KnightTime: If you cannot tell serious in that post, then you wear blinders when it comes to HS baseball coaches (heck, for that matter, you must be wearing blinders as to human nature). People, baseball coaches included, are simply flawed. They make alot of mistakes. Many of these guys played a little HS ball, maybe small college. Few of these guys are genuine baseball experts. They do it because they love the game, or they need the cash to boost retirement, or the school bullied them into it during teacher downsizing. In any case, they are not expert talent evaluators and are no better at dealing with the complexities of the baseball player tool/attitude/intelligence mix than most parents. Yes, parents have a stake in seeing little Timmy play, but coaches have their own stakes in this game. I have watched this process for nearly 50 years--after the top 5% and bottom 20%, you are left with EQUAL talent in the 75% crunch. At that point, it boils down to personality, prejudice, self-interest, family connections, etc. If Timmy's dad finds a way to persuade Coach to play Timmy (a crunch kid), to get him the reps, the at-bats, the experience, then Timmy will develop and fulfill the prophecy of success. But Johnnie and Mark and Tom, all of whom were relegated to the bench because they never broke the code with Coach, could have done just as well as Timmy, had they been given the opportunity. Don't even think that it goes any other way. And if you don't experience this daily in your job, or in any other walk of life, then you truly are wearing blinders. This is simply the way the world works, for better or for worse.