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Over the last few years Little League, both baseball and softball,
has played a big part in my family’s life. Going to games and volunteering at different levels had become woven into one cohesive unit that was as much a part of our lives as going to work or school. When the season was on we, were in a constant state of motion until the last out was made.
Except for our very first year, my wife and I served on the board of directors and in my wife’s case, the Executive Board, every year we were in the league. So with this being my son, Alex’s, last season, my wife and I decided to retire from our board positions and do something we hadn’t done since the beginning. Just be parents.
This means that we can sit back in the stands and not be coaches or information kiosks while attempting to watch the game. We can kick back and plead ignorance to what is being done and by whom and just watch the game. After all, we had better get used to it. After this year we graduate to high school play, and that is a different ball game.
We found this out last year when my daughter made the jump to the high school level and discovered we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Gone were the days when a parent, dissatisfied with a coach’s performance, could rant and rave to the coach or to the board, and make enough noise to change things. High school is a different beast. The squeaky wheel doesn’t always get the most grease and it requires a much different approach, but I’ll save those musings for another day. For the time being let’s just stick to Little League.
Alex’s final go around in Little League play is in a division called Juniors. The basic principle behind the Junior Program is to get your kids ready for high school play. The players have two seasons to get ready by playing on a field that has the same distances as they do in high school, college, and the pros. This is unlike Pony League where the distances are in between Little League and high school. This means, should your child decide to play Pony for the two seasons before high school, when it comes time to try out for the high school team, it will require another period of adjustment for him to play on that size field. So, in my opinion, why bother?
The rule of thumb has it that the “Junior Years” are a much more relaxed time then you experience while in Little League. While this season is definitely living up to that hype, last season the team we were on had a team mother from hell that tainted the entire season. Fortunately, this season has been what I hoped last year was going to be, a relaxed, fun time.
As my “Little League Years” are about to fade into the sunset I have been reflecting on past seasons and the range of emotions that I experienced. Especially in light of the tragic turn of events that went down in Palmdale’s Pony League last week. In case you missed it, a player that was being taunted by a player on an opposing team, took out his aluminum baseball bat, hit him three times, and killed him.
This was an extreme situation and I have never seen anything come even remotely close to it at our league, well at least as far as the players are concerned. When there was any sort of conflict or heated exchanges, it was always between the parents. We all know that is where the kids learn it from, but it never trickled down the way it did in Palmdale. Even though we had some very likely candidates in the short fuse department in our league.
This was one of the things that I was thinking about as I view the end coming. While you are there, this period of time goes beyond the sport itself, it becomes almost all consuming. You get so caught up during the games, and the politics of it after the game is over, that you actually begin to think that it means something in the overall scheme of things. I found myself getting caught up in it as well. It was as if there were scouts from the Dodgers in the stands at every game and when the coach made bad choices he was tampering with my son’s future.
You find yourself sitting there, or pacing as I did, steaming inside while your blood pressure rises, picturing apocalyptic scenarios about how the next two hours were going to impact your child’s life. If he doesn’t play every second of this game, and get X amount of hits, and play perfectly, then he won’t get a scholarship to college, which means he won’t get drafted to the major leagues, and he will probably end up flipping fries at McDonalds for the rest of his life. His life is over which means I am a failure and it’s all the coach’s fault.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. But when your imagination kicks into overdrive, and your kid is not playing, the baseball world seems to crumble around you. Then towards the end of the season you begin dwelling on the all important All Star team and whether or not you kid is going to make it. Because God only knows that it carries so much weight as far as your kid’s future goes. How can he fill out a college application without saying he made the Little League All Star team? In all seriousness, it might help build your kid’s self-esteem, but because parents are coaches, you know damn well that the “All Star” team is not necessarily an accurate display of the best players in the league.
It is a double edged sword when it comes to these selections. If you leave it strictly up to the kids to pick the team, it becomes a popularity contest. On the other hand, if you leave it up to the coaches they are generally only familiar with their own players despite how many of the other teams’ games and players they have seen. More times than not they are only concerned with their own child’s inclusion on the team.
So, to all of you who are deeply immersed in the league at this point in time, enjoy the ride, and if you don’t take it too seriously, it can be a fun ride. As long as you don’t expect too much from your child or their coaches. Sure, they may be a good player, but there is always going to be somebody better. Trust me when I say that things will mellow out once you get to the next level. And if you have a problem with your pent up anger, get it out of your system now, because there is no room for it if your kid decides to stick with it beyond Little League.
Besides, I understand the scouts don’t like to hear a lot of bitching when picking who is going to the majors.
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