njbb....don't disagree with most of what you've said. In fact we all know parents of "travel team" ballplayers who essentially spend their whole summer bowing to their son's baseball schedule and putting their lives on hold. Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you choose to do
My disagreement with what you said is that just because a player isn't a starter, should that mean he doesn't have to show up? Everyone on the team is important for the role they play, and/or because you never know when they will be needed. If you let it be known that only the starters NEED to be there, you'll only have 9 kids show up at your game.
Will...definitely wasn't happy about having a losing season. Did I expect to never have a losing season? No. Would it have been neat,for me as the coach? Sure. But I'm not coaching for ME. I'm coaching because I love it and I love the kids and want to see them successful. And aren't we also trying to teach the kids responsibility, commitment and reliability? I think we are. Eventually, these kids will have a job, and they'll need to understand you can't take off whenever you want. I personally hope that this kid will be of the mind that he'd rather not miss the ballgames if he doesn't have to. Even if that's what ends up happening.