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You Can't Have An All-Star Game If Everybody Is An All-Star

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Armchair_QB, Jun 27, 2008.

  1. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    Next thing you know the anti-competion PC wusses will dictate that dodgeball should not be played in gym class because it hurts peoples feelings when they get knocked out and some bully might throw the ball at a geek

    Are we surprised by this?

    I mean, seriously, this is where we have been headed for at least 20 years ever since we allowed the politically correct whiners out of the asylum and gave them a little bit of attention.

    I don't think an All Star game is a big deal for youth baseball, but this shit of (a) not keeping score (b) everyone gets a trophy (c) not keeping standings and (d) making the more competitive kids feel like they are committing a crime for trying to win a game is getting out of hand.

    If you don't want a winner and a loser, go do art or music.

    The essence of sports is competition and while it always needs to be kept in proper perspective and people can take it too far, once you lose that, there is no sport.
     
  2. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    My bad, it's definitely not the kids. It's most certainly the parents.

    A coach I deal with on a regular basis always says "Sports are great until adults get involved."
     
  3. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    OK Park Department, let all the kids pick and manage their teams that day. Now that would be some fun shit.
     
  4. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Until little Johnny Fatso gets picked last.
     
  5. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    You don't think there are competitions and pressures associated with these activities? You don't think there are crazy band parents akin to crazy swimming parents? Ever heard of a "stage mother"? The attitude is the same, the activities are different.


    There is play, and there is sport. Children 10 and under should be playing. Children older than 10 should be competing in a sport. I don't think the essence of tee-ball is competition.
     
  6. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

     
  7. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    I disagree -- You can still "play" and keep score. There has to be a purpose for playing a game, even if you de-emphasize said purpose and I am not sure what you are teaching kids when you turn every game into "we all win and there are no losers and life is fun".

    I have never quite understood the rational that somehow a game is more fun if you don't keep score than if you do or that keeping score takes the "fun" out of it.

    I mean, you could go to any YMCA adult rec league volleyball or basketball or soccer game -- all "play" time with nothing really on the line and most people looking for (a) networking opportunities (b) freindship opportunities (c) a little excercise or (d) all of the above -- and they still keep score in those games -- and people still have a blast.

    Further -- you can play an instrument in a vaccum absent of any competition if you'd like and the overwhelming majority of kids who do band and art don't see it as a competition unless they desire to enter said competitions. My daugher is nine, she plays a horn-looking doo-hickey and she has one lesson a week and plays in the school's little band/orchestra -- and she does it because she loves it, she doesn't see it as competing against anyone and we don't put her in competitions, it is just a chance to have some fun and learn an instrument.

    However, when she plays in her little coach-pitch softball league, she knows that each game, there will be a winner and a loser -- and she doesn't take the bridge every time her team loses (which by what I can tell is nearly every game....)

    Now -- are there people who can take things too far? Absolutely -- but that is more a character flaw -- both by the "win at all costs and lets exclude the weak" whackos and the "kids should all just have fun and everyone is a winnner" whackos -- of certain individuals and holding an All-Star game for 10-12 year olds isn't a cruel or unusual activity for excluding the kids who aren't very good while recognizing the kids who have had a good season.
     
  8. ScribePharisee

    ScribePharisee New Member

    But you know, some of us did those kind of games in our neighborhood and had just as much fun. And really didn't know the difference at times because we'd even take markers and T-shirts and do our own jerseys.
     
  9. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    And I'll bet you always kept score -- but that didn't ruin your fun.....
     
  10. andyouare?

    andyouare? Guest

    It's funny some people think the only way to learn about competition, success/failure, pushing yourself, is through youth sports.

    Also, while we're worried about our kids turning into wimps!, they're getting fatter, stupider and reading less every year. But, hey, they can't play in All-Stars!
     
  11. ScribePharisee

    ScribePharisee New Member

    Zagoshe: That wasn't well thought out. Art and music have competitions as well.

    Even way back in the day, playing little league, we ALL got a participation trophy.

    Dodge ball rules are already changing in school - but because of liability issues. The ball used here in this town is an oversized ball that can't be thrown very hard. Kind of goofy, but that's what happens when you get bureaucracy and lawyers into the public school system.

    And finally, let's be honest - it's not the kids that have corrupted youth sports. It's the parents. Parents who manipulate the rules by ramroding the wife as president of the league (which doesn't take much ramroding because no one ever really wants the job unless they have a short-term agenda to achieve while their kid is playing), creating an unfair advantage from the get-go in terms of team makeup. In the league here, you have "select" teams playing against teams drawn out of a hat. That's like putting a rec hoops team against the NBA summer league teams. The lesson kids should learnis that everyone starts out on an even term and what you achieve, you deserve. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen in many organizations.
     
  12. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    I don't know how long ago you played LL but when I was kid they didn't hand out participation trophies.

    We got to keep our hat and t-shirt though.
     
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