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Did you see the kid in the LLWS highlights (or whatever stage they are at right now) hit the monster shot......then flipped the bat, stared and walked to first until he started jogging????

Here's my thoughts - he's a kid and he's been exposed to it on TV so he's going to emulate it. That's just being a kid but there better be a coach as soon as he gets in that dugout to teach him the finer parts of the game. Or his dad teaches him at home.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. Thomas Jefferson

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Bingo. I call it the Too Much Sportscenter Syndrome. Coach May's right, someone will teach him, even if his coaches/parents don't. Love to see a showoff get drilled.

quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:
Did you see the kid in the LLWS highlights (or whatever stage they are at right now) hit the monster shot......then flipped the bat, stared and walked to first until he started jogging????

Here's my thoughts - he's a kid and he's been exposed to it on TV so he's going to emulate it. That's just being a kid but there better be a coach as soon as he gets in that dugout to teach him the finer parts of the game. Or his dad teaches him at home.
Nope. Not whay I was saying. 12 is too young. What I was trying to say is that he will EVENTUALLY get his comeuppance. It may happen in HS ball, or Legion, or travel, but it will happen. And yeah, if he keeps it up, I DO want to see him drilled. What I'd like to see right now is mom/dad yank him out of the dugout an whip his butt.

quote:
Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
Holy cow. The kid is 12. And you guys want to see him drilled?
Last edited by MTH
While I think personally it looks ridiculous, I think we should all take a look in the mirror at our childhood. It may not have been sports related but we all emulated an "iconic figure" during "playtime". Does anyone remember doing something "out of the box" that you thought was acceptable but may have been told in so many words to "not go there". If you can't remember an instance, I wonder how big your closet was or what it was like hiding under your Moms skirt.

The point I'm trying to make is that kids emulate their peers and have no historical events to show that these actions may be acceptable or not. Although they may have been told it may be frowned upon, the are acting on pure emotion and without that "experience factor" etched into their brain. This is why the human mind is so complex, and at an early age relies on outside stimulus versus reasoning.

Imagine now all the idiots in this world that ingrain these impromptu responses onto kids. Us "older folks" wonder "how and why", but my thought is that if the technical media was available in our day the response would be very similar.

IMHO opinion this kid will learn from the experience
Last edited by rz1
Sadly I've been exposed to the espn 30-30 movie about "the U" and they all said the same thing and I agree with it. If you don't want them to celebrate, don't let them beat you. Almost everyone here will disagree with it, but oh well. You guys can go on and hit him the next at bat and now the kid beat you twice, with a homerun and now he's on base. Sounds like a good game plan to me...
quote:
Originally posted by Tom Dorminy:
I would have put my kid in the car and took his butt home . Someone needs to teach him respect for the game or by high school he will get drilled !


He comes by it honestly. The big kids do it. There is a time and a place for it...game 2 2007 ALDS, for one. Is it a 12 year old's fault he's on national TV playing on 60 foot bases? I submit the blame is a bit misplaced.

Last edited by Dad04
All of that may be true. But it doesn't change the fact that if he continues to act this way he better be prepared to deal with the consequences if and when he moves on in the game. If one of my players ever acted that way he would hear about it pretty quickly. Personally just because someone else does something does not mean its ok. At least not to me. I am simply not a fan of showing up anyone at any level. You can have fun on any stage big or small and still play the game with class. JMO
quote:
Originally posted by TPM:
I am with you Dad04, these are kids on national TV.

They are only doing what they see those big kids do.


This is what I'm saying - they are going to do it because they are kids and they see it on TV. My point is that there needs to be somebody who sets them straight early on but it seems we are failing to do this more and more.

Baseball is different and it's like golf. There is a way to handle yourself and conduct yourself that is respectful to yourself, your team and the other team. Displays of emotion are going to happen because it plays a part of the game but there is a line that should not be crossed. It used to be that everyone pretty much knew where it was but today that line is blurred.

20 years ago when these kids were on national TV they didn't do this stuff. Reason is because they didn't see it on TV. I agree that times change but change isn't always for the best.
You know I understand that fact that these kids see ML players do things that they think are cool. So then they want to do it as well. The first thing I think is "What the heck is wrong with these kids coach?" Is he just a kid as well? He thinks its cool too? He doesn't understand how to show the proper respect to the game and how to teach it? How to show the proper respect to your opponent? The fact they are on National TV is even more reason to conduct yourself in a manner that brings respect to the game, yourself and your opponent.

This idea that because the Pro's do it and kids see it on TV its no big deal does not fly with me. There are a lot of things some ML players do I would never teach or condone in a player. Jogging ground balls out. Jogging fly balls out. Running lazy routes to fly balls and catching fly balls as you back peddle when you could have gotten behind it. The list goes on and on. Just because BJ plays a lazy CF its ok if you do son. You know BJ does it so its cool. I could go on and on with that list.

How about teaching kids from a young age how to play the game and how to act. And just because you see someone on TV do something that doesnt mean that its ok to act that way. In many cases its a reason to make sure you dont do it that way. JMO
I submit parents are still or at least should be in control of their kid. The kid plays baseball because mom or dad lets him play.

A stunt like that and it may have been his last game.

Wake up and be the parent who makes their kid the one we don't talk about for the wrong reasons and do talk about for the right reasons.
When our children were this age and played ball, there was a kid we faced each year in districts a foot taller and 20-30 pounds heavier. His birthday was 1 day after cut off. He pimped when hitting and pitching. We intended to walk him once. The first three balls he let go, but he swung at the next two to create a show. Balls were obviously balls. Our pitcher, on his own, because he was mad, decided to show him. He threw a strike as Goliath was strutting in the box, and I think he could have crawled in a hole as he was walking back to the dugout. Even though we were ultimately killed, he couldn't live that down. Anyway, he graduated this year and actually turned in to a nice young man. He plays respectfully, and is going to be at a DII that is consistently at the top. Several of the other kids caught up with him over time and he became a team player. He grew up.
My son grew up watching Craig Biggio play. From the time he was old enough to comprehend the discussion, I told him "this is how you play the game". If some professional player disrespected the game, I told him "if you do that I will jerk your you-know-what off the field". I am proud that whenever he gets to pick his number on a team, he picks 7.

The reality is most players, LL on up to the MLB, play the game the right way. That's why there's a thread on this topic - it is the exception.

Maybe we should have threads on the class acts we are seeing at all levels.
Pimping and struting might be imitated from major leaguers but it should have been addressed long before 12 yo ball by the parents.

As always, it's us the parents, who are responsible for our players behavior.

IMO the best way to "show up" anyone is to act like it's no big deal to hit a home run. Act like you've been there before.
quote:
Originally posted by biggerpapi:
quote:
Originally posted by TPM:
I am with you Dad04, these are kids on national TV.

They are only doing what they see those big kids do.


So this makes it okay? I should let my kids use steroids. They'd just be doing what the "big kids" are doing.


I didn't say it was ok, these are 12 year old kids in a situation that becomes a high for eveyone including the adults who should be using this as a teaching moment.
Let the coaches who allow them to throw cb,cb,cb help them to understand proper behavior or the parents who think it's just so cute.

Don't blame 12 year olds for trying to look like a ML stud.

JMO.
Last edited by TPM
quote:
Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
quote:
Originally posted by fillsfan:
Pimping and struting might be imitated from major leaguers but it should have been addressed long before 12 yo ball by the parents.


I remember being stupid long after 12.

My wife said I had a pretty good day yesterday
quote:
Originally posted by junior5:
I'd rather be the kid who is getting talked about for pimping a homerun than the kid who is not playing sports, who has bad grades, and who is sitting on a corner doing drugs. I don't understand you guys at all. Why wouldn't he want to be like the best players in the WORLD?! Every single one of you has done something in the last 24 hours that someone in this world would consider to be wrong or stupid. So, Lay off the 12 year old who hit a homerun in one of the biggest games of his life. The concept of getting on him for this seems ignorant to me. By the way, where is there a rule you can't do that? Oh wait, it's section non-existent, article it never will exist in the baseball rule book. Stop the kid if you don't want him to celebrate!


I'd rather be the kid that hit a homerun and acted like he had hit one before. After all it's about the team and not about me. At least it is to most players.
quote:
Originally posted by biggerpapi:
Every team I've ever coached I've told the same thing.

Batter: when you hit a home run, put your head down and run the bases.

Team: act like we've hit home runs before. Stay in the dugout and shake hands with the batter when he gets back. None of this running out to home plate and jumping around like idiots.


This is what I do as well and I'm going to keep doing it. When they put a table up somewhere in foul territory full of judges to evaluate artistic ability in the homerun celebration that allows us to get a bonus run......well I'll probably quit. Baseball isn't a spectacle, it's an honor to play the game. Other sports used to be but they sold their soul to look like a fool.
quote:
Originally posted by fillsfan:
The "pimping" and posing rules should apply to pitchers also. Does a pitcher really have to fist pump and scream while running back to the dugout after he strikes somebody out?

I think you see this more often, especially in college ball, than you see homerun poses. Did this start with Joba Chamberlain?


Could be there are more big strike outs than home runs. I don't think pitchers need to fist pump, flex and roar going back to the dugout, but it helps. Not everybody throws 94. Gotta use what you got.

I can attest first hand that it definately ignites knowledgable home crowds, pumps up team mates, and raises goose bumps and distinct glissening in the eyes of dads.

Full Disclaimer: father of a former fist-pumping, flexing, roaring-on-the-way-back-to-the-dugout-pitcher.
Last edited by Dad04

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