Why do parents want their sons to play baseball?

Stafford, no, above average size is NOT a requirement.  Your post seems to correlate size with athleticism.  My kid happens to be 5'9" and needs corrective lenses.  Must have no ability. 

Coach B25 - You have been here a long time,so have I. That is one of the most amazing posts that I have read in a long time,perhaps ever read. Thank you for sharing your story!

No, I've seen plenty of smaller, athletic kids excel in baseball at the high school level and move on to college. And most of those kids excelled at whatever sport they played due to speed, quickness, competitiveness, and overall athleticism.

I'm talking about a kid who is below average in size and below average in athleticism. The parents direct them away from football and basketball and towards baseball in an erroneous belief that their lack of physical attributes will be less of an issue in baseball than in other "more physical" sports.

Stafford, your basic premise is flawed.

Parents enroll their kids in youth baseball because it is fun.  Period.  As for the smaller or "unathletic" kid, you cannot predict which kids are going to athletic in the future with any degree of certainty.  Some athletic kids today are fumblebums in their teen years.  My own kid was a reserve outfielder with zero tools.  That changed as he matured. 

I remember when I signed up my younger son up at age 8.  One of the coaches -- and he was serious -- gave a speech about how certain parents are pushing kids with no talent.  Said the parents were "living vicariously" through their player.

Of course they are.  Parents love their kid and want to enjoy that success with them.  But to filter out "talent" at the younger ages is foolhardy.  That's my point.

Life Lessons. I cannot communicate the ways of the world to my 11 year old son. Kids at that age can't truly relate to or understand how the world works, but through baseball I feel like he gets it...... to some degree. There are so many aspects of baseball that are great for kids to learn from. Hard work as an individual for the sake of yourself and a team. Improving yourself to accomplish and/or reach for your dreams. Leadership, understanding how to follow it and how it's done, right and wrong. Some learn from people that do it right and others get to learn how to do it right being led by people that don't have a clue. Want to get more playing time, go work, get better and earn it. I can remember being told by a coach that he's either going to figure it out for me or I could figure it out for him. Loved it and use that thinking process today as an adult. I want my son playing baseball to learn how to respect himself, coaches, teammates, opponets, umpires, parents and volunteers. I want him playing baseball to learn how to handle failure and adversity. I want my son to learn that losing the right way is more important than winning, period. I want my son to have something that he loves, something so purely great as baseball, something that he can share with his kids and grandchildren. I want to be 87 years old and spend a day working with him on his porch steps and get to talk baseball. I want him to play baseball because it may be one of the most important things I'm able to give him. 

Our kids playing baseball allows to fulfill our addiction to overpriced, concession stand food.

I am loving reading the stories here of everyone's beginnings. I never ever watched baseball before my son got me into it. Now I just love it. My son was away so I haven't been to a game in 2 weeks and I am not liking it!

The question is very presumptious.

I didnt want either of them to do what they didnt want to do (athletically that is LOL)

Rather - based on what they wanted to do - I wanted to assist them in doing it however I could.

Hows that for a convuluted mess of an answer.

Its-

but didn't you teach him to catch something thrown at him when he was just out of diapers, and have him swing something resembling a bat at something you lobbed at him?

If my son didn't like baseball, that would have been OK with me. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't try to transmit my love of the game to him. So I have to confess, I was not a neutral bystander!

Rob - actually - despite my love for the game - I introduced them to just about every sport I could as soon as I could.

They both liked football alot - but that didnt last after they got smashed to pieces a couple times. LOL

Both loved skiing.

Younger guy also loved wresting - and baseball.

Older guy loved baseball - period.

CoachB, thank you for letting me post your story on my website.  Its a great baseball story and a great American Story.  I wish more kids could see the big picture of why they play sports. Your story does a great job showing "why parents want their kids to play baseball"  You can check it out here.  Thanks again!

My failure to get traction led to contributions for my son's success.

Times change over time, don't they?  I'm not really certain, but my affinity for baseball didn't really come from my parents wanting me to play baseball, but probably came about over time from when I was very young when I'd play catch with my father on the sidewalk in from of our rented home as we had no front or back yard to play in.  And it was at that age my neighborhood friends and I would get together in an empty corner lot of play baseball somewhat as depicted in the movie Sand Lot.  I was about 8 years old and used my father's 3 finger glove (a glove of the 1950's), which I still have and my kids think it so cool when I show it to them or when I would use it on occasion to play catch with them (kind of to show them what "old school" was kind of like).   There seemed to be no organized youth sports in our area, so getting friends together on a whim to play ball was the norm.  My father and uncle (WWII vets being in their 20's) would play a men's softball a little and on rare occasions I got to attend a local minor league game, which seemed very "Major" like to a young boy like I was.  So, baseball was really the only game I was exposed to when I was growing up.

My family moved a lot and at age 11 in a new neighborhood and would play ball on my nearby school's field.  And a neighbor got my parents to enroll me onto a Little League team.  I remember really enjoying playing ball that year found I had some pretty good talent.  My parents never came to a game and I only got to play LL that one year.  Some time the following year, my parents moved again.   My father and I never played catch again and this new neighborhood didn't have any kids around my age or who had any interest in playing baseball.  The only baseball competition I had was getting together with a single friend, who was about a year older and much bigger than I, to play some catch and we'd compete with each other to see who could throw the ball the farthest.  He was a big strong kid for a 13 year old and could really though the baseball far.  He was shocked to find that I could throw  it as far as he. No other kid in school could come close.  We didn't know how far we were actually throwing the ball until the school put together some track and field like competitions and one competition was a long toss of a baseball (not softball).  My friend and I wound up competing against each other and he beat me by only a few inches and we both were throwing the ball just over 200 feet (according to the teacher's measuring tape).

It wasn't long and my family moved again, only this time it involved the family splitting due to divorce and being the oldest male I became the "man of the house" and looked after my siblings to some extent.  I never played any baseball as a youth again, but I loved to watch it on TV when I could.  While I played various sports as a teen, I never got back to playing baseball and never had anyone to practice with.  I did really well at other sports that were available.  I was good at just about everything, but just not the best at anything.  In High School. I tried out for the baseball team and displayed an outstanding arm and fielding skills . . ..BUT, I couldn't hit a pitched ball very well at all (I guess that takes some practice ).  So I never made the team, took up golf as the sport I wanted to continue in since I could just do it on my own, and became an above average golfer.

As I became an adult I felt I never had any real opportunities to develop any of my athletic skills for one reason or another and I vowed to myself that if or when I ever had children I would make every effort possible to help them develop whatever talent and/or skills they might have.  Though I have had a love for playing the game, baseball was not something I specifically "wanted" for them to play.  But my son's involvement in baseball came more from their own interest that I would say just slipped in from my own as a natural progression.  If my kids didn't achieve their dreams, be it baseball or anything else, it wouldn't be from lack of opportunities or lack of a parents interest. And as it has turned out, Baseball has become a very big part of our life due to the success my son has had.  I don't think our family's involvement in baseball at some level will really ever end for the love of the game.  Time will tell.

IMHO, my sons couldn't choose a better game to play than Baseball.

For the record, my basic premise was that most people encourage their kids to play because they also played, it's the national past time, and there are many fields and programs available.

He picked the sport.

I kept paying for it, because I'm a fan and someday I wanted him to go to games with me, drink beer and be able to carry on a relevant converstation about the game.

He just got so good, I don't understand it like he does.

It's the greatest game ever invented.  My grandfather, father and I all played at a high level so I don't think I ever consciously wanted him to play I just can't imagine why anyone would not want to play.  He played soccer for a few years and quit, played basketball through 7th grade and football Until 10th.  He was a great football player his coaches all felt like He had D1 talent so when he came to me wanting to quit I was a little disappointed but here is what he said, "dad I like all sports, in football I love the games and hate practice, in baseball I love everything about it, I love the games, I love practice, I even love the workouts getting ready to play, I love the smell of the grass, the glove, the sweetest smell on earth is a new baseball, one way or another I will be in the game for the rest of my life, it's time for me to give it my full attention".  He was drafted in the last draft so it's hard to argue with him, he was right.  Did I ever push him? Yes, to perform at the level "he" was capable of and to respect the game.  

Christmas 1995...padded bat and puff ball just out of the box.  Tossed it at my 18 month old from about 15 feet away and hit drilled me in the crotch with it and used the prettiest left handed swing doing it. 

What else could I do with him?

With that kind of love for the game as you've described, I'd bet he didn't need any pushing.   

In any case, it's a BIG congrats to him on getting closer to his dream.

I never pushed him to play but when you are better than 99% of the other kids you play with sometimes you don't realize how big the world is and how many other kids are just like you and are better than most of the kids they play with as well. For him I always told him to measure himself against the kid in the Dominican who looks at baseball as a way out for his entire family.  If you out work that guy you are doing all you can do.  I never thought of it as pushing but more of challenging him to raise the bar.  

I don't know why I wanted my son to play baseball. Maybe it was because I played. I was decent but nothing, nothing compared to my son and most of his teammates.

What I can tell you is why we played catch.  I insisted that we play catch so we could talk. He was a captive audience in my mind. I can't tell you specifically what we talked about but we talked. We played catch from age 6 to age 13-14 and then I couldn't catch him anymore. My reflexes aren't/weren't what they used to be. We would talk about school, fishing, hunting, whatever.  He would throw me knuckleballs, try to throw me curves when he was young, Durn, I really miss those talks!!!

Ahh yes, "raising the bar". . . I can identify with that. For my younger son, he has always been very competitive trying to be better than those older and better than him as he grew up, which probably started from his relationship with his older brother (4 years difference).  So, as time went by and as you say he seemed "better than 99% of the other kids" he played with, it was a matter of finding places for him to go to that challenge him to play even better.  His competitive nature would take over as the bar was raised.  Now the bar is at a level he had only dreamed about. . . .I feel that's probably much like your son, 

Hey, I know that feeling.  My son knows how much I love to have a catch with him so when visiting he's go out with  me and we'll toss the ball from distances I can manage.   I laugh about it now and then when he tries to hold back and not throw it so hard at me reminding me how it was when I trying to hold back when he was a little boy.  

When mine was about 11 my father came for a visit and my boy was all over him to play catch.  On the way out I said to my dad who was 60...he throws harder than I ever did, stay back and be ready.

I watched out of the bay window as my father fought him off for about 10 minutes taking longer and longer to return the throw.  Finally on a low ball he grabbed his hammy and begged off.  My boy was all smiles coming through the door and my dad tossed me the glove and said...I'm never doing that again, I'm just watching from now on.