Baseball Mom,
I admire your concern for your son. If everything you’ve said has happened then you definitely have experienced a bad coach. Also, you need to understand that most of us don’t know you, your son or the coach. What most of us have experienced is many unreasonable parents. You should read some of the nasty emails I get about not knowing anything because we ranked their son too low. To be fair… I’ve also seen some real bad coaches.
I am a big believer in trying to make the best out of every situation, no matter how bad it might seem. I think that is what it takes to be successful in baseball. If someone is telling your son he isn’t any good, prepare your son to prove that person wrong. I know… easier said than done… But the most fragile don’t succeed in this game!
A story that happened just yesterday. We went over to give our grand kid a birthday present. He is 9 years old this weekend. Anyway, he had to leave soon to play a basketball game. I’ve watched him play and he’s pretty good for an 8 year old. Can’t shoot yet, but he has real quick feet and he is maybe a bit more athletic than most of the kids his age playing in that league. They play controlled basketball where the coaches are actually out on the court trying to teach them things and concentrating on sportsmanship. It was great fun to watch those little kids and when he scored a basket you could see a great big smile on his face. He looked surprised that the ball went in, I know I was. I think the final score was something like 6 to 4. Most important… He was an 8 year old kid having a blast.
Well, there we were in the house and his mom started talking about how they were going to get him in a better league next year because he was too good to be playing where he was. She went on to say, he needs better coaching, they’re not teaching him anything and he needs to be around more talented kids. She said all this (very easily) right in front of the young boy and his brothers. I jus about PUKED! Said, well we got to get going now and the wife and I left. In the car I asked the wife… Can you believe what she just did? Wife said, she sounds just like some of the people we see. I said, she just cut down the kids coach, saying he doesn’t know anything and basically told her son he is too good for the kids, the team and the league he is playing on. He can’t possibly develop the right attitude listening to that kind of ****!
Worst of all is that grandson’s mom is a school teacher.
Obviously this story is not meant to compare in anyway to your situation, but it is something to think about.