Thanks Coach. I am printing that entry out and leaving it on the kitchen table for my sons to read.
If you understand the game and respect the game, then it will be for the LOVE of the game as you will have FUN playing the game and evening watching the game from the stands. I had the great experience of playing in this league from 2005 thru 2007 up til the young age of 39yrs and 10 months.
The RCBL of the Rockingham County based around Harrisburg, VA ... a league that has been in existence since 1924.
This is a historic summer baseball circuit that has provided quality amateur baseball throughout Rockingham County for over 85 years. It is the second oldest continuous running baseball league in the country - trailing only major league baseball itself. The Rockingham County Baseball League, or RCBL, was founded in 1924, and has included teams from across Rockingham County, Virginia and up and down the Shenandoah Valley.
The league currently boasts eight teams. These are Clover Hill, Bridgewater, Broadway, Elkton, Montezuma, New Market, Shenandoah and Stuarts Draft.
On the web at ... www.rcblonline.com
The RCBL of the Rockingham County based around Harrisburg, VA ... a league that has been in existence since 1924.
This is a historic summer baseball circuit that has provided quality amateur baseball throughout Rockingham County for over 85 years. It is the second oldest continuous running baseball league in the country - trailing only major league baseball itself. The Rockingham County Baseball League, or RCBL, was founded in 1924, and has included teams from across Rockingham County, Virginia and up and down the Shenandoah Valley.
The league currently boasts eight teams. These are Clover Hill, Bridgewater, Broadway, Elkton, Montezuma, New Market, Shenandoah and Stuarts Draft.
On the web at ... www.rcblonline.com
quote:To me, baseball is never be a job regardless of how much time you put into it. It should never be a job despite all the efforts put forth. It has never been this way to me, and I think (I hope) others would agree.
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mid atlantic
my point is there may come a day that batting 300 keeps your scholly, or you need to throw 3 scoreless or you get released. it can become much more than just fun. the better player's get it done, sounds like you have the fortitude to do it.
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Is it fun to get up and go to work everyday? Is it fun to have to sacrifice to earn some rewards? You see everyone wants a paycheck. But everyone is not willing to put in the work to actually earn that paycheck. Is it fun to get that paycheck? Is is fun to earn that paycheck? I think of baseball just like a bank account. When your working to get better , everytime you invest in your game you are putting money in your baseball bank account. The goal is to one day make a baseball withdrawal. Others want to make a withdrawal without every makeing a deposit in their account. It just doesnt work that way. Alot of kids are having fun playing the game until they get to the point where it takes some work to continue to play the game. Now its not any fun anymore.
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coach up until my back started talking to me i loved going to work.( goes to show you how smart i am.
) i do concrete foundations for a living and i always love to see the fruits of our labor. i have fun doing it too.
baseball in our area has never been bigger.
but i take from the thread, participation isn't what we are talking about. is it the quality of the participation? i do believe the quality goes up and down the the stock market.
but i take from the thread, participation isn't what we are talking about. is it the quality of the participation? i do believe the quality goes up and down the the stock market.
Coach May -- WOW! Thanks for a terrific, and accurate, assessment. I have printed it for my son, and will be sharing it with some of our serious minded baseball friends.
I live very close to Coach Milburn's neighborhood. No doubt baseball has seen a decline in our area for many of the reasons posted here. Times and people have changed. Maybe it is all the other choices available; maybe it is a decline in desire; maybe we have gotten away from a time when kids could just be kids. Don't know ... and I'm not too sure that I care.
One thing is certain, if a kid loves the game, and embraces the concept that he needs to work to become his very best (whether that be playing baseball, or the bassoon); there are plenty of opportunities out there.
"Fun" is a relative word. It is true, most people only want the "fun" of the final outcome -- playing the game. Very few are willing to embrace the "fun" of doing the hard work to be able to play at their maximum potential.
I am a student of success, and in my work I deal extensively with helping individuals and organizations improve performance. I learned a long time ago that only 3% of people will willingly invest of their own time and effort to become the best they can be in any given endeavor, while the other 97% just do not care enough to put forth the effort.
You can fight this fact all you want, and will experience results similar to attempting to hold back the tide; or you can strive to surround yourself with the 3%'ers in whatever endeavor you enter, and allow the others to go their own way.
As a parent, I believe a big part of my job is to make sure my son understands that sustained success in all things is found only through pursuing the endeavor with pride, passion, and a commitment to excellence; and then to help him find those things he can throw himself into whole heartedly -- where he can be a 3%-er.
So far, those things have been baseball and business. Truth be told, he has come a lot further in both areas than his native abilities would suggest he could reach; and he is working harder every day to reach his dream of being a D1 player, studying in a top business program, starting in the fall of 2011.
What am I driving at? The Game is better than ever. There are more opportunities than ever for a kid to embrace the game and become the best player he can become. The knowledge and training available to young players has never been better. The playing opportunities have never been greater.
But the individual kid has to want it, and has to be backed by parents and coaches who will support them as they chase the dream.
For the kids who have the love for the game, and the desire to give of themselves to become a 3%-er in baseball ... there is plenty of opportunity out there. For others, there is still the bassoon.
I live very close to Coach Milburn's neighborhood. No doubt baseball has seen a decline in our area for many of the reasons posted here. Times and people have changed. Maybe it is all the other choices available; maybe it is a decline in desire; maybe we have gotten away from a time when kids could just be kids. Don't know ... and I'm not too sure that I care.
One thing is certain, if a kid loves the game, and embraces the concept that he needs to work to become his very best (whether that be playing baseball, or the bassoon); there are plenty of opportunities out there.
"Fun" is a relative word. It is true, most people only want the "fun" of the final outcome -- playing the game. Very few are willing to embrace the "fun" of doing the hard work to be able to play at their maximum potential.
I am a student of success, and in my work I deal extensively with helping individuals and organizations improve performance. I learned a long time ago that only 3% of people will willingly invest of their own time and effort to become the best they can be in any given endeavor, while the other 97% just do not care enough to put forth the effort.
You can fight this fact all you want, and will experience results similar to attempting to hold back the tide; or you can strive to surround yourself with the 3%'ers in whatever endeavor you enter, and allow the others to go their own way.
As a parent, I believe a big part of my job is to make sure my son understands that sustained success in all things is found only through pursuing the endeavor with pride, passion, and a commitment to excellence; and then to help him find those things he can throw himself into whole heartedly -- where he can be a 3%-er.
So far, those things have been baseball and business. Truth be told, he has come a lot further in both areas than his native abilities would suggest he could reach; and he is working harder every day to reach his dream of being a D1 player, studying in a top business program, starting in the fall of 2011.
What am I driving at? The Game is better than ever. There are more opportunities than ever for a kid to embrace the game and become the best player he can become. The knowledge and training available to young players has never been better. The playing opportunities have never been greater.
But the individual kid has to want it, and has to be backed by parents and coaches who will support them as they chase the dream.
For the kids who have the love for the game, and the desire to give of themselves to become a 3%-er in baseball ... there is plenty of opportunity out there. For others, there is still the bassoon.
I've been saying all along what happens with the next generation of kids when a lot of their dads didn't play baseball or bailed early for other options? Will these dads sign their kids up for baseball or send them diectly to lacrosse and spring s****r? When I was young if a kid didn't make LL he was still a baseball fan. His choices were limited. Now the kids are spread over a lot of sports and don't have a passion to watch baseball.quote:The implications for the breakdown of community ball spread far beyond your local little league field, far beyond the "quality of future players at a HS or a college level...if baseball passes from being a rite of passage for every family and every american child, to simply "one of many options", the chain that has sustained the priority position of baseball as america's game is in jeopardy, irregarless of the quality of play/players at a professional level.
quote:Originally posted by RJM:I've been saying all along what happens with the next generation of kids when a lot of their dads didn't play baseball or bailed early for other options? Will these dads sign their kids up for baseball or send them diectly to lacrosse and spring s0ccer? When I was young if a kid didn't make LL he was still a baseball fan. His choices were limited. Now the kids are spread over a lot of sports and don't have a passion to watch baseball.quote:The implications for the breakdown of community ball spread far beyond your local little league field, far beyond the "quality of future players at a HS or a college level...if baseball passes from being a rite of passage for every family and every american child, to simply "one of many options", the chain that has sustained the priority position of baseball as america's game is in jeopardy, irregarless of the quality of play/players at a professional level.
Look in the stands. Parents, grandparents. Anyone else? I asked why none of the student body ever came to a baseball game.
"They're all doing something else."
One day, I pulled in the gigantic lot and every space was full. Cars on the grass. An adjacent field was filled with kids- hundreds of them. Yelling, screaming, laughing, cheering, really whooping it up. It looked like Woodstock.
Turns out it was Ultimate Frisbee.
"They're all doing something else."
One day, I pulled in the gigantic lot and every space was full. Cars on the grass. An adjacent field was filled with kids- hundreds of them. Yelling, screaming, laughing, cheering, really whooping it up. It looked like Woodstock.
Turns out it was Ultimate Frisbee.
I think the way kids watch baseball has changed over the years. Kids and teenagers today grew up with SportsCenter, they do not want to sit and watch a whole game they are only interested in the highlights and how their fantasy players numbers are looking. Not many have the patience to sit and watch an entire game on TV, which is sad but it is a reality of the world in which we currently live.
If there's one common quote that really gets under my skin, it's that one: "Make it fun!"
You don't have to MAKE baseball fun. It IS fun! That is why we're playing it in the first place!
I hear that quote most around youth baseball. It comes often from parents who complain that their sons are bored at practices, or that coaching is too stressed out. Well, those are valid complaints. But so often people want you to turn practices into a series of entertainment events. Kind of like when you go to an MLB game and spend your time wandering the concourses looking for the sideshow distractions.
If the kids are bored, keep practices fast paced and challenging. If the coaching is abusive, replace it. If the coaching is pushing for performance and not getting it, then evaluate whether the problem is with too much vein-bulging yelling, or maybe with too many people thinking the objective of a baseball practice or game is to replace a video game or a TV show as an entertainment venue.
Too often the "make it fun" crowd is in that last category.
What teen players especially need to learn is that there is a brand of fun more deeply satisfying than the instant gratification kind -- the kind that comes when you practice hard and practice well, and then end up getting more hits, pitching better, fielding better, or playing together as a team for a team win. This is where baseball can really help kids mature and appreciate the kinds of fun that are more deeply meaningful than any thousand instances of the momentary kind.
I really can't see any grandpa taking a young lad on his knee and saying, "Let me tell you about the time we turned baseball practice into a series of silly things," any more than I could imagine him saying, "Let me tell you about this killer video game we had when I was your age." But MY grandpa loved to tell me about his exploits in the old coal mining towns' semi pro circuit.
You don't have to MAKE baseball fun. It IS fun! That is why we're playing it in the first place!
I hear that quote most around youth baseball. It comes often from parents who complain that their sons are bored at practices, or that coaching is too stressed out. Well, those are valid complaints. But so often people want you to turn practices into a series of entertainment events. Kind of like when you go to an MLB game and spend your time wandering the concourses looking for the sideshow distractions.
If the kids are bored, keep practices fast paced and challenging. If the coaching is abusive, replace it. If the coaching is pushing for performance and not getting it, then evaluate whether the problem is with too much vein-bulging yelling, or maybe with too many people thinking the objective of a baseball practice or game is to replace a video game or a TV show as an entertainment venue.
Too often the "make it fun" crowd is in that last category.
What teen players especially need to learn is that there is a brand of fun more deeply satisfying than the instant gratification kind -- the kind that comes when you practice hard and practice well, and then end up getting more hits, pitching better, fielding better, or playing together as a team for a team win. This is where baseball can really help kids mature and appreciate the kinds of fun that are more deeply meaningful than any thousand instances of the momentary kind.
I really can't see any grandpa taking a young lad on his knee and saying, "Let me tell you about the time we turned baseball practice into a series of silly things," any more than I could imagine him saying, "Let me tell you about this killer video game we had when I was your age." But MY grandpa loved to tell me about his exploits in the old coal mining towns' semi pro circuit.
Terrific insights on the accessement of baseball's suspected decline...love the different point of views that makes this the great american game...there seems to be some concern starting with the leadershio of MLB...as the Selig has established a team of current/past coaches, players, and correspondences to determine ways to make baseball more exciting, in turn would bring more attention to the sport from the fans...JMHO...Blue Skies...
quote:
Originally posted by Good-eye:
Terrific insights on the accessement of baseball's suspected decline...love the different point of views that makes this the great american game...there seems to be some concern starting with the leadershio of MLB...as the Selig has established a team of current/past coaches, players, and correspondences to determine ways to make baseball more exciting, in turn would bring more attention to the sport from the fans...JMHO...Blue Skies...
Good-eye....
Just exactly how was it at Woodstock anyways? LOL
Midlo that is one of the best posts I have ever read on this site. You said it so much better than I did. Way better.
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Would agree with the fun to a point...
There are two kinds of fun. The "Entertain me" kind of fun, and that of "working hard long term to acheive a goal" kind of fun. In the best of circumstances they meet, sometimes they do not. Coach strictly to the "entertain me" kind of fun and you are in just as much trouble as if it is boring. The danger is that you continue to have to come up with new entertainment continually, players at some point have to be shifted to the more long term fun. "Entertain me" is a way in, but NOT a long term solution either in micro or in society as a whole. IMO, that is one of the biggest challenegs we face right now is a world gone mad with "entertain me" and "I am entitiled to be entertained"
Unfortunately we are living in an "entertain me" "Instant gratification" kind of world. Many kids feel that they are entitled to be entertained, every minute of every day, in every activity. Fewer and fewer are willing to work hard and wait to see waht they can accomplish, fewer are willing to invest long term, even in themselves. I see fewer and fewer kids on my teams who arrive with any concept of delayed gratification. For this reason IMO delayed gratification has to be taught, the same way and with the same, and perhaps more emphasis as physical skills. Give me a kid who is willing mentally to work hard at a task and develop it, not matter how long it takes and no matter what the talent level, I can teach him any skill. Give me a kid with some talent and no long term view and I have a short term flash in the pan, or a player who is always potential and never reaches his possibilities.
For this reason much of coaching has changed from the physical to instilling a new set of "athletic values". I believe that was part of the problem with Leach at TTU, he had to get into the players head and change his values, and he was not able to.
It is up to those who understand this dying art to introduce it/teach it to the next generation. It is one of the major reasons that we have our kids in baseball and sports. There is no better teacher.
44
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Would agree with the fun to a point...
There are two kinds of fun. The "Entertain me" kind of fun, and that of "working hard long term to acheive a goal" kind of fun. In the best of circumstances they meet, sometimes they do not. Coach strictly to the "entertain me" kind of fun and you are in just as much trouble as if it is boring. The danger is that you continue to have to come up with new entertainment continually, players at some point have to be shifted to the more long term fun. "Entertain me" is a way in, but NOT a long term solution either in micro or in society as a whole. IMO, that is one of the biggest challenegs we face right now is a world gone mad with "entertain me" and "I am entitiled to be entertained"
Unfortunately we are living in an "entertain me" "Instant gratification" kind of world. Many kids feel that they are entitled to be entertained, every minute of every day, in every activity. Fewer and fewer are willing to work hard and wait to see waht they can accomplish, fewer are willing to invest long term, even in themselves. I see fewer and fewer kids on my teams who arrive with any concept of delayed gratification. For this reason IMO delayed gratification has to be taught, the same way and with the same, and perhaps more emphasis as physical skills. Give me a kid who is willing mentally to work hard at a task and develop it, not matter how long it takes and no matter what the talent level, I can teach him any skill. Give me a kid with some talent and no long term view and I have a short term flash in the pan, or a player who is always potential and never reaches his possibilities.
For this reason much of coaching has changed from the physical to instilling a new set of "athletic values". I believe that was part of the problem with Leach at TTU, he had to get into the players head and change his values, and he was not able to.
It is up to those who understand this dying art to introduce it/teach it to the next generation. It is one of the major reasons that we have our kids in baseball and sports. There is no better teacher.
44.
quote:the quality of baseball is declining very rapidly.
I think the quality of play has improved dramatically, at least in the "world I live in." A more competitive early enviornment, better coaching, great facilities, more games played ... etc, all contribute to better skills at earlier ages.
A sub-plot sprang up in this thread about the number of participants declining. Most all the reasons have been touched on; the competitiveness "outing" kids early, many sport and leisure activities to choose from, a general decline in fitness, TV and video games and so on.
You do see an early emergence, in youth baseball, of two groups; those wanting to just have fun (many times they are there for their parents who are looking for a physical activity for them to get involved in), and then the "I really want to excel and or get better group." I think Travel Ball was the natural by-product of the need for that more competitive outlet for those players.
Another factor plays in to how long a player stays involved or in which sport they choose. I think it's a Risk vs. Reward scenario for many. If I know I can't play in a competitive arena, then they drop-out. Additionally, baseball is a skill sport and thus, requires a disporportional amount of practice time (compared to football and basketball) to excel. For that reason alone, many athletes choose an easier sports path. Not that excelling in football, basketball, s****r, etc, isn't hard, because it is. But baseball is alone, I believe, in the diverse skills needed to succeed AND that doesn't even take in to account the mental fortitude needed to deal with the failures inate in the game.
it is
quote:Another factor plays in to how long a player stays involved or in which sport they choose. I think it's a Risk vs. Reward scenario for many. If I know I can't play in a competitive arena, then they drop-out. Additionally, baseball is a skill sport and thus, requires a disporportional amount of practice time (compared to football and basketball) to excel. For that reason alone, many athletes choose an easier sports path. Not that excelling in football, basketball, s****r, etc, isn't hard, because it is. But baseball is alone, I believe, in the diverse skills needed to succeed AND that doesn't even take in to account the mental fortitude needed to deal with the failures inate in the game.
Excellent point Prime9!
Yes excellent point Prime.
How often do we see fathers with their sons in the parks working on the game of baseball? Most fathers play golf and leave little Johnny home with mother.
I have witnessed a mother here in 22601 throwing BP to her son and I was so impressed ... but the BF or Father was standing on the outside of the cage just looking.
Some cases, both parents are forced to work and nobody home to keep an eye on the children which is not good. Wants vs. needs ... if parents scale back a little on the wants, then the needs of our children can be fulfilled.
Just my own honest opinion.
I have witnessed a mother here in 22601 throwing BP to her son and I was so impressed ... but the BF or Father was standing on the outside of the cage just looking.
Some cases, both parents are forced to work and nobody home to keep an eye on the children which is not good. Wants vs. needs ... if parents scale back a little on the wants, then the needs of our children can be fulfilled.
Just my own honest opinion.
In my area lots of kids still love to play baseball but, football reigns supreme.
The school allowed the "homecoming bonfire" to be held on the varsity field pitchers mound.
The field indecently is named after a MOH winner Bruce Crandell who attended and played for the high school.
I'm at a loss
The school allowed the "homecoming bonfire" to be held on the varsity field pitchers mound.
The field indecently is named after a MOH winner Bruce Crandell who attended and played for the high school.
I'm at a loss