Stay or Go?

First order of business, have a polite, man-to-man talk with the head coach about where things are going. What you're told up in the stands may not be accurate. In fact, odds are it is way off base.

If the coach confirms the talk, however, then I think it's for you and your son to discuss and decide together whether to finish it out or not.

Personally my son has been through this. Even when he out performed everyone he still got over looked.
My advice is to get yor son in the best shape he can and improve his skills. Stick it out and just try to out perform them. BB development can be a slow process but do not quit. I also advise against talking to the coach. Just go out and out work the other guys. My son is 22 and a SR at a D1 college. He perservered and he is the only one left playing BB.
It took a couple years for him to get to the top and it was worth it. At 14 you should work on his skills and work ethic. Play it out to the end of the season and see how it goes. Don't talk to the coach, quit or complain.Have seen this way too many times.
One time in Major Mosquito, the 2nd year of pitching, my son sat for 6 games at the beginning of the season. Finally he got to pitch a game onhis birthday and he threw a no hitter for 5 innings and was then pulled. That was no problem but after the game I asked him what the coach said about his performance. He replied he did care and said nothing. I then said why don't we wash the Uni and fold it up and give it to him and thank him and go play rec ball or some where else. Yes U was angry but he said no I want to play allstar. I promised not to say another word about it. Am I glad he didn't listen to me. He went on to be their top guy and got them all the way to the Ontario finals AAA level defeated the district champion & OBA champions twice to get them to the final.
You have to tough it out.

I think he should finish it out. Quitting should be discouraged unless there is an extreme case. Look at it as him getting his foot in the door and being given a chance to show his stuff in practices. If he really is a placeholder, he may be the first guy they consider next time somebody quits or gets hurt.

Is he happy to be on the team? That should be much more important than whether you are happy with his situation. Is there an alternative? If he could be playing regularly for another team, then that should be a consideration.

First and foremost you must find out if that is the true situation. If it is true and you joined without being told, get out now. You do not want to be associated with an organization that would do that kind of thing. They will do much worse if you let them.

Your son will learn a better lesson by leaving a deceitful coach and organization than by staying with a liar IMO.

Why isn't he playing ? Is he obviously deserving of play time ? Any others on the team in the same boat ?

Too little info to really give good advice.

What does he have better to do this Fall ? If he has alternatives and the team fee was sizeable you might consider it however you didn't mention what he would like to do. I'd be inclined to have him stick it out provided he was getting something from it for example good reps in practice, friendships developed with other players, or even just a good ole life lesson. While sometimes necessary, quitting is a bad habit to acquire. Just makes it that much easier to blame someone or something next time.

Thank you all for your input. Greatly appreciated.

Turns out that adding our son (and a couple of other kids) to the team was, for lack of a better word, a "ploy" designed to keep the team viable through the Fall, i.e., they needed money to maintain the team. Fee was $1,200. As I've come to discover, there was never any chance of making or staying with the team.

The coach has a core nucleus of 9-10 guys who had been together for a couple of seasons. Couple of those Dads assist (their kids play the same positions as my son). As you might expect, those kids get the bulk of the playing time and the team is managed so that these kids play together. Thus, in the Spring, when the other kids return, they'll be a better team. There was never any real shot to be part of the mix.

My son got a couple of cameo appearances in some games, usually in positions he'd never played or been given any instruction in playing. However, after each such appearance, he was removed from the game, regardless of how he performed (FYI - he showed that he's clearly one of the better kids). He got maybe one inning, 2 at-bats per game. As you might expect, if he made any kind of mistake during his appearance, it troubled him. This hurt his self-confidence and was due to become a self-fulfilling prophecy (he was playing afraid of making a mistake rather than just playing "loosey-goosey").

Well, we made a decision to leave the team. Several other travel-level teams want our son so we have options. But we just didn't want to "quit" or give our son the message that quitting is OK - he's never been a quitter - instead we're trying to focus on, hopefully, a good life lesson (avoid deceitful, dishonest and, well, fraudulent people and organizations, etc.). Funny how kids are - he knew this was a bad baseball organization and situation, notwithstanding the "professional" level of instruction (uh, it wasn't).

Oh yeah, they've agreed to return half our money. Not sure whether they'll actually return it but will keep you posted.

Thanks again to all.

Sounds like you have a good grasp of the situation and are making the decision to best benefit your son. Best wishes, I hope it all works out for him. You can't play the game looking over your shoulder, for any reason.

Bad Dog, just as an FYI, the practice of adding kids to a fall team is not an uncommon one. We play in Georgia and many teams will have a different team in the fall vs. in the spring. What was wrong of these coaches was not to inform you of this. Usually the coaches will let the kids know that their participation is just for the fall and they will not be on the spring team. Many families agree to this so they can play in the fall.

Often a team has several players that play football and can't play in the fall. Like I said, the coaches should have made you aware of this from the beginning.

Also, $1200 seems like a lot for the fall which is usually an abreviated schedule. I think we paid $350 for this fall which included 2 shirts, hat, 3 tournaments and several double headers.

Hopefully this can be a learning experience for you. Good luck on your new team.

Let him quit and then sit him down and explain the situation to him. He will understand the difference between quitting because lied to versus quitting because of being a bum. It's understandable to want to make sure that your son doesn't become a bum and that is why you talk to him.

IMHO, Great resolution Bad Dog. We can all say what we would do, what you should do, or mention what others did. Bottom line, we don't walk in your shoes and understand the complete dynamics. You did the homework, accepted the results of the scenario, and moved on with a relativily inexpensive understanding of the realities of select ball. I commend you for your professional stance.

compete.