More rec ball hell

[andyh64000]

More rec ball "not quite bliss"

First game tonight. League put 15 girls on the team (including several 11 year olds who belong in 10/11 and not 11/12...the 10/11 team only has 11 players). I don't envy the coach...this many girls on a rec team is absurd.

DD's coach then set the mound wrong (43 feet) causing both pitchers to struggle initially.

DD was still happy to play with some of her friends and was 2 for 2 so far against a travel pitcher in her first at bats.

So last inning and her team is down by 1 and one of DD's best friends is pitching. She has been looking forward to batting against her all day (in fact much of the reason she wanted to sign up for little league). DD is up with 2 outs with the tying run on 3rd. First pitch is in the dirt which bounces a couple of feet away. Coach sends the runner from third who is out by a mile. Game over.

I help DD with her bag...

DD " I would have gotten a hit"
Me " I know. Are you hungry?"
DD " No...I have a headache I just want to go to bed"
Me " OK...and well you never know..."
DD "No...I would have gotten a hit"

 

[obbay]

I feel your pain BUT....
it's early in the season, DD will have many more opportunities.
Sometimes the coach will send the runner from 3rd early in the season just to get the girls thinking aggressively.

He may have thought it was a long shot but saw it as a teaching opportunity that a) on 3rd you're looking for opportunites to score, not just waiting for the batter to do it for you. and b) he took a gamble, knowing the ball wasn't far from the catcher but that it's early for the catcher too and maybe she wasn't ready for a close play at home.

Or maybe it's early in the season and the coach is still learning.

 

[andyh64000]

You are completely right...and I am not faulting the move. Down one run with 2 outs I mgiht have done the same thing. Especially if I didn't realize the ball didn't kick away very far.

It was more freezing in the rain 2 1/2 hours for what looked like a great moment and then...

Plus the 15 players...I can't believe they put 15 girls on a rec team.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Plus the 15 players...I can't believe they put 15 girls on a rec team.

I can't believe more parents didn't volunteer to coach so that the league could have smaller rosters.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

My suggestion to the two original poster's that started these threads about "rec ball hell" is that you should not be coaching rec ball with type of attitude. Your negativity and disdain for rec ball is apparent and will rub off on your players, coaches, and parents. Rec ball is not travel ball. Appreciate it for what it is, an opportunity for all girls no matter what skill level to learn softball fundamentals and enjoy the game of softball. Maybe we should focus on the positives about rec ball and lose the negativity. The game will be a lot better for it.

 

[andyh64000]

My suggestion to the two original poster's that started these threads about "rec ball hell" is that you should not be coaching rec ball with type of attitude. Your negativity and disdain for rec ball is apparent and will rub off on your players, coaches, and parents. Rec ball is not travel ball. Appreciate it for what it is, an opportunity for all girls no matter what skill level to learn softball fundamentals and enjoy the game of softball. Maybe we should focus on the positives about rec ball and lose the negativity. The game will be a lot better for it.

I am not coaching. But point taken...I agree. And I am a bastion of positivity from my lawn chair watching the games. Although in my defense the only real big complaint I had was the 15 girls on the team (and to the other poster...there were more coaching volunteers). I guess I should have more judiciously chosen the title of the post.

Edit: to expand on my big complaint which is what I started to write about and then added the other stuff which frankly should have gone in another post or no post at all or saved for my facebook page where it could happily be ignored.
I am really just unhappy with the league. Rather than risk making someone unhappy or god forbid lose a registration fee, any player who tried out for Majors was given a spot even if they had never played softball before. So you end up with 15 player teams in 11/12 YOs and 11 player teams in 10/11 YOs.

 

[3'sDad]

I had 15 on my 11/12 LL roster last year. We batted everyone that arrived to play that game, so I had many games where we did actually hit 15. One of the best moments of the season is when #15 batter went 2/2 and caught a line drive in LF for the last out of an inning. Those parent s could not have been more proud of their daughter.

We had a clipboard with a printout assigning the batting order and fielding positions by name. The girls were required to check the board every inning to see if and where they were assigned to field. As LL is 6 innings, our team has a different 2nd baseman every inning, as 2nd base is the easiest infield position to play. We rotated 2 1st baseman, 2 catchers, 3 3rd baseman and 3 SS. Everyone played both infield and outfield every game.

During the middle of the year, we had the #2 pitcher decide she did not want to pitch any longer. At the next practice, we took volunteers to try a pitch the ball over the plate, so balls would be put into play. Every girl that volunteered to try and pitch was given a chance in a game, some more successfully than others. There was tears, crying, frustration and some smiles as they worked through what it takes to pitch. There were some very long innings.

Our team won more games than it lost and had the opportunity to play in the last game of the season for a trophy. We didn't win, but it wasn't for lack of effort. After the speech and the tears, Coach took everyone to Friendly's for hamburgers, nachos and ice cream. The smile on the kids faces at friendly's are what coaching is all about.