Rec ball problem scenario

[mkral]

I gotta get some of those shirts but I don't have enough girls right now to field a team so I better wait to see if we can keep playing.

 

[Coach Al]

This thread brings back memories of my youngest DD's first softball team. She was 11 and playing on a 15u team in a league that was sort of in between a rec team and C travel. Many teams had a combination of JV and Modified (was call freshman ball here at one time) players .Most teams had only a few true rec players. Our team was mostly 1st year players, the majority of them 13. We got our butts handed to use on a platter most of the season, but we got better. Toward the end of the season we were playing the first place team and we were playing tough. The other coach was a good guy and even though he knew he could blow us out, he held his girls back. We got lucky on offense in the top of the 7th and went ahead by1 run. We managed to get 2 outs without them scoring, but they had runner on 2nd and 3rd. The ball was hit back to the pitcher who threw to 1st wildly and pull the girl off the bag to get the ball, caught the ball and tag the runner for the third out and we won. The other coach told us he couldn't feel right beating up on us in a game he didn't need and complimented out girls for playing well and winning it in the last inning.
The girls never forgot that season, we went 3-9. Two years later we were the better team and we would never beat up on a team.

 

[mudbug]

Yep, 5 runs is EASILY given up in a bad (or good, depending) inning. Maybe slack off at +10, never at 5. A couple walks, a lucky hit, a bad throw or two, and its a new ball game.

Sons baseball team was beating a weaker team 14-0 once, coach puts in his son, bottom of last inning, youngest kid on team, to pitch. Leaves him too long, a few errors, etc and before you know it the score was 14-15.

 

[FPump]

One of the best coaches I ever encountered, and also had the pleasure of having my DD play for him, endured an 0-16 rec LLSB season. I also was an ump in the league (never worked DD's games), and through all of those 16 loses (and they lost big, they lost close games late, the lost ugly, you name it.), the guy never yelled at a player, never complained to or about umpires, never took umbrage with any other team in the league running up the score, pitching a #1 in a blowout, or any other "precieved" indignity inflicted by an opposing team. All he did was to constantly teach and coach. He used everything that went wrong as a teaching/coaching moment. He ran outstanding, organized, yet fun practices. He was patient with the girls, encouraging, and again always coaching and teaching in a quiet confident and encouraging way. He worked at building up the confidence of his players.
Sure enough, like you, next season they go 14-2, win the regular season championship, go undefeated in the playoffs, and he's all of a sudden "the bad guy". The devil in a coach's shirt. Trust me, he was the exact same way on the field and in practice that season as when he was 0-16....no change.
One time late during that 0-16 season, I asked him in the parking lot after a game about the opposing coach who was having his runners still steal home with a huge lead, he simply said to me, "I only can coach one team at a time...mine." Then he added, "and I have to do a better job in practice this week on working with the girls on our defensive with a runner on 3rd."
Great guy....glad DD got to play for him.