When Chanting becomes Unsportmanlike

[Doug]

(trying to not let blood pressure get up) I almost started this thread several times, but then decided against it. Now that it's out there, I will relay my experience.

My oldest DD (now 17) was a pitcher as she came through the travel ball ranks, so I knew the possibilities. What caught me totally off guard was opposing coaches prodding their defensive players to crank up the chants directed at my batters. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this was 8U. I put together a coach pitch team with my youngest DD so that she and a few of the other players could get a taste of tournament ball after our rec league ended.

We played in two tourneys and of the 7 or 8 teams we played, probably 3-4 did it constantly, and it really affected the girls concentration. Oh well, congrats coach !

 

[Amy in AZ.]

By the way, it is "Rolling, rolling, rolling. The pitcher's going bowling."

In boy's state HS tournament, when my sons played, our big star made an error at SS and some opposing HS guys started chanting "Alligator, alligator, eat 'em up. Eat 'em up."

 

[SoCalDad]

Negative chanting from the players does not bother my DD. The louder they get the nastier her pitches get. She seems to fuel off the negative energy. The other teams learn that lesson very quickly and quite down. What bothers me is negative chanting from the parents. I have posted on this before and I have found this tournament season it is worse than ever. Got so bad at the last tournament that the umpire stopped the game and warned two opposing team dads that if they continued he would eject them. They quited down a bit and them shut up completely when we put up an 11 spot on them in the 4th inning.

 

[SoftSocDad]

What bothers me is negative chanting from the parents. I have posted on this before and I have found this tournament season it is worse than ever.

I've seen this in my small-town league as well. Most parents on other teams are cool, but it only takes a few a**holes to dampen what should be a fun Saturday for all our girls.

Some of the 8u teams do it, but not to the point of being totally out-of-control and iirc, only one of the coaches didn't have control of their players. The real issue for our particular team turned out to be in our own dugout, where a couple of the poor-to-average girls would get down on a poor player for striking out. Never mind their total lack of paying attention in the field that allowed 2 runs to score, of course. I wasn't aware of this until about mid-season and was really disappointed. With both coaches on the field during our at-bats, it fell to the Team Mom to squash the teasing and she just wasn't effective at it.

There will be more competitiveness with other teams at 10u, but at least we can expect there to be more unity in the dugout.

I'm all for using cheers to motivate your teammates. As for the negative stuff from either players or parents, it's impossible to control, but I'd expect parents of 8u/10u players to behave with a lot more discipline than other age groups in rec ball.

 

[DOG310]

Asked DD (10 U) what she thought. Looked at me like I'd grown horns. She has been playing travel/ select for two years and although we never heard it in her recreational league we've heard it since 8U.

Almost all are directed to the pitcher ("take me out to the ball, ball, ball, ball......" we are slowly getting to the pitcher and the catcher" etc.) Her take on it as a young pitcher (less than a year) is that it motivates her to shut them up with strike outs. Personally, it doesn't bother me unless the parents get going. That is what I consider bush league. Guess it is all in the eye, or ear, of the beholder.

 

[softball_chic_12]

it used to bother me. not so much. never took apart of it. I think our worse cheer is "good eye good eye ball. good eye good eye ball. good eye good eye good eye good eye good eye good eye ball. ball ball ball good eye. ball ball ball good eye. ball ball ball ball ball ball ball good eye" and we only say that one after the other team starts picking on our pitcher.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

We had this issue come up in a tournament about a month ago. This particular team had done this "pressure pitcher, pressure pitcher" cheer and then would scream at the top of their lungs when she went into the windup. We had 2 male umps for all but one of the games and they said absolutely nothing to the opposing team. The last game we got new umps and one was a woman and she put a stop to it immediately. She said according to the rules that once they singled a player out by name-whether it be by position or by their actual name- that they were breaking the rules. She said they could cheer and chant all day but they couldn't say their name. My daughter pitches sometimes in rec. She said she blocks it out and doesn't even know they are cheering against her. I think alot of the time it bothers the parents more than it does the pitchers.

 

[robsam]

Well, these type of chants are really not acceptable for any player, umpire or team. Chanting negative things about the opposition players does not shows a game spirit and sport becomes war. Yes, I agree that at some point of time when you are in your limits, it fills some energy into players but not acceptable in any way.

 

[Dadof3]

I remember back when I played little league baseball EVERY team on defense would chant "hey batter batter batter batter SWING". Of course this was 30 years ago. Not sure if they still do that in little league baseball or not.

Our team would do the ball ball ball good eye chant and a "3-2 whatcha gonna do, walk her pitcher, walk her". I can tell you for sure they didn't make up the chants.

My DD said she never hears the chants while pitching. I doubt most of them do if they are focused and in the zone. Sometimes I think the only people that hear the chants are the ones chanting and parents.

 

[CoachKevin]

Meh, I still think it's bush league at 14U and above to attempt to distract using those tactics. I tell my girls, "The way to get into the pitcher's head is to hit the crap out of the ball".