Coaches Need to Teach More than X's and O's

[pbj2000]

Well i'm not here to defend anyone. We've played this team before tight game...they won. Don't know if they would have ran the score up on us...don't know if they ran the score up on this team...wasn't there.

About the Orgs...problem is these top guys (Fultz and Shelton) don't come to 10U or 12U tournaments and watch their coaches and their tactics...so there is a loss of accountability.

To the original post, yes coaches need to teach how to win with humility and how to lose graciously...a lost art in the world of sports

[Momo's Dad]

If a team had a 15-run lead after 3 innings, why wasn't the game called?

I'm not saying that the winning team should continue stealing, but I'd never tell my players to just stand at the plate and let pitches go by, nor would I tell them not to run their hardest.

If there's no mercy rule in effect, it's up to the losing team's coach to throw in the towel. It is not the responsibility of the winning team's coach to do it for them.

When we've got an insurmountable lead, I do stifle the cheering, put in a backup pitcher, and we stop stealing, but I would never tell my players to just give themselves up at the plate. I'm not going to insult my players, the game, or the OTHER team's players by giving that instruction.

[artomatic]

If a team had a 15-run lead after 3 innings, why wasn't the game called?

I'm not saying that the winning team should continue stealing, but I'd never tell my players to just stand at the plate and let pitches go by, nor would I tell them not to run their hardest.

If there's no mercy rule in effect, it's up to the losing team's coach to throw in the towel. It is not the responsibility of the winning team's coach to do it for them.

When we've got an insurmountable lead, I do stifle the cheering, put in a backup pitcher, and we stop stealing, but I would never tell my players to just give themselves up at the plate. I'm not going to insult my players, the game, or the OTHER team's players by giving that instruction.

In my opinion, a 25 run lead is never acceptable.
I think anytime you get way up on an overmatched team, you quietly tell the ump that your player is going to leave the base early, and maybe even mention it to the opposing coach, if he is coaching near your dugout. Or you discreetly tell the opposing coach when you get the chance.
Most of the time, doing it that way it avoids embarrasment as much as possible.
If the opposing coach ever got offended when I did that, I didn't worry about it.
You should also hold your runners and have them go station to station.

[Momo's Dad]

Up 15+ runs against a clearly overmatched team, I agree with going station to station, but what run cushion would you consider acceptable? My teams have come back from double-digit deficits after 3 innings on more than one occasion, so why should I not assume that any other team could come back from 10-12 runs down?

Why even play the game out at all under the conditions you outlined? Sounds pointless to me.

[artomatic]

That's why I said "in my opinion".
Over time, I usually got a feel for when teams we played were overmatched, and I guess I didn't like embarrassing opponents when I coached.
I've also watched the top gold teams play for a few years now, and that's what I see from the better teams in those situations.

[TinaD]

My daughter was playing the game after this one and that was the score after 3 innings. This team has got a bunch of ballplayers on it and I agree, they are good! But, I also have to admit, we were going to be taking the dugout of the losing team and I was embarassed to be wearing a Glory shirt. To the poster that said "should they give up on practice?" The losing team was having an awful time fielding the bunt, so they continued to bunt (practice). The catcher wasn't quick enough to throw the girls out, so they continued to steal (more practice), and everytime the opposing pitcher went into her wind-up - you did hear a bunch of 11 and 12 years olds screaming at the top of their lungs. Practice, to me, would mean doing things that you don't ordinarily do in a bracket game to get better - such as, after it becoming evident that your not going to have a problem winning the game, give the starting pitcher a break and put the backups into the key positions to gain experience. If you start running into trouble, then put your starters back into their positions. If you call yourself a coach, then you know when the right time is. Unfortunately, I didn't see this. The losing team was home team and I even heard a parent innocently ask, shouldn't they just give up? You can spin this whatever way you want, but where I come from, we call it an a** kickin and it was downright embarassing!

[FTG]

You all sound like you are suprised by this???? seen them play a bunch and that is how they are coached!!! scream at opposing pitchers, laugh at other teams mistakes and coaches who take stalling to new levels to win games.

They do have good players but coaches and girls attitudes IMO make the organization look bad....

[justawatcher]

I fully understand the differences within the overall name and who clings on to who, etc... My overall point, and it was obviously missed, is that if you take on the name of an organization, whether you are affiliated or not, you will always be lumped in with the name that you represent and should understand that. It used to mean something to have the word "Glory" on your jersey but now, there's so many, both good and not so good teams, that whether or not it's Adkins/Shelton/whoever, many people look at them the same.

So if I went and started my own softball organization and called it "Glory Adkins Justawatchers" and started the following teams:

18U Glory Adkins Justawatchers (Smith)
16U Glory Adkins Justawatchers (Jones)
14U Glory Adkins Justawatchers (Brown)
12U Glory Adkins Justawatchers (Martinez)

then I would be associated with Jack Fultz' group?

So should we associate Ken Graves and Mark Rhine with Gary Hanning simply because they called themselves Batbusters?

[dallasFP]

If you're team is not very good...don't play open.

[dueceduece]

THere you go DallasFP that solves everything.
Only if there were B class tournaments still. Take a look and almost all tournaments are now Opens....