Kids sporting event issue - who's right?

I am not directly involved, but a friend is. I won't say what I think, but here's the situation.

Kids baseball league, the local teams makes it through to the "world series". Their pitching isn't very good, but their hitting and fielding is very good. They lost the first game of the world series because the opposing team didn't swing at any pitches. None. The pitching was bad enough that the batters just stood back and took ball after ball, walk after walk, and the opposing team won the game by 2 runs without swinging at a single pitch.

The parents of the losing team players are very angry and feel it was unsporting to just sit back and take balls all evening. Many of them are calling on the opposing coach to be fired for being unsportsmanlike.

This is a girls softball league, and the girls are 16 years old.



What do you think should happen?

 

I think the girls should be taking Home Economics courses so they learn to be good wives in the future, not playing at sports.

 

The losing team should find a better coach to teach the girls how to pitch.

and @ Korr's comment

 

These people should get a life? Just a hunch! Probably won't happen though!

 

Nothing, they lost.

Actually it sounds like a good strategy to me. I hate to watch baseball but every time I complain to my friends about how boring baseball is, they always retort with "it's a game of strategy".

 

What he said.

What he said.

Also, how crappy is the rest of the league if they made it to the championship with such horrible pitching? Maybe they should be happy about being second best.

 

LOL @ Replies.

Yeah my friend was complaining about it. I said "pitching is part of the game... if they can't pitch, they deserve to lose". He was getting more and more worked up over it. He is looking to organize the parents to go and complain to the opposing coach's superior.


It's not all just a game - IIRC there is some level of college money paid out to the ultimate winners.

16 years old is too old to have them all just shake hands and not keep score - at that age, it's real competition. My friend was ranting about how they never had a chance to play "fairly" because they never got a chance to use their awesome hitting and fielding.

I said "yeah, well, of course the other team is going to exploit their weaknesses".

He's still pissed and wants blood.

 

If the pitcher can't pitch properly, how far does she expect to go. The scout watching would most likely walk out of that game, and the person would've "wasted" their time playing ball. So, let's pretend it was the opposite, and the team pitched really well, and the other team kept striking out. Would the other team be out for blood, and call for a rematch because they weren't good at swinging a bat.

 

Not sure what "world series" of softball you are talking about but my daughter played in the age 14, 15 and 16 world series in Indiana and never saw pitching like that. I would guess there are at least half a dozen world series at each age group to dupe parents into paying for their kids to go. I am assuming that you are not talking about these "world series" but a local tournament. If that is the case then this is just another case of jacked up parents (both sides) caring too much what happens on a ball field. These same parents would gladly pay some ex-pro player big money to coach their kids to greatness. All three of my girls were very good at sports and one may play soccer in college. The best thing a parent can do if a kid wants to be a great athlete, don't push them but put them with like children. Peer pressure will be enough for them and you will have your hands full with the other parents.

 

I think it's a good life lesson. The real world isn't full of rainbows and puppy farts. Winners exploit weakness and capitalize on their advantage.

Oh wait, this is a girl's softball team? I don't know if I want the future wives of America learning such things. Only the divorce lawyers win

 

If someone should get canned it's the coach of the losing team for not getting a pitcher who can pitch.

What, Amanda wouldn't sh*tcan her star map business this time?

 

Back to the 'get a life' response! I still don't understand how a team of 16 year-olds could suck that badly and make it to the finals?! What kind of league is this? Are they sponsored by a bar?

 

Parents need to accept their kids lost

 

Winning coach should be canned for not trying to lose?

 

They should find a pitcher.

 

The other team won fair and square.
It's called "Good Coaching Strategy".

Not much different than the "Hack a Shaq" defence using in the NBA.
It's just trying to find a good strategy to win a game within the defined rules.

Thanks,
UZY

 

Does it really matter!?!?

The losing team sucked and the winning team won fair-and-square. I imagine that, as it usually happens, the parents are more upset than the players. Get a handle on it, it's just some kids playing a game for the fun of it.

 

Nope, it's high school softball, and this was the regional "world series". I mean - who cares really, right? I dont know why the pitching was bad. Maybe just a bad streak. Maybe the good pitcher was out of action. Maybe something else. Don't know, don't care

Maybe the guy was BSing me, but he told me the coach was standing on the sidelines shouting to all his players "DONT SWING" and they didn't, and every run they scored was from walks. Not to say they walked every batter, but enough of them to score some points. I am in the same area as this team and I am involved with some charity stuff through my work for the local chamber of commerce and stuff... so I have a feeling he was fishing to get some local business owners to join his crusade.

Obviously it's really a non issue but he got so worked up when I wasn't seeing things his way... I mean he was so wound up about this frickin game and was raising his voice and waving his arms around like I wasn't getting the gravity of it all. I said "Bill, if their batting was really bad, does that mean your team should throw easy pitches?". He didn't see the relevance of the analogy.

 

Sounds like good coaching to me.

 

16 year old daughters and this is at the forefront of the parent's minds? wow.

 

Hey Mike, ask your friend if he would be as fired up if his daughter's team knew that nobody on the other team could hit curve balls (I know this is girls softball, but go with me on this) and his daughter's team threw nothing but curves all night long and their pitcher threw a no hitter with 21 strikeouts, or if the hitters knew that the right fielder couldn't catch pop flies to save her life and they did nothing but hit pop flies to her all night long. The object of the game is to win, the way to win is to exploit the other teams weakness.

The long and the short of it is that if your friends daughter's team pitcher could get the ball over the plate three times per batter she would have had a no hitter. You don't see the Detroit Lions complaining to the NFH every time their quarterback gets sacked because the other team ran over their non existent offensive line.

 

Baseball has been used as an analogy for American culture many times in literature, song, movies and even some crappy poetry. Often times, it's not how the story is told, but how simply and honestly truth has been conveyed in whatever media it has been writ. To wit:

"It doesn't matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game."

Americans no longer care about how the game is played, but care only for the win and everything else is a non issue.

I'd ask that coach what happened to sportsmanship and playing the game for the love of playing the game?

 

sounds like the better team won, I coached high school softball a loooong time ago at the varsity level. it was about putting your best players on the field and doing what you could to win. If that meant taking pitches to get on base(inconsistent pitcher), stealing bases(catcher weak arm/pitcher a little wild), or tagging up(outfielder arms were not strong) at that level it is about winning. Good coaching won this one.
side note: I have noticed over the past few years that childrens sports ages 6-12 do not keep score, there is never a loser and everyone gets the same trophy at the end. I do not like it , I had no problem winning the 4th grade basketball championship or getting smoked every game in tee ball. I survived.

 

+1

I have to agree with Michael on this...

Sometime it IS all about winning...

period.

Mike in Kuwait

 

So your saying this game stayed in the top of the first inning the entire time, the winning team only scored 2 runs and that was it!!!, the losing coach didn't try someone else, just let one player throw balls till the game ran out? Strange!!! Otter P.S. it was mentioned that not every batter was walked????