Never seen this before!

actually kind of a nice topic -

some coaches may have heard viewpoints here that his team parents would be intimidated if they had to express it face to face.

FUNGO

guess I have to change my ID to GRANDSLAMWHOSYOURDADDY to get any respect

We were at the Western Regionals for Little League and there was a big uproar when the officials would not let the kids/parents have the homerun balls they hit, I think they should have known that it would mean a lot to them and they should let them have them.

When the kid was 13, he was playing up in Reno NV (high elevation/thin air), and one of his team mates hit this massive home run at a high school field that cleared the fence, cleared the road which was behind it, and hit a building. The little rug rats went to retrieve the homerun ball and when the kids came back with it, the opposing coach yells over, do you still keep your home run balls? We wanted to yell over and say YES!

We collected his home run balls when he was in Little League, but have stopped doing it, in fact his college buddies were giving him a hard time the other day, saying stop hitting the home runs, you are loosing all of our balls!

quote:

We were at the Western Regionals for Little League and there was a big uproar when the officials would not let the kids/parents have the homerun balls they hit, I think they should have known that it would mean a lot to them and they should let them have them.

What a "little league" thing to do. I have never seen a youth baseball group lose sight of the forest for the trees like them.

My players on the bench have to go get foul balls and each one has an inning they are responsible for.

If a homerun is hit then it's out there for whoever wants to get it - parents, players in our dugout or little kids running around. I don't care who gets it.

If a homerun is hit into the lake which slightly protudes into our leftfield homerun area (most of it's in foul territory) and a parent comes up to me AFTER the game and asks politely I will give them one. During a game they will get shooed off.

Super Sneaky Shortstawpmomma has the Solution!!

Perhaps us parents can keep a few extra new balls
( be sure to scuff em' up, spit on them, and rub some good ol' stinky dirt on them ) concealed in our pockets.

Then when one of our kids hits a homer, we can leisurely act like we are retrieving the ball that went over the fence. ( Be sure you make that brisk jog look real and authentic. By all means, over exaggerate if ya have to! )
Stride,..remember its all in the authoritive " I'll-get-it-stride " as you wave away the other hustlers charging to get the ball.

But in fact,...what we will be doing is snagging the homerun-bugger-of-a-ball & slipping it into our other empty pocket. Be sure this action is unseen by others.
It's about quickness,... no one must detect this manuever. Magicians do this type of thing alllllll the time. Its the ol' slip of the hand trick. I highly recommend practice,..practice practice, in front of a mirror if you must!

Then ever so sneakily and quickly throw back the new, freshly dirtied up & spit on ball from our/your opposite pocket, to the opposing team.

Doubt the other team will ever really know the difference. They have their ball, we will have ours,...by golly, everyone walks away happy!

And the fireplace homerun-hit baseball-adorned mantel and staircase at home,....ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!

Any questions?

Psssst,... just for the record,...you never heard this from me.
Lets just saaaaaaay,....I have it on personal good authority that this sneaky lil' tactic works.

But then again,....ummmmmmmmmmm,.... you didnt hear this from me.

Super Sneaky Shortstawpmomma, You are the best!!!

w/those highly refined techniques, I'm betting shortstopmom is a scratch golfer??

Why do we need to save the baseballs anyway ?/


Our kids could care less---it is all for Daddy and Mommy

All of my son's homerun balls have long ago dissapeared into the practice ball bucket. Official MLB balls with former favorite MLB players' autographs who now play for teams other than the Angels have also been relegated to the bucket (Sorry Eckstein, Erstad, both Molinas & Spiezio).

TRHit, You're right ---- and you don't have any because you threw all your son's baseball momentos away.

Most of us are at different stages in our lives, and many of us have different levels of sentiment. Some of us are obviously more sentimental about this issue than others,....and thats ok.

I for one am going to enjoy showing my grandchildren their father's Grand Slam ball that he hit over the fence when he was 8. They may look at me like I'm crazy,..but I'm going to love every minute of it!

And besides,...a bunch of baseballs combined with years of priceless pictures sitting on the ol' fireplace mantel is much more appealing to me than an empty mantel, anyday!
( just call me the Decorating Diva! )

Momentos and/or memories, ......may we be blessed to have many.


Some prefer this:


Others prefer this:

If son ever hits one over in HS, just try to pry it from MY hands. The fence is in the next county.

I did retrieve his long ball from MS. It went 350 I guess. I felt a little silly - I had to fight off an 8 year old, but I wanted that ball. He is more of a pitcher than a long ball hitter, so has a few games balls as well. At least those I don't have to chase down. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by 55mom:
If son ever hits one over in HS, just try to pry it from MY hands. The fence is in the next county.

I did retrieve his long ball from MS. It went 350 I guess. I felt a little silly - I had to fight off an 8 year old, but I wanted that ball. He is more of a pitcher than a long ball hitter, so has a few games balls as well. At least those I don't have to chase down. LOL

If it makes you feel better, pitchers are in much more demand than long ball hitters. My son isn't interested in pitching, and it is a shame, because he throw 85 at age 16. What am I supposed to do?

A coach who'd go up to a parent and demand a hr ball back is a whack nut job in need of serious pychiatric help. He should be concentrating on managing a baseball game.

I guess I'm going to be the BAD GUY coach who must be a psycho, too.....but here goes:

I Coach at a Catholic school where I have to FIGHT every year to buy half-way decent game balls for 3 school teams. I'm allowed to get 1 set of catchers gear a year, and 4 new helmets. That's IT! Period, end of sentence.

If I end the season with left over game balls, I horde them like gold because I've had seasons where I've run out and had to buy them myself.

So last year, I happend to be at a JV game where an opposing player hit a HR. I walked out to get it and the dad walked up to me and said "Can I have that? My son hit it." My response was, it's going back in the game as a game ball unless you guys want to throw in a decent used one to finish the game. He was rather P.O.'d.....and it sounds like most of you folks would be too...but until you walk in my shoes, I don't think you have the right to call me a psycho or a jerk (granted, it sounds like the guy in the original post went about it WAY the wrong way), but I don't think it's unreasonable.

For that matter, if one of my varsity kids hits a big home run, I may choose to give him one of the game balls, but I'll only take it from the other team if I can give them a "fill-in" ball. Why is that unreasonable?

And, yeah, I have a problem with mommy or daddy interrupting a game to ask me for the home run ball during one of the games I'm coaching. There's a time and a place for everything, and they can wait til after the game.

Sorry, guess I'm just one of the few grumps around here....

TCB,

I dont think your reaction was unreasonable or grumpy at all.

But the situation you describe is a far cry from the original post - which stated the coach came up to the parent - grabbed the ball and said "thats my ball".

That - IMO - isnt what a reasonable person would do - or say.