Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Let's get ready for baseball

Baseball season has started up again. The boys are pretty excited about it. Since this is the only sport so far that UB is old enough to participate in, he's been the most excited.

AB is in coach pitch baseball with Hubster as his coach and UB is in t-ball. We've had a couple of practices and so far they've gone well.

I wonder how it will be this year as far as parents yelling from the sidelines or the coaches yelling at the kids. Hubster has already said that he's not going to do that. I don't know UB's coach, so I'm not aware of how he handles stress.

Last year, it was sad to see how many parents belitted their children for the sake of a point. Or for that matter, how many coaches threw a fit out in the middle of the ball field because they didn't think the umpire made the correct call. I'd understand if this were the play offs, but all this happened in t-ball.

There was a particular incident in which the opposing team's coach called our team's coach a donkey's butt in front of all the children. This same coach went on to yell at his players for striking out or for not catching the ball. There were a couple of kids that started to cry, some just looked at him as if HE were the donkey's ___.

In the couple of practices this so far, I can't really tell how it's going to be. I just pray that it's not a show down with the moms. You'd think the dad's would be the one's, but those mom's can get after it. Some yell at only their kids and some stay quiet. One mom said that last year she would offer some constructive criticism to her son, when he suddenly stopped the game, looked over at her and said "you are not my coach". That was the last time she said anything.

So I'm starting to pray. Praying that I learn to keep my mouth shut when it comes to listening to what the other parents say. Praying that it won't get out of hand in which there are arguments happening. Praying that the kids have fun.

1 comment:

Jillian said...

You know, generally speaking, you can't teach them anything about how to play the game, while they are playing it. It is kind of a math test, they will show you what they know, then you know what to work on for practice. Take them out to a baseball field and have dad pitch to them while you catch fly balls, or visa versa, and then trade and let them play the field. This will teach them much more. Or play catch with them. If you are a yeller you can always just bring a pad of paper to the game and everytime they do something badly just write it down so you won't forget and then yell, that's okay honey you'll get it next time. My mom will go with you to both practices and games. She did it for us and I bet she misses it.

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