Rules?

[NVfishing]

We've had two teams this year, during championship play, with a parent telling the batter where the pitch location will be. As the coach tells the catcher where to move, a parent will tell the batter where the location will be. Is this legal?

 

[kboy]

We have had this happen a few times in travel tournaments. It's probably legal but shows a lack of class. It seems it's usually done by an over zealous parent. Our coach walked to the fence between innings in one game and told the parent it would be in his best interest and his players best interest to stop calling locations or the outside pitches were going to move way inside. It worked!!

 

[sluggers]

Some parents are such control freaks that they take everything away from the child--her success, her failure, everything. I.e., DD didn't hit the homerun, daddy did--or "if daddy only would have give me better signs, then I wouldn't have struck out." Those are some really great life lessons to teach children, eh?

DD#3 played tennis, and in one game the parents were telling the child what shot to hit on every ball (overhead, forehand, volley, lob). Insanity.

But, I digress. The easiest way to fix this is to teach your pitcher to focus on the catcher's gear rather than her mitt when she throws the ball. E.g., focus on left knee to throw low and inside, focus on left shoulder to throw high and inside, etc. The catcher then indicates where she wants the pitch.

 

[MTR]

We have had this happen a few times in travel tournaments. It's probably legal but shows a lack of class. It seems it's usually done by an over zealous parent. Our coach walked to the fence between innings in one game and told the parent it would be in his best interest and his players best interest to stop calling locations or the outside pitches were going to move way inside. It worked!!

Threatening a child with bodily harm. Yeah, that is about as classless as the person to whom they were speaking.

IF THE COACH WAS INTELLIGENT, s/he would use the putz as a decoy and have the catcher hold the glove in the wrong position. Eventually the players would tell the idiot to shut up.