- Aug 19, 2011
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The comedian Chris Rock proclaimed that "A man is as faithful as his options." Substitute "softball player" or "parent" or "coach," I think it holds true. When I was growing up in a logging town of 10,000 souls, there was Little League baseball, and then there was high school. There was no travel ball; if you got on the HS team you played, if not you didn't. There was ethical issue with switching teams because unless you moved to another district there was nowhere to go. Contrast that with travel softball today. The past two weekends my daughter went to tryouts for four teams and had offers from three of them. Options. As it happened, she was offered a spot on her "local" team that she really wanted to play for anyway, but part of the decision was what team needed pitchers; at least one team she decided against because they seemed rather overstocked. She had a great pitching tryout and the coaches were very complimentary, but the most they would say was that she would be one of the players who would "have the opportunity to compete for two pitching spots." Which might be fair enough, or might be groundwork for "We never said you were GOING to pitch." That coach clearly has options.
People always think of themselves as loyal and ethically consistent, but they tend to do what they want and then create ethical justifications for it. A team is like any other relationship in that so long as everything is perfect, it's easy to be loyal. When things get rough, options often make the difference between making it work and claiming irreconcilable differences. In a sense it's good that there are lots of options in softball -- kids that in my day might have been left behind have the chance to find a team that is at the right level and work hard to catch up, and kids that in my day might have been limited in their development and exposure by the quality of local play have the chance to shoot for the moon. The difficult part is being the one getting dumped, even if it's just a matter of pride.
People always think of themselves as loyal and ethically consistent, but they tend to do what they want and then create ethical justifications for it. A team is like any other relationship in that so long as everything is perfect, it's easy to be loyal. When things get rough, options often make the difference between making it work and claiming irreconcilable differences. In a sense it's good that there are lots of options in softball -- kids that in my day might have been left behind have the chance to find a team that is at the right level and work hard to catch up, and kids that in my day might have been limited in their development and exposure by the quality of local play have the chance to shoot for the moon. The difficult part is being the one getting dumped, even if it's just a matter of pride.
