I know I'm right, but a little affirmation can't hurt

[Momo'sDad]

Excuse me while I put on my Dr Phil costume.

Do ya want to be right, or do ya want to be happy? You can only pick one or the other.

Answer that question and you know the answer.

I know what you're saying, but being right often makes me happy!

You're right, though.

 

[Momo'sDad]

My only issue with that, as a coach, one player should not be getting that type of discussion. My mum coached me at your DD's age and I never had anything to do with the discussions on who plays where, strategy and I wanted to know that stuff. I learnt on the diamond. You could be giving your DD an unfair advantage so my only concern is to be careful with that. You don't want to appear to be a crazy daddy.

At the start of the season, Mojo - who used to be 'Momo' - explained to me why she was not our Opening Day starter. At 8 years old, she already understands team politics and group dynamics far better than many adults my age. She told me that I couldn't give her the ball simply because she was the coach's kid. At the time, she and the other player were close in strike percentage and because she's 10, I felt it was the right thing to reward her as the veteran player. It was also a good chance for my DD to watch and learn.

I set up all the game rosters and do the lineup, but I have spoken to her about changing the rotation before. I wanted to swap her start with #2 and she was fine with it, because she understood the situation.

She likes talking softball, though, and has even joined me in 'scouting' the competition before. And whenever she wants to talk about it, I'm happy to engage her interests.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Oh she sounds certifiable.

Hope you know I am teasing. I am sitting here being thankful that its you and not me right now.

You caught the double entendre.

 

[Momo'sDad]

This is no kidding, in what now seems like 100 years ago, when my DD was 10, in the middle of a game, the girl playing 1st base, ran off the field to the ice cream truck that was coming through the park we were playing in. Took off her cleat, pulled a $1 out and bought herself a fudge pop! Her father was screaming at her to come back, i was doubled over. all time classic

I love the fact that she had the wet dollar bill inside her shoe. No coach can compete with the ice cream man.

 

[Momo'sDad]

This thread is too funny to ignore, it conjures up a lot of images in my head…and reminds me of a rec ball game that I coached and my wife.

First…Anyone that has their wife or ex wife as team mom is asking for conflict!

You know the only thing worse than a "crazy daddy'? A crazy mommy!
Only thing worse than a crazy mommy? A crazy mommy wife!

Crazy daddy will eventually head to the outfield fence and stew. Crazy mommy will never let it go! She will sit in the stands and move close to you as possible...she will get louder...she might even design t-shirts that mocks you...she will have all other parents in an uproar...She will stir it up from facebook…the phone...to the game field! Crazy mommy wife…will carry it home for weeks maybe even months! So enjoy what you created! Just playing around…of course!

In seriousness… I think your doing it right for rec ball. I did it very similar...except i once played down to a team. That you can't do even in rec…especially in front of your wife.

For added amusement. We had a 13u team..2 -13's and bunch of 12's. A younger team from the same country school had 2-12's..bunch of 11's. Now…my kids parents and their kids parents…didn’t seem to care for each other a lot…for what ever reason.

I knew how good we were…so when we played them… I pitched #3. She couldn't throw a strike… Game stayed close…I am concerned....put in #2...she couldn't throw a strike. They were ahead…time was becoming a factor….I am REALLY concerned and my parents have turned on me…going from… looks to grumbling to complete silence.

We needed to get them out and score some runs. Brought in my dd. First practice throw...20ft above catcher. I look at her and shrug...she says... "dad this is a 11 inch ball". I checked.. sure enough they had been playing with a 11 inch ball the whole game.

Showed ump...he apologized for not catching that and said no wonder my other pitchers couldn't throw a strike. He said we would continue with the balls we been playing with though…as there wasn’t much time left. I am sweating profusely now.

Next few practice throws...told the dd to work it out. She couldn't….I am about to stroke out!

Told her to half pitch and it worked. She got next three out ... we got the runs and she shut them down their final at bats. Hugged her like it was the college world series! Who said rec ball was not important or competitive?

The parents of my team were ready to hang me! All they could say to me afterwards was "you sure made that exciting" without a smile...some just gave me that drop dead look…as they walked by. The other teams parents found it necessary to come and say “we almost beat ya'll” with a smile...not just one or two parents...but like a whole line of them!

My wife...became an immediate softball expert right then and there…on how i should or should not do things! She called runs…touchdowns…but she knew exactly what I should or shouldn’t do.

For two weeks she couldn't let it go. I think she called every relative we had and told them about my coaching. I got calls from people that don’t ever call. From then on if she and her friends didn’t like the opposing team for what ever reason (colors, parents..didn't matter)…they wanted them whooped…not beat…whooped!

Even my dd boasted all week..."I saved your tail"! I was the dog of the community and at home for weeks.

Lesson learned…don't play down...but if you can get a big enough lead and let others have a chance to play different positions...you can have a win win situation for all..be competitive and have fun. BTW..we had a great season and a lot of fun too…we had over twenty girls come out for the team the next summer…we all had a blast and everyone played at least 2 positions. I think we pitched 10 different girls (two teams) during that second season, maybe even more.

You might be a Facebook friend of hers, because you're exactly right! So, I do feel justified in venting here a little.

I am throwing her under the bus here, but hopefully no one from my team will see the thread. The reason I don't like her openly questioning my calls by the dugout has nothing to do with my ego or having my authority undermined. She doesn't understand that her voice carries, and when kids hear "you need to replace ____ with ____!" they know exactly what's being said and so do the parents. I won't say much more on that, but there isn't enough restraint with choosing what to call me out on within earshot of players and parents.

Fortunately, as I posted at the start of our season, the other parents totally get what we're trying to achieve here. Everyone knows pretty much where there kid stacks up and they appreciate the fact that everyone other than pitchers and catchers gets equal playing time and bench time. Maybe they all wouldn't feel the same if we'd lost every game or weren't competing well, but not a single one of them considers the season to be a failure because we didn't win every game.

The team that last beat us had only won 1 game all season and truthfully, we'd crushed them. It wasn't deliberate, I just knew we needed to put a lot of runs up in those earlier games in order to prevent a comeback. This was the team who'd lost their #1 pick and starting pitcher 3 games into the season when her father removed her from the league. Stuff happens, but I'm interested in the game being fun for ALL the girls, not just our team.

A few of our players didn't take them seriously before the game and I warned against overlooking them. Granted, I did put our best hitters at the bottom of the lineup, but nevertheless, we had plenty of opportunities to score runs and we didn't. I don't think I was disrespecting that other team as much as I was challenging my own team. I wanted to see what some of our less experienced players could do with the higher expectations that come with batting 1-4.

We lost the game 10-3. Mom was incensed. It was a humbling experience, but our girls weren't down at all. They knew what we hadn't succeeded in doing and decided to turn it around and swing the bats in the 2nd game of the doubleheader. We put that 1st game behind us, and ended up winning the 2nd game in dramatic fashion to send everyone out on a real high.

Since then, that team that beat us has gone on to win another game, which included a win over the team we were chasing in the standings. I'm not going to tell you that we 'gave' them the game - which is what Mom argued - but I will tell you that that win really helped turn their season around. I'm not looking for any credit here for allegedly sacrificing my team's success for the greater good (that really is her claim!), but I am really am pleased with the way things turned out, because both teams are playing so well right now and all the girls are having a tremendous time.

 

[mad hornet]

This is the funniest thread I've seen since the guy who sat out past centerfield and yelled "I got it" to mess up the fielders last summer.

 

[DSC]

I had to scroll back to the top and make sure I was in "Coaching Softball" and not "Softball Nightmares".....

 

[Momo'sDad]

I had to scroll back to the top and make sure I was in "Coaching Softball" and not "Softball Nightmares".....

LOL! To Mom's credit, she's gradually been taking ownership of her missteps and seems to be gaining some understanding of the fact that this team and this league do not exist to showcase Mojo. She also has stated her appreciation of the fact that I work with all our girls equally to boost their skills and confidence and she also seems to understand that my game management decisions do not generally impact our girls' esteem nor how their parents feel about their daughters playing for me. So, she's scaled back her in-game and post-game criticism of me enough for me to notice, which I definitely appreciate.

 

[Momo'sDad]

DD held the top of the all-star team's lineup to no earned runs. She gave up 2 walks and 2 batters reached on errors, but even with the missteps, we'll gladly take a 2-run inning, because we already know she can shut down the bottom half of the order. The formula works, but we still need to get more baserunners ourselves, something we haven't done well against their #1 & #2 in 3 meetings, so far.

First, however, we have to get past the team that took 2 from us earlier in the season before we finally got over that hump a couple of weeks ago. They're wanting revenge, I know, while our girls are looking to even the season series so that we can advance. This is 1 of those occasions where being the lower-seeded team actually works to our advantage, so I've got my fingers crossed for a big 1st inning from our hitters.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Are you bunting? I see many teams in your age group that need to bunt and make the offense handle the ball, more.