It has taken me almost 40 years to finally figure it out and I have been around baseball most of my life as a player, coach and parent of two baseball players. My fourteen year old has been playing since he was four and my twenty one year old started later in his life but left baseball to play football. My fourteen year old played L.L, PONY and he played travel ball for four years before going to high school. My Dad played semi pro ball back in the fifties and I can not even count the times that we have sat around and talked about the game and the personalities that we have come across. And now I have a nephew through Marriage that plays pro ball with the Oakland A’s. And we have talked about his experiences a lot at Christmas and holidays. My job that I have been doing for nine years has me dealing with a lot of H.S coaches so this is where I draw my opinion from. Even with that it is only my opinion. Enough said about how I came to my opinion of good coaches and bad coaches.
I think the reason it took me so long to figure it out was that I always tried to figure why a certain player played and why another player with the same ability or in some cases better ability sat on the bench. What a waste of time.
If some of you are wondering if I have this opinion about coaches because my son does not play, the answer is that he does play, he does not play in ever game but he does play. And he is even getting a chance to play for the Varsity this week in a tournament during spring break. After the week is over he will be moved back down to the Freshmen team where he will most likely go back to the same routine playing a few innings, D.H. and that is fine with us. At least he still has the love for the game.
So after all this BLAAH, BLAAH, BLAAH this is what I have figured out. It does not matter what a parent does or does not do for a program or what type of coach he gets, or if he plays in ever inning or if he sits ever inning. It really comes down to three things and these three things most come from the player.
1. A dream
2. The drive to succeed no matter what hurtles he has to cross ( bad parents, bad coaches)
3. And natural ability and love for the game of baseball.
Bottom line is if it is in the cards the cream will always raise to the top.
One more thought for the coaches, Worry about putting the best team out on the field and passing on the knowledge, forget about the green infields, stadium seating, and how well you look in your uniform.
Teach baseball so that we can produce more American born players in the big leagues. The other poor countries have figured it out now it is our turn.
This is only my opinion.