A case for the “slaughter rule”

School team hit for 66 runs in two innings | Oddly Enough | Reuters

The coach of Kawamoto technical high school threw in the towel to spare his pitchers arm with his team losing 66-0 with just one batter out in the bottom of the second.

The hapless hurler had already sent down over 250 pitches, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second before Kawamoto asked for mercy.

Ouch.

Joe Torre on Motivation

Positive Coaching :: Joe Torre on Motivation

At his press conference to explain why he rejected a one-year, $5 million contract to continue as manager of the Yankees, Joe Torre provided a graduate-level seminar on motivation for coaches at every level.

Little League Rules and Ethics

Take the Little League Baseball Ethics Challenge!

I blogged this same incident a while ago, but I’m finally learning that some of the news story links I post eventually disappear. I found an interesting retelling of it on a site that discusses sports ethics. I’m posting the entire description below in case this link goes kaput as well!

It’s an interesting look at two coaches’ attempts to use league-specific rules in a way that was never intended. Click the link above for the whole ethical analysis.

The Situation: On August 11 in Bristol, Conn., a Little League team from Colchester, Vt., only had to retire its Portsmouth, N.H. opposition in the top of the sixth inning (Little League games are six innings rather than nine) to win the game 9-8 and move on to the New England regional championship game.

But there was a problem. The Vermont team had made its third out in its half of the fifth inning before player Adam Bentley got to the plate. The Little League has a strict rule that requires every player to bat at least once a game, and the penalty for violating it is forfeit. Vermont’s coach Denis Place realized, to his horror, that even though his team had the lead entering the last inning the only way it could avoid losing by forfeit was for Bentley to get an at bat. For that to happen, the New Hampshire team would have to tie the score or take the lead, requiring the teams to play the last half of the sixth inning.

Place held a meeting of his players at the pitcher’s mound and instructed them to let New Hampshire score a run. The plan: walk the first batter, and ensure that he made it home with the assistance of wild pitches and intentional errors so the game would be deadlocked at 9-9. Then, hopefully, win the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, with Adam Bentley getting his mandated turn at the plate.

Not so fast. The New Hampshire team’s coach, Mark McCauley figured out what was happening and ordered his players not to score. So after a walk and two wild pitches allowed a New Hampshire runner to reach third base, the player refused to advance to the plate despite another wild pitch and a fielding error. McCauley also told his players to strike out intentionally, preserving Vermont’s lead but guaranteeing a successful New Hampshire protest that, under the rules, would require that New Hampshire win by forfeit.

This obviously led to a ridiculous spectacle: one team trying to give up a run while the other team was trying to make outs and avoid scoring. The perplexed umpires understandably chose to end the debacle by ejecting Place and his pitcher from the game. Vermont won 9-8…and then New Hampshire was awarded the victory by forfeit, because Adam Bentley never got his turn at bat. The New Hampshire team advanced to the next round.

The Enquirer – No chatter, chatter!

The Enquirer – No chatter, chatter!

The Knothole Club of Greater Cincinnati has decided to eliminate “chatter.” Unless the chatter is “positive” and directed at your own team.

 

Sa-WING battuh! Oops – that’s a warning for me!

Athletes honoring the past….

Jenks struggles again, but Sox not worried :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: White Sox

Next time we’re all complaining about how youth athletes can’t really comprehend sports traditions or honor those who came before them, consider the help they’re getting from some of the pros they look up to:

REUNION TOUR: In 2003, the [Chicago White] Sox enjoyed a 20-year reunion with the 1983 team that reached the playoffs. [Ozzie] Guillen, who pledges not to dwell on the past, paints an ugly picture for a similar gathering down the road for the 2005 World Series champions.

”Those ceremonies — ‘Oh, let’s bring back those guys from 2005,’ we’re all crippled and [messed] up, pushing wheelchairs, kids crying because his dad was on the ballclub — [forget] that,” Guillen said. ”I don’t need that bull. A bunch of fat guys, another one is broke. ‘Hey, where’s your ring?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know, I sold that son of a [gun] two years ago.”’

Said Sox vice president of communications Scott Reifert: ”I guess we can scratch the reunion off the list.”

Suing for playing time

Decision delayed in baseball lawsuit

You just knew this would come eventually – a lawsuit over playing time….

At least Petero attacked the OTHER team!

Police: Coach told player to harm disabled teammate, 8 – CBS SportsLine.com

A T-ball coach allegedly paid one of his players $25 to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate so he wouldn’t have to put the boy in the game, police said Friday.

In T-BALL? Wonder how this year’s team banquet is going to be….

In fairness, this coach was acquitted of one of the two charges, but really….

More LLWS Commentary

Sports Central | Sports Articles and Columns | Sports Q&A | Sports Q&A: Little League: It’s Foul!

In case you’re not a fan of rated R youth sports, you may have missed the Staten Island, NY player implore his team to score one more #$%&*@ run in the sixth inning of a dad-gummed close 1-0 game. His coach responded with a quick slap to the player — the player’s parents quickly responded with a lawsuit. Actually, the parents haven’t sued, yet. But you know they will, citing the ridiculous “humiliation on national television” reasoning.

Coaching your own kid – a story

When I give coaching workshops, I express a lot of admiration for the coaches in attendance who coach their own children. At this point, I’ve never coached my only son (he’s 7), and I don’t really have any desire to do so. I’ve seen a lot of very good, experienced coaches really struggle with the challenges of coaching their own. Even when they manage to do it just right and treat their own kid exactly like any of the others, their choices about their own son or daughter are still intensely scrutinized by the other team parents. It’s got to be tough.

A good friend of mine who is a very gifted high school and youth coach (basketball, baseball, and softball) told me a great story last night. He has coached his own son in baseball for a number of years and has garnered great respect from other parents and coaches. He’s as good as they come. Each season he asks he son if he wants to play that year and if he’d like his dad to coach him, and each season his son affirms enthusiastically that he would.

Last summer, my friend and his son were playing catch as they often do. After many of the throws, my friend did what coaches do naturally – he instructed. He helped his son correct his grip, follow through, arm positioning…. At some point, his son became frustrated, hurled the ball well over his dad’s head, and threw his mitt to the ground exclaiming, “why can’t we ever just play catch?” After calmly asking his son to collect the mitt and ball, my friend said simply, “I’m not going to bug you about it, but the next time you want to play catch, tell me, and I’ll be available.”

Two weeks passed before his son approached him to play catch. My friend was careful not to do too much (if any) instructing. In the two weeks, his son’s throwing skills seemed to have blossomed. Not only that, he began seeking his dad’s advice on improving his technique. They had reached one of those crucial turning points that we long for as coaches and as parents.

One thing this story reminds me is that our young players really need just to play sometimes. I’ll never forget that line, “why can’t we ever just play catch?” All our players need the opportunity sometimes just to play, but our own kids just want to play with us.

I’m also in awe of my friend’s natural ability to make the right coaching decision while still being a great dad. As coaches, we strive to maximize our players’ performance. He did that by understanding the state of his son’s athletic psyche. By giving his son the power to make decisions about his own development, he enabled the athlete to improve performance at a pace that made sense for him. The result – increased performance.

To all of you who coach your own kids – I admire what you do. I wonder if I could succeed at it myself, but I hope I don’t have to find out. I have an ace in the hole – my wife is a far better coach than I am anyway. I’ll let her coach our son!

(photo by Stuart Moulder)

Ryan O’Malley – Living the Dream

Chicago Cubs : News : Chicago Cubs News

I wasn’t going to note this article on the coaching blog at first. In fact, it probably runs contrary to my concerns about creeping professionalism in youth sports.

Nevertheless, it should strike a chord in any of us who ever played as a kid and brought a mitt to the one or two big league ballgames we got to go to each year. It’s as close as real life gets to the 10 year-old’s dream that he’ll (or she’ll!) snag that frozen rope foul ball and overhear the manager saying, “go find out who that kid is and sign him up!”

The reason I’m mentioning it is that hearing it is probably the closest I’ll come to reliving some of those purely childlike dreams about playing. It’s helpful for me as a coach to recall that these dreams help fuel the young athlete. And it’s not a dream of getting the contract or the paycheck. It’s the dream of getting that phone call. It’s the dream of the ride to the ball park when 24 hours ago you expected to be starting in a triple-A game.

For me, the most compelling part of the dream wasn’t even the win or the accolades in the club house – it was the walk to the mound. Still gives me chills just like it did when I was 10.