is it ever OK?

You can never fully understand someone else's circumstances, or what would make them leave a team. I think it can be the right decision for some people, as they may have larger priorities in their life at the moment. Things like family and doing well in school might come before baseball.

Its important to be able to have perspective.

With that said, leaving a team for more trivial reasons is often a questionable decision.

First off, unless these players hsbaseballfan mentions had very good reasons (and I have zero knowledge of their situations), they didn't "leave their high school teams". They quit. Plain and simple.

We always had a rule in my family- you didn't have to play any sport you didn't want to. But if you did play (i.e. join/make the team) under no circumstances were you to quit. Of course, there can be exceptions for extreme circumstances, but for the most part you were going to ride it out. It was never an issue.

IMO quitting for the typical reasons (I never get to play, coach doesn't like me, I have something else I'd rather do, etc.) is selfish and unacceptable. Plus, as far as I'm concerned (and as far as my coaches were concerned) if you quit a team once, you were quitting that team forever. Quit baseball as a 9th grader? Save your time the next three years. Again, there are exceptions, but those exceptions will probably follow: 1) a one on one sit down with the coach for the player to own up to quitting and ensure that's not going to happen again and 2) a summer/offseason of that player busting their tail to show the coach that baseball and this team are important to him.

Now, if a kid just didn't play as a 9th grader and then tried out later in high school, that's a different story. I'm differentiating here b/w making the team and quitting vs. never trying out.

Emanski's Heroes, I think we grew up in the same house.

Quitters never win, winners never quit. Baseball is a game of sacrafice and struggles, we all have them, not all have the mental toughness to deal with them. QUITING IS QUITING! there is rarely a justifiable reason IMHO

For the most part I think quitting is a very poor reflection on the player. But once he's gone, there's no point beating him up about it. In many situations, the same attitude that led him to quit also made him a cancer on the team, so the team's and the coaches' attitude is not one of being upset, but more one of relief at the resolution of a brewing problem.

I think there can be justifications for quitting. A few situations that come to mind:

1. Significant personal/family issues requiring the player's attention

2. Bad grades, need to focus on the books more

3. Extraordinary misconduct by coaches which superiors refuse to address (e.g., if you had a situation like what happened at Deep Run a few years back and the administration took no action)

4. Player was induced to stick with the team based on coach lying about his role. This one is problematic, some would say there are never any promises and a player has to know he may not play. But that is not always so. Suppose a player asks, "Do you see a role for me? Because I'm going to have to give up another significant opportunity to be on this team." If the coach assures him yes, and that turns out to be a bald-faced lie designed to get a bench player to commit, then I think the player is justified in quitting to pursue the other opportunity before it gets away.

I have known that to happen and while it is rare, I think it's understandable for a player to take action to avoid getting screwed out of something he could have done if he had only been told the truth. up front.

I spent jr year planted on the bench behind Sr's because the coach played sr's unless the jr was clearly better.

Next year new coach says I have jr's that will be here next year so I am going to play him. I quit on the spot. I played 22 less basketball games in my life and can say with a certainty my life is unaltered one way or the other. The woman I married has about a Million times the impact HS basketball ever could have.

To say a 16 or 17 year old is a loser for chucking a baseball career that will end after HS for 95% of them is folly. It's a game and if they aren't having fun and want to quit so what.

HS sports give very little indication of how people will turn out IMO. There are way too many beer guzzling 50lb overweight "glory days" losers out there that make the point. Think Al Bundy.

luv baseball - I understood the question to be whether it was okay to quit your high school team if you had serious / realistic expectations of playing in the future. Clearly if baseball will no longer be a focus in your life the question of quitting takes on a different analysis. You still need to consider it carefully - but a bit different analysis non-the-less.

Yes - I read the question as is Quiting OK?...regardless of skill level. There is no mention of a D1 or draft propect dumping. Just simply quiting.

So my take is that HS sports are there for fun and are not that important in the big picture for 95%+ kids that play. That they are a talisman to life's major struggles or give any true indication of how kids lives will play out is simply over the top and false.

luv baseball - you make a good point - the sport of baseball itself is not ultimately very important in the lives of most high school players. Your situation seems to have been one where you considered your options and made what turned out to be a good choice for you.

I do worry about folks who quit teams without good reasons or with no reason at all. I do believe that may give some indication of the future for that individual. If a player quits mid season he is turning his back on a comittment and an entire team. Leaving baseball may not be a harbinger but the way it is done often is.

I do not think anyone is in a position to speculate or judge an individul players decision to stop playing baseball or to pretend to know what "misconduct" really occured at a particular school. Yet it is ashame when certain programs keep repeating the same mistakes and find themselves involved in scandal over and over again. Players should never quit because of playing time or coaching decisions yet when behavior by coaches is immoral, unethical and in some cases illegal and is condoned by the adinistration, that is a oompletely different "ball game". When hiring coaches, past behavior is usually a pretty darn good indicator of future behavior.

Boy… is this a minefield to walk into…I think that parents who allow their child to quit mid-way through a season, a year of band, glee club, scouts or whatever… set a bad precedence for that child as it teaches them that it is “ok” not to honor a commitment regardless of how trivial the endeavor may be in the grand scheme of things. The fact of the matter is that quitting in and by itself is a self-serving/ selfish act in most cases. I was taught by my parents that it became easier to quit with every instance and I firmly believe that to be the case (and that is not the life lesson that I want to instill in my own children).
Now that being said, I think the onus then is on the parents to be the honest broker. To determine whether the situation warrants quitting or riding out the season. That’s what parents are for.

Exactly right; this definitely has minefield written all over it. I draw the distinction between stepping away from the game and quitting the team inseason. Unless it is just the poorest of circumstances, however, you should finish the season and not let down your teammates.

My youngest son, now a senior, decided not to play his senior year. In fact, on his high school team, all but two of the seniors quit prior to playing their senior years (one of those is moving on to play college ball). And this is not just a "this year" thing; that has happened a few times in the past few years. As I said on another thread, they had varying reasons for not continuing, but they are no worse for wear.

In our house, the rule is that you finish what you start. In short, if you start the season, you finish it. My son made a mature decision, knowing that he didn't wish to deal with the headaches enough to forego the opportunities he would otherwise have his senior year. Importantly, he made it known well beforehand and said that he was stepping away from the game.

Generally I think a player should keep the commitment he made to the team. I would not want my son leaving a baseball team mid-season any more than I would want another kid to quit a school play midway through rehearsals or the performing band halfway through the year.

But I know there are kids who've quit in our area lately and I just don't know why. So I'm reluctant to sit here and assume the worst of kids when I don't know all the facts.

I agree it looks bad, but I did want to point out that there could well be things going on that we just don't know about, before we all jumped all over these kids in absentia.

The original post made no mention of when the "deciding to leave" occurs. It matters...

My son played varsity ball as a Fr./So. at one school and is now playing his Jr. season at another school. Why? Because his school split and we were in the district for the new school. He did have a choice to stay at the old school if he wanted but he chose to move. A number of his teammates were in the district of the old school but were given the option to petition to leave and attend the new school, which they did. End result was that the old school lost 17 players between graduation and players changing schools. (8 varsity starters)

As I said, WE left because we were in the new district and had my son attended the old school he would not have been eligible for bus transport to/from school. Why did the others actually PETITION to leave? Not really sure but I do know that some had issues with the coach and saw a chance for a new start. Is that the same as quitting because in some ways the coach does have some culpability in things and they did complete their commitment to him by finishing the season. But I also feel that putting the blame entirely on a player's head and calling him a quitter should he quit mid-season could also be like saying that you should never get divorced but rather "stay together for the kids"... I don't think that there is a "right" answer to it.

absolutely Midlo...many times the answer to tje question "is it OK to quit" is yes.
even adults quit jobs and redirect their efforts if the feel like they are in a no win situation.
we never knnow what is going on in peoples lives tjhat cause them to make some decisions.
i have found from personal experience sometime 16,17,18 year old kids become overwhelmed with the attraction of having a partime job and some spending money in their pocket which playing HS sports makes that nearly impossible.

Look at the resume. If a guy changed jobs every 18 months over a 10 year period, you wouldn't hire him. If he only had 2 different employers, you give him a chance. Look for the history and if it repeated itself.