants to) play college ball coaches are going to come and look at her..her stats will mean very little.

Strike2 said:

As a coach, you can be "tough on fielders", but you shouldn't as a scorekeeper. A 10U isn't as developed as an older kid, and won't field as reliably as a 12U on what is the same size field that college players work on. Bigger ball...bigger and stronger hitters, etc. You should be at least scrupulously fair, and when there's any doubt, even lean towards generous...give the batter some credit for putting the ball into play. If enough people are disagreeing with your calls, perhaps you should re-calibrate.

Click to expand...

Only the one complained to me, the others may not agree with every ruling, but I don't expect them to, it goes with the territory.. And Tough but Fair is the only way I can do this and believe that I'm doing a credible job. I think we mostly agree on this, but to be clear my thinking is: A 10U player playing up has to be judged the same as a 12U player playing at age level. It's truly unfair to another kid who plays the same position on the same team in the same age group to be scored more harshly because she is playing at an age-appropriate level. The coaches, on the other hand, are the ones to judge whether the older kid should be making more plays, or whether the errors really matter when deciding who plays.

A coach asked me to do his stats for him because he didn't know how (his words). I agreed to do his stats, but I wanted to sit with my family & didn't want to be in the dug out & keep book, so I used Game Changer in the stands & then uploaded to MaxPreps. His wife kept the "official book" in the dugout, but she told me she, "really didn't know what she was doing."

At about mid-season his daughter, who is just an average player, is ranked between 5 & 7 on the team in BA, SLG, OBP, & OPS. (She's batted clean up the whole season.) She also leads the team in errors, but she plays first and handled by for more balls than anyone else, so she's actually competent it's just a volume issue.

Because I do the MaxPreps I pick the player of the game too. I just let the "stats do the talking." Now if the games stats are close and one girl has been player of the game a lot and the other hasn't, or someone's hits were more significant in the narrative of the game, or someone had a breakout game then I might lean toward them. I don't want to be accused of picking my favorites or some BS so pretty much it's the girl with the best stats is the player of the game.


So just past the midpoint of the season he calls me because he doesn't agree with the stats I'm putting in. I asked what he meant and said, "Well, your stats are different that what my wife has in the book. I want to change some of the girls stats. Then what I'd like for you to do is to take her scorebook home after each game & manually type the stats into MaxPreps. Also I want to start picking the player of the game, because I want to see it spread around more. Like the other night when Gracie got her first hit of the season I think she should have been player of the game." I asked, "Wasn't that the game Maddie hit 2 home runs and a triple and had 8 RBI? You want me to count 1-4 with a single and 2 strike outs as better than two homers and a triple?" He told me he did indeed want that because it's nice for the girls to be POTG, and he wants everyone to get it at least once.

OK- at this point I counted 7 different players had been POTG in 16 games, and the team had two monsters who combined for 8 POTGs, but they were head and shoulders above everyone else on the field, and it think it cheapens the award to just give it out as a participation award so everyone wins it.

So finally I told him it was just going to be too much work for me to manually go through his wife's stats and then type them into MaxPreps, but that I'd give her the password and she could enter the stats and the player of the game, and that would cut out the middle man. He agreed, but they never uploaded another game that season or any season after. I hung up the phone and said to my wife, "He can't figure out a way to make Maggie (his DD) the team MVP with my stats, so he wants me to change them."

Now for the happy ending... The very nice happy ending... at the sports banquette when the coach was giving his speech he told the crowd that every girl on the team had a batting average over 300 (even Gracie who only had one hit? Even Syd and Mackenzie who never got a hit?) and that every girl on the team had an OBP of over 500. Oh for the love of God! Then the defensive MVP went to the centerfielder, who was good, but only touched 6 balls the whole season. And surprise the offensive MVP was his daughter.