Occasionally on the news there are stories involving Little League parents or coaches that just completely lose it. The parents get into a fight or the coach hits the umpire or some other completely inappropriate behavior transpires at a kid's sporting event. The adults end up acting much worse than their kids and set an example for exactly how not to act. When watching those stories, I have always wondered how things could get so out of hand at a Little League baseball game. How can the adults completely lose sight of the spirit of the game? Then I became a Little League parent. I do not condone the behavior of the adults in those stories, but I can now understand a little better what those adults might have been experiencing before losing it.
Because of my career choice, I have been in some stressful situations. That is the nature of my job. It is not always stressful and there is some downtime, but you never know when you might be making a life or death decision. High speed chases and physical confrontations are stress inducing, but they have nothing on watching your child step into the batter's box. At times it is hard for me to watch. With every ounce of my being I want A1 to get a hit and to get on base. When he makes an out and I see the disappointment on his face, it just crushes me. A nine year old does not understand that baseball is a game of failure. If you fail only 7 out of every 10 times at the plate, you can make millions of dollars in the Major Leagues. That fact does not comfort A1 after he makes an out.
A1 is in his fourth year of Little League baseball, AAA kid pitch. The first two years, his teams were not great, but the coach had a positive attitude and the kids all had fun. Last year, the team never gelled and never played together as a team. It was not a positive experience. This year, the team seems like they are playing together and want to win for each other. They started the season on a winning streak, but have lost their last two games. The last game was an especially tough loss, on the parents.
Last Tuesday, A1's team, the Hotrods played the Riverdogs. The Hotrods got off to a good start and scored 4 runs in the top of the first inning. The Riverdogs responded with 3 runs in their half of the inning. A1 was the first batter in the top half of the second inning. The first pitch was called a strike and A1 made a good swing at the second pitch but came up empty. The third pitch was far enough outside that the catcher had to slide over to make the catch, and the umpire called it a strike. I was beside myself. A1 made the right choice by not swinging at the bad pitch, only to have it called strike three. Instantly A1 was frustrated and felt like he could not hit the ball. I walked over to the dugout to try to cheer him up, but he was really frustrated. I reminded him that he can hit the ball at practice and in the driveway. He felt like a failure and was not confident in his abilities.The game continued and the umpire continued to make bad calls, at least from the Hotrods perspective. It seemed like the umpire was a family member of the Riverdogs. The more calls that went against the Hotrods, the more frustrated the Hotrod parents and coaches became. Parents started complaining a little more vocally to the umpire. After one particularly horrendous call that went against us, we let the umpire know just how bad that call was. I did not hear any profanities, but it was not constructive criticism either. At that point, the umpire walked over toward our bleachers and threatened to throw us all out of the stands. All that did was fire us up a little more. Even my mild mannered wife was getting into it a little bit.
The game continued. The Hotrods came back and were close tying the game, when the umpire made yet another horrible call handing the game to the Riverdogs. The parents were pissed. The coaches were frustrated. Fortunately, no one completely freaked out, but the possibility was there. Then I looked at the kids. Sure, they looked a little disappointed at first, but then they got in line to shake the other teams hand. After they shook hands, they all ran back to the dugout with smiles on their faces. In the span of two minutes, they had all put the loss behind them. The parents and coaches were still complaining about the calls and the umpire. The kids were playing around and looking forward to the snacks that they were about to eat. It reminded me that it is only a game, even though they keep score. By watching them, it helped me to put the game back into the proper perspective. Now comes the hard part, remembering that the next time the calls go against us.
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