When it was more than a game

[CoreSoftball20]

We'd just occasionally get a drink from the garden hose (gotta let it run for a minute so it didn't taste like hot rubber! LOL)
LOL

When I went to my Grandparent house to visit, she had a great field behind the house for ball, which had a nice stream about 20 feet beyond that....that's where we
went for drinks..haha

 

[CoreSoftball20]

She can't drag the neighbor kids out, or off their phones or ipads etc.

That's another pet peave...cant stand this. People wonder why kids get no real life social skills anymore growing up and become
awkward...hmmm. Going out to play was the time you learned how to socialize without knowing you were learning a important
part of life.

 

[BuckeyeBW]

That's another pet peave...cant stand this. People wonder why kids get no real life social skills anymore growing up and become
awkward...hmmm. Going out to play was the time you learned how to socialize without knowing you were learning a important
part of life.

This^^^ and the worst part they think we are stupid for what we do with our kids. My wife and I are both educators so we have summers off. We keep our kids active, going somewhere almost every day. Most of the time it is too our local metro park, zoo, etc. Those kids never get to go, nor care to go anywhere that requires attention be payed to anything but their electronics. Also they don't let them drink out of the garden hose.....

 

[FP26]

Somebody much wiser than me once wrote, "Adults ruin the game. If we were to roll a ball onto the field and walk away, they'd figure it out for themselves." I think I might have read that here several years ago.

Anyways, that gave me an idea. Shortly after reading that, DD1's rec season was on Spring Break. DD1 was 12u at the time, and I was managing her team. I called up the other team's manager and together we hatched a plan. We got both of our teams to the park and let them do their normal warm-ups. While they were warming up, we called the main pitcher from each team and told them they were going to pick teams "school-yard" style. After they were done warming up, the girls all got together and picked teams. Amazingly, the most talented weren't the first ones picked as both "captains" had friends on the opposite team they wanted to play with. The other manager and I just walked away and sat in the stands with the rest of the parents. They figured out their own lineup, settled on who played what position in each inning. A couple of girls who had never pitched before decided they wanted to try pitching and did well enough to continue the rest of the season and for a few more after that. Catchers called balls and strikes, base coaches called the outs on the bases. They played for over 2 hours. It was fun and refreshing to just let them play and try to show off without the fear of making mistakes. It was just kids being kids. It also helped to reinforce that despite being on opposing teams, they are still friends.

They're all HS juniors and seniors now, and got split up between 3 high schools. When they play against each other, those games are some of the most entertaining and exciting games to watch.

Excellent post. We did some similar things at the rec ball level. When DD was playing 'majors' which was her 10, 11, and 12 year old years, our organization had two teams at that level. The org had a great deal of politics, which resulted in most of the better players ending up on my team (President made a deal with the parents whereas they wrote "please place my daughter on team coached by FP26 (well not quite... " ). I tried to schedule joint practices with the other team and would often conduct scrimmages during those practices. We would mix up the teams in order to make things more balanced. We did similar scrimmages with other neighboring teams as well and handled them in the same manner. They proved to be a great teaching tool, and by balancing the teams, we were able to keep the games competitive.

As an 18u coach during 2016 we signed up our team for a local rec league which was used by other local travel teams. For each game we selected three players to act as the coaches for the games. One would be the head coach, one first base, and one third base. Together they would determine the line up, playing positions, and handle every other aspect of the games. We were required to keep at least one adult in the dugout, so one of us would handle the book. Otherwise, we didn't get involved in the flow of the game unless a player had a question about something. This also proved to be a great teaching tool, giving the players a different type of experience than any had previously.

 

[MNDad]

Unfortunately, in today's world, people are worried more about liability and what is in it for them, and that is indeed sad

That’s a good point. It’s not just about overprotection and video games. Selfishness is also a big factor. With pick-up games, all the kids are learning and improving. Parents would rather have it be just their so they can get a leg up. I always thought it was wrong to hide training opportunities so I’d tell people about any camps or instructors I was aware of. There would always be other parents giving me a betrayed look like I just gave away their favorite fishing hole.

 

[obbay]

@;The only thing I don't know is "pitchers hand". We used to play that a fielder would throw the ball to the pitcher on the "mound" to make the out at 1B- is that the same kind of thing?

We used to play every kind of sport we could think of, though Whiffleball, football and street hockey made up most of our activities. We would've played hurling if someone had a clue how.

One day in the middle of summer (whiffleball peak season) there was a rainy spell when we couldn't play so a few of us created a newpaper about ourselves. ("Whiffleball World" , perhaps you've heard of it?) It went over so well, that some other kids published another newspaper and thus we began a sports journalism competition to get us thru the rainy week! I am smiling as I write this remembering the overly dramatic crap we fabricated of our inflated exploits.

 

[BuckeyeBW]

@;The only thing I don't know is "pitchers hand". We used to play that a fielder would throw the ball to the pitcher on the "mound" to make the out at 1B- is that the same kind of thing?
.

That is pitchers hand

 

[Slow Lefty]

That is pitchers hand

We had 2 different versions, don't ask me why haha. "Pitcher's hand" the pitcher had to keep his foot on the rubber and stretch as if he was a 1st baseman. "Pitcher's mound" the pitcher just had to be in the area that would roughly be equivalent to the circle in fastpitch. When we played wiffle ball in my friend's backyard, 1st base was a round bush in the middle of the yard and you just had to hit the bush with the ball before the batter got there to get him out. Fun times.

 

[BuckeyeBW]

We had 2 different versions, don't ask me why haha. "Pitcher's hand" the pitcher had to keep his foot on the rubber and stretch as if he was a 1st baseman. "Pitcher's mound" the pitcher just had to be in the area that would roughly be equivalent to the circle in fastpitch. When we played wiffle ball in my friend's backyard, 1st base was a round bush in the middle of the yard and you just had to hit the bush with the ball before the batter got there to get him out. Fun times.

I love the bush 1st baseman. That is the creativity that we used to have and the desire to do anything to get a game in.

 

[CoreSoftball20]

Man, you put one strip of electrical tape around the middle of a wiffle ball, and now you got yourself a pro wiffle game