Been trolling for the past few years and taking lots of advice. I could not find any threads about this topic:
We picked up a guy this past fall for our 15U summer team. The kid was a natural behind the dish and very receptive during the entire off-season to instruction, both on field and off. He studied the game every chance he had. He was nervous before the start of school ball and considered not even trying out. We assured him he would be fine. He made the JV squad and got called up to V. after his first game. He made 1st team all league and honorable mention all area. He batted well over .400 and was clocked numerous times with sub 1.9 pops. The 14 other guys on the team were proud of him, even though they did not receive the same accolades.
Summer ball starts. Who is this new guy? The once receptive to learn player all of sudden knows everything to know about the game. He is even willing to share his knowledge with all the players on his team, opposing teams and umpires. He is disciplined on multiple occasions for chirping, throwing equipment and additional unsportsmanlike conduct. There were meetings with player and parents and nothing seemed to be working. His HS stats did not continue into the competitive summer program we run. Batting avg. is sub .200 and ops sub .500.
The last tournament of the summer was this past weekend. We like to rotate catchers for second game of a day. Team is up 3-1, however above mentioned player is 0-3. He begins to chirp our pitcher for missing signs, we meet at the mound and establish the right sequence (pitcher was correct). They get a guy on first(he chirped every pitch), he attempts snap throw which goes foul and out of play (almost impossible to do unless intentional). Next pitch, passed ball...runner on third (chirps ump for not getting out of his was)....next pitch, passed ball....runner comes in sliding into the plate because the ball only got to the edge of the grass....catcher missed throwing to the glove and hits baserunner in his back. He chirps pitcher for not being there to tag the runner. He claimed the throw at the baserunner was not intentional, but it sure looked it. Next pitch, fast ball up, catcher moves glove and the pitch hits the ump. We remove catcher from the game.
Dad is waiting for the coach after the game. Dad screams at coach because his son plays with passion and it's the teams fault. The coach walks away shaking his head.
How do you deal with these types of players?
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