Selfish

A big +1!  Golfman hit it on the nail head.

FWIW - my son (now at a DII JUCO), started as catcher his sophomore year in HS.  He is a very good catcher and also a very good utility player.  He was the primary catcher during his sophomore year - beating out a senior for the job.  In his junior year, coach moved him to 3B - needed his glove there more than behind the plate.  Plus there was another catcher that had moved up from JV.  I wasn't exactly happy about the move, but it was fine with my son and it was good for the team.  His senior year coach moved him to 1B where he excelled - was named 1st Team All-District, 1st Team All Region, 1st Team All Area, Honorable Mention State.

The point here is he "sacrificed" his wants (catcher position) for the team.  If you, and especially your son, are not willing to do that, you will not go far no matter what his talent/skill level is.

Even at college, he became the DH even though he was recruited as a 1B.  Coach liked his bat and defensive skills.  Right now as they head to the conference tournament he's the DH and primary backup for 1B.

BTW - the HS team went to the playoffs two out of his 3 years on varsity - narrowly missing a spot his junior year.  His senior year, they made it to the state quarterfinals and were 2 outs away from going to the final four.

I ran across an article on tipsfromthecoach.com, parts of which seem to fit this topic:

"It's the job of every parent to help their children get as far as possible in life. This is likely linked to the survival instinct of all species on the planet. Pretty powerful stuff.

And it's the job of the coach to do what he thinks is best for his entire team. What the parents want and what the coaches desires rarely overlap neatly."

"Far too frequently, parents lose sight of the overriding goal of any team. The goal of any team In any sport is to win games. Some teams have secondary goals, such as making each player better through practice. Others just give that lip service. In any case, those are always secondary goals."

"No one ever decide to put together a team with the primary goals of losing games, boring ballplayers and tormenting parents. During practices, every player should be given equal treatment. However in games, you can only choose nine ballplayers, and that should be the nine players that coach thinks give the team the best chance of winning that day."

This thread can't die. Waaaaay too entertaining.