Most embarrassing youth baseball moment

Having to wear baseball pants for a machine-pitch Cal-Ripken All-Star 'tournament'...

I didn't realize I had to wear them, so I had a pair that I wore for softball 10-15 years earlier, so I just took them with me...I have no idea why I didn't try them on before the tournament... Needless to say, they were 'snug'...

Ain't NOBODY got time for that!

My apologies to all the children that could have been scarred for life by the errors of my ways...

jp24,

Boy, you've made this really tough.....got to narrow it down to only one.  Okay, got it.  This was embarrassing and regretful.  My oldest played coach pitch when he was 5-6 years old with a neighborhood rec ball team (we didn't have t-ball).     We had three coaches including myself and a husband and wife.  The kids couldn't hit our coach because (frankly) he couldn't throw a baseball to save his life.  I pulled this guy in the middle of a coach pitch game and inserted his wife as the next pitcher.  She did well, and the kids were hitting her just fine.   The parents and crowd went hysterical with laughter directed at him, and later I realized what I had done.   At the time I didn't think twice about it, but all the guys work buddies were in the stands.   I felt incredibly embarrassed for him, and regret it to this day. 

Don't think I have one as a parent.  I'm pretty disciplined when watching. 

As a Coach.  Maybe one or two but not many.

As a player, the worse I ever did was also one of the best lessons in life I ever received.  Forgive me for posting this again.  I was around 13 and working on a perfect game.  Oh, I thought I was something and that when I took the mound no one could touch me.  Along about the 5, I walked someone.  I became frustrated and soon gave up my first hit.  Then, a ball was hit that my 1st baseman booted.  I was mad and a run scored.  I must have looked like a chump out there as I got angry at the 1st baseman.  No, I didn't think about the walk or the hit.  When the game ended, I was still visibly angry even though we won.  Billy's Mom walked up to me and said, "Darrell, if you are so good, how do they even hit a foul ball off of you."  Was I ever put in my place.  I've never forgot it and to this day I am so glad she said it.  I was a terrible teammate.  I tried to change and care more about my teammates than myself.  With my teams, every time I've seen one of my players headed down this path, I'm quick to get after them and tell them this story.

My most embarrassing moment doesn't involve myself or my son, but a team team we played against a couple of years ago.  The yearly Smoltz /Grissom tournament in Atlanta attracts travel teams from all over the South East. One of the attractions of this tournament is that the championship games are played at Turner Field, and all of the teams in the tournament get tickets to a Braves game the night before the tournament starts.

We were at the Braves game, waiting for the game to start, sitting way up in the upper deck, surrounded by dozens of teams, and thousands of boys, all wearing their team jerseys.  I was pointing out to my 14u son how almost all the uniforms were various shades of red or blue, and only a few were green, gold or black. 

Just then a group of boys came out of the concourse wearing pink! Just a couple at first but eventually the whole team emerged and began walking up the stairs to their nose bleed seats.

These uniforms weren't just pink, but bright shiney flourescent pink. They had big white softballs on their backs with their number in in a feminine looking font. It looked to me like the team was wearing girls softball uniforms.

A  hush fell over our entire section of Turner Field. . Only seconds ago we were surounded by loud, excited chatter and laughter, that was now strangly quiet. It was so quiet you could hear some of the boys sitting around us whispering and giggling.  As I looked around I noticed that all eyes were on the boys in pink, staring at them as they continued up the stairs.

That's when a one of the older boys behind me let out a loud "wolf whistle"...you know the kind of whistle a construction worker or a sailor might make when a hot girl walks past!

Well the whole section erupted in laughter. Other boys started whistling and heckling and laughing at the team in pink.   I felt so sorry for them.  As they passed by me, and I saw the look of shame, embarrassment and anexiety on their faces, I got a sick feeling in my gut.  I remembered how self concious I was as, a 13 & 14 year old boy.  That's when my son leaned over and said "Dad, I hope I get to pitch against THAT team"

Ok, I'll bite.  Mostly lurk out here. 

My youngest was playing in a local 11u-12u LL consultation tourney after we were eliminated from the big tourney.  This was our second year playing in the tourney and had a horrible time with the umps the previous year.  It wasn't the umps fault but the tourney director had them doing  other things on the field and that it took their attention away from umping.  The big one being pitch count.  The umps needed to work a ball/strike counter in one hand and a pitch counter in the other.  As they hired HS kids to ump the tourney it was a little overwhelming for the umpires.  After about the 5th or 6th bad call and the ump assuring me that they will take care of it "next time" I lost it.  Things were happening like players leaving bases early (LL closed bases).  We would complain, ump said he saw it, and instead of making the kid return to the proper base just told them to "don't do it again".  We had a bunted ball in fair territory and the BR ran into the ball.  Ump puts him back in the box "for a do over".  At some point I had enough.  I storm onto the field after a bad call and try to calming address it with the umps.  They were not wanting to discuss anything with me so I started upping my tone.  The tourney director was sitting up in the announcers booth and started to say things like "enough coach back in the dugout" over the loudspeaker.  This just continued to rile me up.  As some point I found myself yelling very very loudly.  Finally I had it and informed the umps that they "$cuked A$$" as loud as I could.  Before I even said it I knew I was going to get the boot.  I left the dugout at that point with a few choice words for the tourney director and his "$tupid A$$ use of the microphone".  I walked across the park to a park bench a long way away.  At least 3 diamonds over and sat down.  At that point a police officer walked over to me and sat down.  His first words were "keep your mouth shut and listen to me".  At that point I knew I stepped over the line.  The officer went on to explain to me that he was there watching the game (the park is part of his patrol zone) and I was correct the umping was really bad.  He also informed me that the tourney director asked him to escort me to the city lines.  He explained to the TD that I did not commit any crime and that there was nothing he could do.  He told me as long as I stayed on the park bench I could stay in the park. 

Very long story short, I blew up at a bunch of 17 year olds over something that was not their fault.  In addition it was over a LL baseball game.  I completely lost sight of the fact that this was kids playing baseball.

I'll eventually tie this into youth baseball...

My wife played some fastpitch earlier on and I was always kinda proud of the arm.  She could wing it.  What I was always a little embarrassed about was that every time she stepped in the box, she'd do the time-out hand raise back to the umpire, demanding time to "dig in".  When she got a little older and slowpitch was the only option, she still did the same, which raised the embarrassment factor a bit.

Fast-forward several years...

When our youngest boy was five, he was very excited to play in his first T-ball game.  In full uniform and helmet, he stepped up to the tee for his first at-bat.  He stepped back for a minute, with his hand raised toward an imaginary umpire, asking for time.  He reached back and pulled out the batting gloves from his pant pockets and put them on before stepping back up to the tee. 

I guess the apple doesn't fall far...

This should be required reading for LL parents.