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33 replies

Integrity of Youth Baseball

standballdadstandballdad5,000+ posts
Son played in a 14U tournament this weekend. His team is up 5-1 6th inning. Other team has 2 players on 1 out. Hitter steps up and hits a 3 run blast score is now 5-4, but wait a minute, this is a BBCOR tournament only. My son who is catching picks up the bat and notices that its the old Voodoo drop -9 bat. He hands it over to the ump and ump makes the inspection and calls the hitter out and sends runners back to the bases. Other parents are livid, father of the hitter walks by me and says that is BS. I calmly respond with "your team is cheating using that bat". He walks away ****ing and moaning. Anyone else experience this kinda of lack of integrity?
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P 2013 Parent100+ posts
Saw a grand slam called back for an illegal bat last season. Assistant coach requested time and walked over to the ump with the tourney's list of illegal bats on his smart phone . . . the list included the bat sitting next to home plate.

LOTS of nastiness from the parents/team who "accidentally" used the illegal bat.

Oh, and they lost by three runs.
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
I'm remembering Billy Martin vs. George Brett .....

As I recall, the outcome of that was that the Commissioner's office ruled the HR legal, the only remedy for illegal bat (due to excessive pine tar) was to challenge the bat and have it removed from play in advance. No automatic out.

But I would think most youth tourneys would have an explicit rule providing the penalty for an illegal bat. Everyone knows the rules in advance, and using an illegal bat is no different from throwing a spitter, using a player who's older than permitted, etc.
J journey2100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
Not only was it not a BBCOR, but I find it odd a 14 year old would be swinging a -9. I think my son last swung one of those when he was 12.


-3's are not required by many sanctioned tournaments till 15. Couldn't believe it last Spring that some big 14's were swinging -9's when there were a bunch of well balanced hot -3 bats to choose from.
MizzoubaseballMizzoubaseball1,000+ posts
The reason I asked about the -9 bat is that when my son played that age, you had to use a -3. One game in the first inning, an opposing kid hits a two run double. As the catcher grabs the bat to get it out of the way, he looks at it and hands it to the umpire. It was a -5. big ordeal about what to do. Is he out, is it a redo, or what. We just decided to let it go and just not use the bat anymore. Coach told me after the game it was an honest mistake, since it was early in the season.

Not to sound all moral or whatever, but what do you really gain by cheating at this age.
J journey2100+ posts
We couldn't figure out why we saw a few 14U teams last Spring in -9 bats. It's not like they were small undersized kids with painfully bad swings. All we can surmise is they felt they needed the bat speed. Last Spring my youngest was in a 32-29 and stayed in it & hit very well, even when he faced the most velocity he'd yet seen off a mound (mid 80's).
Last edited by journey2
BackstopDad32BackstopDad325,000+ posts
Yep. Same thing in our first tournament a few weekends ago. Kid walks up and hits with a -5 BESR.

Former Major League All Star coaching the opposing team. Amazed at the fit he threw when his player was called out and ejected.

Not like he wasn't sent a reminder email prior to the tournament and all of these governing bodies have it prominently displayed on their website.
L LAball1,000+ posts
It was a u9 LL game few years back and the other team was using a softball bat. It was old and the paint was chipping so a a lot of the words where rubbed off. But it did say little league on it. I told the ump , but he said it had little league on it. Bunch of BS. its easy to tell a softball bat from baseball bat. But a few games later that team didnt use that bat anymore. Total lack of integrity.
N NYer10+ posts
My son was in a 13u tournament and one of his teammate's father was the freshman JV coach at a local HS. The dad recognized one of the boys as having tried out for him in the HS and new he was too old to play on the opposing team in our age bracket. When confronted, instead of apologizing for what was hoped was a mistake, the other coach asked through the tournament rep if it was OK if the boy only batted and did not play the field.

While this was bad enough, we saw the same boy playing for the same team in a later round of the same tournament. I guess winning for this coach and the boys' parents was more important than teaching the boys on this team about integrity and right from wrong.

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