To defend baseball coaches everywhere, baseball has nothing on wrestling or football, as an example, when it comes to what is considered "degradation". What one kid considers "degrading" another considers a challenge. There were parents and kids who continued to play for Bob Knight late in his career. Obviously some kids thought he offered them the best chance to become better basketball players, and some kids could NEVER play for him. I am a contemporary of coach Todd, and he is tough, but he can't be any tougher than my college coach (no names), and he happens to be the best pure pitching coach I ever had. He also made a kid cry on the mound in the middle of a D-I college game. That kid and I each got the opportunity to play pro ball. Neither of us "liked" our coach a ton, but he made us tougher. In a society where every kid gets a trophy and we don't keep score in Little League games for fear of making little Johnny "feel" bad, I think we should be careful about speculating on a public board.