Coaching Little League: Does Baseball Have The Most Obnoxious Coaches/Parents?

I had the police called on a baseball parent earlier this season after he jumped the fence and charged an umpire.

Not to mention, baseball/softball parents think they know everything there is to know about the sport. I've seen many a kid be completely embarrassed by their parent's incessant yelling from the stands and all of their fucking pointers. I'm like, if you know so much, get your ass over here, donate your time and YOU coach the fucking team. Oh, what? You don't have time? THEN SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP.

 

Yup. This is compounded by the fact that too baseball parents really believe that they know their stuff when they don't. Then it's multiplied by the number of baseball parents out there as opposed to soccer parents in most areas.

I had a jackhole bank executive threaten me over the phone because I wouldn't put the opening of a soccer facility as the centerpiece. When he asked if I had the publisher's number, I quickly responded with "Yes. Should I transfer this call to him now?"

He backed down, and didn't try that crap again. But this happened dozens of times every summer when my short-sighted SE tried to make covering youth baseball our obsession. So, in essence, he gave these overzealous parents an entitled outlook.

Nauseating.

 

Having helped coach baseball the past few summers, my vote's for baseball parents/coaches as the most obnoxious.

Me and another guy in my shop have coached a 9 and 10-year-old youth baseball team together, both last summer and this one. Without question, we pick the kids for the team with the parents in mind ... if the parents are laid-back and not screamers who think that Little League games will decide their child's future earnings, we pick their kid for the team.

Our teams might not have the best record, but the kids have fun and we enjoy coaching them.

Worst behavior by a coach I saw was last season, against our team. In a close game, his second baseman lets a grounder go through his legs and a run scores. Coach immediately pulls the kid from the game, in the middle of an inning, and the kid sits with his head in his hands on the bench.

Now tell me what a kid learns from that -- other than to absolutely hate a game that's supposed to be fun.

These are 9 and 10 year old kids, people. Get a little perspective and let the kids enjoy themselves!

 

Just finished season as assistant coach for my eight-year-old son's coach err-machine pitch team. I yelled a lot... but only three things. "PAY ATTENTION!" "READY POSITION!" "FACE THE BATTER!" My number one goal was not to get any of them killed by a line drive. Other than that, had a blast, especially when seeing improvement in kids during the season.

In our playoff game (lost 17-16) yesterday, I made a "safe" call at third base (while coaching third) and all the other team's parents were screaming "HE WAS OUT!" I had to explain that the third baseman tagged our player with his glove while he held the ball in hs other hand. I actually heard one parent yell "it doesn't matter!" Later in the game, my son was on his way to score from third, when the throw from LF hit him in the back of the leg. My own head coach came over after the play and asked if my son was out because the ball hit him. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I patiently explained that he would have been out if it had been a batted ball.

After the game, I had one kid come up, hug me and say, "Thanks for coaching me this year." That alone made it a very rewarding experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

That's awesome, Sammi.

 

That's awesome, Sammi!

 

Re: Coaching Little League: Does Baseball Have The Most Obnoxious Coaches/Parent

Softball Dads are the worst vermin on the planet kids sports. "I played the game", crap (yeah, you are 5'8" and weigh 250 of blubber...you played what, 5 innings of JV ball when you resembled a human 20 years ago?). The worst because baseball and softball rules are NOT the same. "She foul bunted on strike three, she's out!" (No, that was a slap attempt, Mr. Billy Martin). And because, there's a bigger disparity between girls who get it and girls out there because Daddy JV has dreams and wants "Darling Daughter" (DD to softball in the know) to be the player he wasn't (and had bad sperm luck to get 3 girls instead of a boy ). Luckily, in softball the winnowing process is pretty quick through the age groups and by the time 10, 12, 14 is over you have intelligence at 16 and reason at 18u levels. But, wow, the stupidity at 10 and 12 is hall of fame.

 

Not every parent is bad. I would say about one per every two or three teams in a league has a Type A Dad (and/or Mom). So I guess I'll be on the other side of this debate. I've coached LL for about six years now, and not once have I had a problem with a parent.

I set rules before the season, and they (parents and kids) know them. If the rules are broken, by the parent, or the kid, then there are repercussions.

Yes, I have had to calm myself down, and a parent, after bad calls. That's all a part of the game (guns, thankfully, are not).

But nothing is more rewarding then seeing the kids grow and learn a sport that has given so much.

 

I must be the most fortunate coach on the planet, because I've coached three kids in different sports, and my parental problems have been minimal. Either that, or I just don't hear the parents because I'm too busy coaching.

Exmediahack, I tried to fight the battle of kids on multiple teams at once -- once. It's a losing fight. The parents paid their money, and they have the right to put their kids wherever they want. It stinks when you have kids who never show to practice, or are only at every other game, but you live with it. Plus, your kids are only seven. I have T-ball parents (advantage: most of them are first time through with youth sports) who apologize profusely because their child has a conflict with a vacation or a big family party or something, and I tell them, don't sweat it: this ain't the majors. The expectation is you aren't going to be here 100 percent of the time.

The solution, too, is to not treat the parents as an enemy to be overcome on day one. Believe it or not, at least in my case, the parents are predisposed to be on your side. I make sure to send a letter (not like this one -- http://tedmathis.blogspot.com/2009/04/go-green-death-letter-to-little-girls.html) to parents at the beginning of the year explaining who I am, my background, my philosophy (that sounds so high-falutin') of coaching, the league rules of play, the league rules of playtime and whatever miscellaneous info I deem necessary. That goes a lot way toward erasing problems because I've stated up front how things are going to be. I don't write it in a hectoring tone either -- I tell parents I want to hear from them if there are any problems.

You're always going to get some parents who are pure assholes. As for me, I try to recognize they at least they think they are doing the best thing for their kids, and that it's their decision what to do with them. I had a parent who wanted to pull his girls off my fall softball team because he didn't think the league was intense enough for them. I said that up front I mentioned this was more of an offseason, pickup league, and that I thought it doesn't hurt for his girls to play in it. But I also said it was his decision, and I would respect the one he made. He pulled his kids off, which was fine, because that ended any tension.

 

My experience in Little League is that the parents/coaches are worst in ages 6-8. When they start getting a little older and reality sets in about who can play and who can't things tend to settle down with the parents.

 

As baseball coaches at this level, you've got to get control of the situation early. Fifteen years ago, I coached with two other guys in an 8-10 league for two years. We were all of the same mind: we need to teach the kids how to play baseball. For example, we never forced a kid to take pitches until he got a strike. If they liked the first one, hack away. We had the weaker hitters take on 3-0 in some situations, but for the most part, they had the green light. If they swung at bad pitches, we'd deal with that in practice. It always mystified me that coaches would have the weaker hitters stand up there to either walk or strike out. How in the hell is that teaching them how to hit?

The other thing we did was not bunt during games. Sounds simple, and probably sacreligious, but again, they need to learn how to swing the bats. We taught then the fundamentals of bunting, in practice, and even played mock games where the batters had to bunt every time. But that was more to learn bunt defense.

We also never intentionally walked anyone. Never. If Babe Freaking Ruth was on the other team, he was getting pitched to. Why? Because if runners are on second and third with one out, kids need to learn what to do with the ball if it's hit to them. Walking someone to load the bases and set up the force at every bag is easy.

And we met with the parents at the beginning of the season and told them exactly what we were going to do, and said we'd sign a release for any kid who wanted off the team. In two years, we never lost a kid. In fact, word got around that our practices and approach were fun, and kids wanted to cross over from other territories to our team.

PS: This 8-10 league didn't award a championship but in two years, we went 21-3. Two kids from our team played Division I baseball at programs that make frequent trips to the CWS. One of them was All-ACC three years running. Anyone who wants to know who can message me.

 

I am with hondo on this. I coached for several years and always told the kids I would not give them a take sign. We would not go up looking for a walk. They were up there to swing and get hits.

I am not coaching this year and this weekend my son's coach had him crowding the plate so much the ump even warned the coach that he was in the strike zone and it would be a strike if he got hit.

Since it was an assistant and the head coach wasn't there, I didn't get in his face, but after my son walked, I told him that the next at bat that I didn't care what his coach said. It's not safe to be hanging over the plate and he needed to step away from the plate and look to get a hit (he is the only kid on the team who has hit a ball over the fence).

He did.