You have to explain the benefit of sticking it out.
The old "never quit" advice sounds good, the 50 and older love it. But explain it. I disagree that whatever benefit you come up with isn't going to be there anyway.
The kids goal is to play baseball. He clearly isn't going to play here short of some miracle. Just what benefit does he get from riding the bench and suffering?
I maintain the lesson is learned whether he sticks around or not. He should not let the unfair coach benefit from his ability. Whatever that benefit may be. He should not make waves. He should say thank you (if approached) and go on to summer ball.
Finally, this board would benefit if people thought and gave consideration to differing opinions before leaping to conclusions. The statement I made earlier was "baseball is not a means for teaching life lessons" or something to that effect. I followed up with "doesn't mean you can't learn some valuable non baseball lessons" from baseball.
The difference is....I don't want to play for a coach who is interested in teaching me life lessons. I went out for baseball to learn about baseball. I want to learn to hit, throw, play defense, pitch.....everything. I want to improve. I want to be the best baseball player I can be. And, through competition, I will learn life lessons. But they should be secondary. They should be a serendipity of learning how to play baseball.
The difference being, I want my coach to coach me. I want him to teach me baseball. That is what I signed up for. That is my motivation. I didn't sign up for Citizenship 101. Not saying there won't be some citizenship lessons. But, I want baseball from baseball. Whatever else I get is a bonus.
And let me finish with this. If I have a baseball coach that tries to directly teach me something other than baseball, I won't learn it. Why? Because that is not what I'm there for. I'm there for baseball. If I'm taught baseball, then and only then will I "hear" the other lessons. The best example (and there is almost one for every high school) is the high school coach who clearly doesn't know baseball, tries to disquise it, makes baseball mistake after baseball mistake, passes off losing or poor performance on nonbaseball issues, doesn't continue his baseball education, and covers himself with personality, and the dreaded "but we have nice kids" "none of our kids are in trouble".
Make no mistake. The ONLY coach successful in teaching life lessons to baseball players is the good baseball coach. The one who teaches the game first and lets the life lessons result from the baseball experience.
If you don't believe it, try telling a player the benefits of his benching when he's not hitting. All he wants to hear is how to hit.
The difference is in the language. The interpretation of "means". Most here think that is the purpose of baseball. But the reality is, the life lessons are not the purpose but the serendipity of baseball.