My son's USSSA team is graduating from high school. The USSSA coach is still active with the boys and plans to give them a gift. He wanted to put a meaningful comment on them item — family forever, etc.
On surveying the boys, the comment most remembered, and that he plans to use, came from a game they were losing. He went to the mound and said to the assembled team — "You suck. Play ball!"
They won.
Any inspirational speeches you or your kids remember from the years of attempts?
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I thought i came up with a good one myself. The original was for basketball. It came out of nowhere on me in a timeout. After it worked I created a baseball version. It was late in a close game. The kids seemed tense ...
When you dream about baseball do you dream of mercying the other team? Or do you dream of getting the big hit in a close game to win.** This is it. It’s why you sign up to play. Have fun. Make your dreams come true.
** We all know the dream is hitting a walk off granny. But any big hit will do.
I am dying. “You Suck. Play Ball”
i will share this with my boys at breakfast before game tomorrow. Too funny
"You suck. Play ball". Love it.
Reminds me of something I say before every game to my 2020. Back when he was 9 or so and just started playing tackle football, I wanted to say something to encourage him. All of the advice was to leave the coaching to the coaches (which was very easy to follow as I wouldn't have been able to give meaningful advice anyway) and just tell him to have fun. Well, patting a kid on the helmet and having mommy tell him to have fun sounded like encouraging dandelion picking and that wasn't going to fly for a kid who was playing up a year and often playing ironman. I wanted something a little more intense. Somehow we stumbled on "Have fun. Kick a$$." and it stuck. Made him blush the first couple of times. ("Mom, you SWORE!") but now he tracks me down pre-game if I've forgotten to tell him. Baseball players and their superstitions, lol.
"true story"
Korea, Japan National HS teams played our American [Area Code "All Star"] Goodwill Series games at Blair Field in Long Beach. Our American team [3 future ML players] did not respond to the challenge losing games to Korea and Japan.
After the game I met with Tommy Lasorda in the Hotel restaurant. Tommy, "our team has given up". Tommy said I will be over in the morning.
Through the walls of the Blair Field dressing room, I listened to Tommy's words.
"Boys, we taught the Japan players how to play, now they are kicking your butt". "Get out there and play the game". The American boys ran unto the field and played a outstanding game. The game was filmed to 40 million in Japan.
Bob
Consultant posted:"true story"
Korea, Japan National HS teams played our American [Area Code "All Star"] Goodwill Series games at Blair Field in Long Beach. Our American team [3 future ML players] did not respond to the challenge losing games to Korea and Japan.
After the game I met with Tommy Lasorda in the Hotel restaurant. Tommy, "our team has given up". Tommy said I will be over in the morning.
Through the walls of the Blair Field dressing room, I listened to Tommy's words.
"Boys, we taught the Japan players how to play, now they are kicking your butt". "Get out there and play the game". The American boys ran unto the field and played a outstanding game. The game was filmed to 40 million in Japan.
Bob
Hey Bob,
Son is up your way catching some old teammates/roommates play at Sonoma St v. SF St. What happened to the SRJC pipeline to Sonoma? Don't see many. You there by chance?
CabbageDad; my mistake, the DH today is at SSU. There are 6 SRJC players in the SSU team.
1st Game is 4-4.
Bob
Consultant posted:CabbageDad; my mistake, the DH today is at SSU. There are 6 SRJC players in the SSU team.
1st Game is 4-4.
Bob
Cool, that sounds more like the norm... they only have three listed as such on the roster.
I went to the mound after my 13U pitcher was nibbling enough to walk two guys with a two run lead in a PG elim game. 7th inning with one out. The kid is a quiet country boy who likes to hunt and fish. Great talent but a little hard on himself. I told him he was two ground balls from going to Cracker Barrel and getting some biscuits and gravy and his dad was gonna pay for it. He laughed and we won about 5 pitches later.
Some times you have to treat the game like it’s actually a game.
FYI, the story behind the Cubs "Try not to suck" T-shirts from a few years ago...
https://www.nbcsports.com/chic...ag-center-field-cubs
I used this last night in our last game. After the "You suck. Play ball!" speech we put up 13 runs over the next 5 innings, but I used up every pitcher and my last one had nothing left in the 7th when they put up a bunch of runs. We scored some more runs in the 7th but it wasn't enough to cover the deficit. The kids got a kick out of the little pep talk though and felt truly inspired.
