Summer Baseball--Rant No. 1

[COHAZE]

Players and Parents,

If you sign up to play summer ball, be it Legion or Travel, you are signing up for the FULL season. If you expect to miss games (or practices) because of work, vacation, senior trip, the beach, summer/church camp, parties, etc., DON'T EVEN BOTHER SIGNING UP. If these other optional activities are more important to you than baseball, you probably don't have a future in baseball anyway.

Legion players,
These Legionnaires are giving you a place to play, FOR FREE. The least you can do is show up for games and practice. The Legion program may not be serious to you, but it is to them. Get serious, or get out.

 

[Skools]

Having the same promblem I have had the past 5 years. Travel ball, vacations, beach trips ect. Their is to much going on for these kids to be committed. Not all but most are to immature to understand what commitment is. Rather to to the beach with girls and drink than play baseball.

What kills me is the kids wouldn't dare miss a high school gsme but it's ok to skip a legion game. WHAT REALLY KILLS ME IS I CANT REPRIMAND A LEGION PLAYER BECAUSE THEY WILL JUST QUIT AND THEY ARE OK WITH THAT.

These kids will be sorry after their baseball career is over that they didn't play all their legion games.

 

[Low-n-Slow]

Sorry, disagree with this attitude towards the players. Not everyone playing legion ball is looking to play after HS. They're out there because they love the game and are pretty good at it, enough so that the coaches want them on the team. Why do we have a problem with the boys taking a weeks vacation with the family, you know, the ones that have been at the mercy of coaches demanding complete commitment from not only the players but they expect the parents to fall in line too. They had to, since it was HS ball played during the school year, but this is summertime, and there are other things that these boys want to experience besides 24/7 baseball. Give them some time off, they'll come back with a renewed purpose. Also, I noticed a trend in legion ball as a couple of teams are no longer funded/sponsored by a post, but are playing legion ball as a travel team. The players are paying for the right to play a legion schedule.

Have a son who played legion and the coach expected him and all of the players to take a week off during the legion season to allow them some down time with the family. He along with a couple of others on that team played in college, and now he is still pursuing the dream in the minor leagues. He was the exception, however, as he was so passionate about the game and being on that field was like a vacation to him.

Legion ball is a wonderful experience, and I totally agree with the boys making a commitment to play one or the other [travel], as it is disruptive when they try to do both. Don't take a roster spot from someone else as you try to juggle two schedules and decide on a weekly basis where you're going to be.

We, as parents, need to see the big picture when it comes to making commitments instead of guiding our kids to the latest and best opportunity to come along, flip flopping between teams because one seems to be more visible for the son for that week. The boy and his parents need to make a choice and stick to it, no matter what may come down the road for him later. Making choices in life and committing to those decisions is the basis for living their lives as adults as they go out into the real world.

Sorry for the long ramble, don't get on here as often as I use to.
This post was edited on 6/17 9:47 AM by Low-n-Slow

 

[COHAZE]

The lack of commitment is just mind boggling. I put part of the blame on the kids. Some are just too lazy to do the work that it takes to play at a high level. Most will never play beyond HS. It's easy to spot the kids that are doomed to fail.

But, you gotta put a lot of the blame on the parents. There are a lot of sorry parents out there. If the kid doesn't understand commitment, he probably got most of that from his parents.

You also have to put some of the blame on some of the coaches out there. When my son was playing Legion we got several calls from travel coaches looking for extra pitchers to take to some big tournament. "No, he's not going to ditch Legion to play in some tournament. He made a commitment to Legion. Commitment may not mean anything to you, but it does to us. If he had committed to play for your team would want him to ditch you to play for a better team?" Guys that do this are encouraging the problems kids have with commitment, all in pursuit of a plastic trophy. What do you think you are REALLY teaching these kids?

This problem is not exclusive to Legion. Travel teams and HS teams have the same issues to some degree.

 

[COHAZE]

People can plan their vacations around the Legion schedule. It ain't that hard. If you can do it with travel ball, you can do it with Legion. A kid is either committed or he's not. If all he wants to do is get in a few games over the summer Legion is probably too big a commitment for him. There are plenty of travel teams that are basically weekend rec teams that will take him.

When you sign up for a team you're either all in or you're not. I remember my son's first Legion tryout. He was fortunate enough to have Tim Wallace as his coach. Tim told them the first day, if you're planning to go to the beach or on vacation you need to put that off until after the season. If you can't do that, don't come back tomorrow.

Originally posted by Low-n-Slow:
Sorry, disagree with this attitude towards the players. Not everyone playing legion ball is looking to play after HS. They're out there because they love the game and are pretty good at it, enough so that the coaches want them on the team. Why do we have a problem with the boys taking a weeks vacation with the family, you know, the ones that have been at the mercy of coaches demanding complete commitment from not only the players but they expect the parents to fall in line too. They had to, since it was HS ball played during the school year, but this is summertime, and there are other things that these boys want to experience besides 24/7 baseball. Give them some time off, they'll come back with a renewed purpose. Also, I noticed a trend in legion ball as a couple of teams are no longer funded/sponsored by a post, but are playing legion ball as a travel team. The players are paying for the right to play a legion schedule.

Have a son who played legion and the coach expected him and all of the players to take a week off during the legion season to allow them some down time with the family. He along with a couple of others on that team played in college, and now he is still pursuing the dream in the minor leagues. He was the exception, however, as he was so passionate about the game and being on that field was like a vacation to him.

Legion ball is a wonderful experience, and I totally agree with the boys making a commitment to play one or the other [travel], as it is disruptive when they try to do both. Don't take a roster spot from someone else as you try to juggle two schedules and decide on a weekly basis where you're going to be.

We, as parents, need to see the big picture when it comes to making commitments instead of guiding our kids to the latest and best opportunity to come along, flip flopping between teams because one seems to be more visible for the son for that week. The boy and his parents need to make a choice and stick to it, no matter what may come down the road for him later. Making choices in life and committing to those decisions is the basis for living their lives as adults as they go out into the real world.

Sorry for the long ramble, don't get on here as often as I use to.

This post was edited on 6/17 9:47 AM by Low-n-Slow

 

[basenok]

Gentlemen, very few of today's youth or parents get your point. That's why the lines at the welfare office and unemployment offices are so long. Many can't hold jobs because of the lack of commitment. When the boss wants them to work, but the employee wants to be off, they just quit and figured they are entitled to be off. They would rather be on their own schedule and stand in line for the handout vs going to a job every day. They don't possess the commitment required. It is a great thing to teach life lessons through the game of baseball. Hard work pays off, commitment, discipline,etc. Life will throw everyone a curve ball at some point. Most kids these days feel they are entitled to a 4th strike in life or a "do over" when the ball of life takes a bad hop. They don't understand the term "suck it up" and want a pity party when things don't go their way. I won't get started on the travel ball thing, but I think 99% of the travel programs are the biggest rip-off for what they advertise since Bernie Madoff. Give me $2500 and I will tell you a kid is going to be a draft choice. They all get rings at age 9 for winning the "World Series" or the "Tournament of the Week". They don't earn it and it gives a false sense of how good the kid really isn't and the parents are feeding this "cancer" with big bucks. Then the parents get pissed at the high school or legion coach when "junior" can keep up with the talent on the field. I refuse to be held hostage by kids or parents. I coach legion ball and they all know the rules before we begin. We may go 0-18, but I will go 0-18 with kids that are being taught the right way to do things in life.

 

[Skools]

Cohaze, you said that Tim Wallace told his players that if you plan on going to the beach or on Vacation to not come back tomorrow.

Well what did he do if players lied to him and committed to the team and started to go on vacations.

I got kids that say they are not and then they go on vacation

 

[COHAZE]

I don't recall any of them doing that with Tim. Of course, that might have been influenced by the fact that he was a college coach and a lot of them were hoping to impress him. But, there were several pretty decent players that took what he said to heart and did not come back on the second day.

You are not the only one with this problem. I have seen it a lot in recent years. Some of them will look you in the eye and lie through their teeth. I've heard of coaches getting them to put it in writing, but doesn't seem to help either. It's really a shame. If they would just tell you the truth up front you could take a more deserving/committed kid. But, when they do it after rosters are submitted you're screwed. You may have no choice but to put up with it. If they have another year of eligibility you can blackball them next year, but most of them don't care about that. It's a different world.

This is one reason Legion needs to expand rosters, but unfortunately they have their heads buried in the sand.

 

[carolinacombat]

I agree, commitment does not mean commitment anymore. I've coached HS, legion, and travel. I can tell you that players in travel ball are not going to invest the time and money in something unless it's quality. If they up and leave or make the team an "option" then the coaches mentality is "next!". This is another reason travel ball is flourishing. There are many rules in legion that make you scratch your head and wonder if they're trying to shoot themselves in the foot. I loved legion, playing and coaching. Unfortunately I don't think it'll go back to the way it used to be because people are looking to get their sons the best exposure. I have kids come to me after they've committed and I ask if they're going to play legion and they won't touch it with a ten foot pole. I know there are certain pockets left in SC with quality legion clubs that provide instruction, this is not a knock on them. I've been in their shoes. There are problems with both travel and legion. Baseball is a great forum to teach young men accountability, no matter what league they're in.

 

[COHAZE]

Gotta disagree with this part. There's a LOT of what I call Rec-Travel teams out there. Heck, over half of the teams out there fall into this category. These teams are basically rec quality teams playing a bunch of low level local tournaments. The guys that run them don't advertise them as Rec-Travel, but that's really what they are. There are a lot of parents/players being sold a bill of goods when it comes to travel ball.




Originally posted by carolinacombat:
..... I can tell you that players in travel ball are not going to invest the time and money in something unless it's quality......

 

[carolinacombat]

The parents that invest in dad ball or fly by night teams (rec-travel is the term used) get what they get, and the teams are usually short lived because many times they are done for the wrong reasons to begin with. If a kid can get on with one of the quality travel programs in SC and pulls the lack of commitment card then I can tell you it's going to be that player that loses out for trying to make the team an option. If we are to get technical parents are also "sold" a bill of goods when it comes to getting them to play legion baseball, since time is a much more valuable resource.

 

[COHAZE]

I notice you used the term "quality travel PROGRAMS" rather than TEAMS. That's an important distinction, at least in my mind. It's hard to call teams that just show up and play programs. Any fool can fill out a lineup card.

Out of curiosity, in your opinion how many "quality travel programs" are there in SC? 2? 3? 6?

Originally posted by carolinacombat:
The parents that invest in dad ball or fly by night teams (rec-travel is the term used) get what they get, and the teams are usually short lived because many times they are done for the wrong reasons to begin with. If a kid can get on with one of the quality travel programs in SC and pulls the lack of commitment card then I can tell you it's going to be that player that loses out for trying to make the team an option. If we are to get technical parents are also "sold" a bill of goods when it comes to getting them to play legion baseball, since time is a much more valuable resource.

 

[carolinacombat]

IMHO there are several quality travel programs, just like there are several quality legion programs. The main point is that whether it's travel, legion, or rec ball, baseball is a great forum to teach and reinforce accountability. This is the "why" generation. Back in the day you could tell a kid to run through a wall and they wouldn't dare question why, now they need to understand why they do what they do, why rules are in place, training, etc. If you can explain the why and hold them accountable, you increase the chances for them to be engaged/ interested.