The importance of one parent-fan

Sometimes, behavior in the stands is indicative of a parent's inclination to hover over their son and consider themselves entitled to intervene in their son's relations with his coaches. If college recruiters observe parental behavior that suggests this, it raises a very real threat that they will lower their interest in the "entitled" parent's son.

When this sort of thing happens, I feel badly for the "Scott-EE's;" but, most coaches aren't going to willingly associate themselves with a player whose parents indicate that they're inclined to spend the next 3 or 4 years in their ears. Life's simply too short...and there are WAY too many good players out there to choose otherwise.

Been there and done that, but in the end, even if they are annoying I don't care what the other fans do or say as long as they're rooting for their players and not addressing or commenting on ours.

OTOH, my kid's summer team has a mom who indulges herself in  what I would call Little League cheering. Every routine fly ball or grounder earns a loud "Good hit, Johnny!"  I'm sorely tempted to tell her, no, a good hit generally results in the batter reaching base safely.    But I don't. 

Just a guess, but......if you talk to the other team's parents they despise her too AND she is probably sitting by herself or with another annoying parent.   Again, just a guess.

Honestly could not tell if the other parents disliked her. I sure as heck hoped they did. But her son batted 3rd and threw low 80s with pretty good curve = stud so they put up with it at the very least.

Sunday night, 2016's club team is in 16U tourney championship. Now, some of the opposing team's parents could be seen as loud & obnoxious...especially one gentleman in a red windbreaker. 

(FYI - I am one to generally never listen to anything parents say. A lesson I learned a long time ago as a coach.)

Anyways, we lose 3-0, plaques, medals awarded, time to leave (9:00PM). Get to my truck and...won't start. Sugar. 

So guess who gave me a jump! Red windbreaker guy. And he couldn't be nicer. 

Batty67- I'm glad that you ignored her. If your son ever plays at the next level - be it collegiately or professionally - the fan attention may change from cheering for their own teams to ridiculing your son and his teammates. 

I had an experience when I was 20 years old, playing in a game in front of maybe a few thousand. I came in to pitch late in the game and began hearing some R-rated comments from fans above the first base dugout. My friend who was in attendance approached me after the game and asked if I had been upset about the comments. I told him that I remembered that those people were the ones sitting in the stands paying their money to watch me play baseball, and that their comments meant nothing.

I don't really know why some fans act the way they do, whether it be "Scott-EE's" mom or the fans yelling at me during my game. Quite frankly, you'll probably never be able to change the elementary school bully's ways, so just steer clear of the issue. That was always my way of thinking.

Boy, that story brings back memories. We here in S. Florida have some really obnoxious parents I am sorry to say. When my son played HS ball the team that won the national championship was in the same district. Had to play them twice regular season and  2 times more district championship and regionals. Son played third base and he had parents leaning over a fence about 10 ft. from him just screaming and letting him have it. After a few outstanding plays he kind of leaned over to them and said keep it up your giving me strength. We can't understand to this day why them parents were just screaming at him. Thank god he had played a bunch at Tamiami Park so it didn't really bother him. Those from SoFL will know what I'm talking about.LOL

My wife has developed a few theories about travel teams as she has watched my son play for the last 8 years.

1.  Teams with all white uniforms usually to not get out of pool play.  The coaches care more about how the team looks than it plays.  The less frills on the uniform the better team.  She said she would never let my son play on a team with white pants.

2.  Teams with Moms who wear team bedazzled (think sequins) shirts and hoodies are always obnoxious.

3.  The teams with a bunch of grandparents at the game will always be pleasant.  Grandparents do not want to spend time with jackasses.

4.  Teams from areas with new home development are always obnoxious. 

You can she has thought a lot about this.  

Moses - Got a load of Tamiami when there were 3 of them in Cooperstown at 10 and 12U about 6 or 7 years ago so I know exactly what you are talking about.  One of the teams managed to get booted for using an illegal player.   Da na na na na na!  Everything was a SportsCenter Highlight.  What a scene I laughed out loud about six times in that game. 

I can see how as they got older it could take an ugly turn. 

To me this is a team culture problem.

On our youth team, any parent exhibiting this sort of behavior was told that it had to stop.  If it did not, the player was removed from the team.  Problem solved.

Someone is always taking on a flame-throwing kid, though, so the mom will keep it up.  You just want it to be someone else's problem. 

We also refused to voluntarily schedule games with teams whose players, parents or coaches did not behave appropriately.  In tournaments, you don't get to pick your opponents, so it's something to learn to deal with.  As JH says, if you keep playing long enough, you'll reach the point where you have paying fans who feel their ticket price included purchase of the right to behave however they may please. 

If it's any consolation, the youth flame-thrower with the loud-mouthed mom is often not still a big time prospect 5 years later.  Post puberty, talent sorts out much differently than it did prior to.  For one thing, it's common for kids in the households of parents who adore their kids in this way to develop behavior problems that shoot their baseball careers in the foot.  But for whatever reason, these things have a way of petering out over time. 

Even if it's just because the kid gets old enough to tell his mom that she is a problem for him and she needs to shut it.