Intentional Walks

When I watch professional baseball on TV, nothing gets me riled up more than watching a pitcher playing catch with the catcher outside the batter's box, not allowing the batter a chance to hit the ball. I actually will um...talk...to the pitcher through the TV. The words chicken plus a few more letters (4 to be exact), cross my lips. I know it's a strategy, but it DRIVES ME CRAZY. Pitch to the batter! Don't be afraid. Don't you think you can handle him? Stop relying on a loophole and just play it straight! I kind of have the same problem with intentional fouling in basketball (though I understand that better) and shorting the stock market.

Don't we humans create complicated systems? It seems in so many areas of our lives knowing how to manipulate the rules has become as much a part of the game as just playing the game used to be. It's made winning more important than playing a good, strong, decent game.

I heard a story about the N's baseball coach that took me back a bit. He has always struck me as someone who wanted to play the game out, to let the kids finish it out on their own merit, rather than having something as random as weather or something affect the outcome. I respected that. I would rather win because we played well rather than the other team made a lot of mistakes.

What I heard about our coach has made me see him quite differently. Last year's team was quite a bit stronger than this year's team and we'd always been aware there had been a huge break in the team that caused the team to fragment and split. The old assistant coach was and still is an a$$. I've seen him swear at the kids' on his team, get seriously terse with the blue and the other team coaches. He's been very well known around the league and had been ejected from games on more than one occasion, including the very first game that we played against them this year. From our sideline his antics were rather humorous because it was just so ludicrous. He ended up being banned from the league a month ago after throwing a ball into his team's dugout while there was still a child in it. He has no business being a coach.

The a$$ coach and our coach had a serious falling out that led to our coach being suspended from the league that they were both in. We didn't know the exact circumstances and believed that the a$$ had tried to take down our coach. We'd certainly never seen anything in our coach that concerned us in terms of how he treats the kids and his integrity.

During a break in this weekend's league tournament we heard the story. Apparently this time last year during the same tournament the team was on the championship path. There is a very strong team at the top of our league who appears to be pretty invincible. I think that they are actually playing down by being in AAA instead of majors. I guess last year they were just as strong. Our team (before it was our team) was playing them in the potential final game...or if our team lost the second to last game (so the other team had already lost a game). The other team was weakened because two of their star players, twin brothers, were just getting back from vacation and expected to land at the airport at 3pm. During the game I guess there were some problems, some minor injuries, and our guys were starting to lose the game.

What we were told by a parent who's son was on our team last year, was that the umpires had told our coach that he could forfeit the current game (take the loss) and start off the next and final game right away. This would reduce the chance of the star players for the other team arriving in time for the game. If the current game continued on and our team ended up losing then they would most likely have to face those boys and the other team and likely lose again. Hmmmm....

After a meeting with parents our coach decided to forfeit and go on to the next game. It ended up not mattering anyway because even though our team was winning that last game, once the star boys got there our boys wilted and lost the game. End of story according to the other parent.

Really? That was the coaching approach to handling this team and that game? Really? WTF was screaming in my head. I may be naive. I may think like a baby. Is winning really worth getting there by tweaking around the rules? Why not win by playing the game better than the other team? Is that really so naive, so passe?

Besides the questionable integrity issues, what our coach communicated to his team last year was that, no, they could NOT win against that other team when they had all of their players. They could not come up with game winning strategies to beat them, so instead we'll go to the rule book for some sort of loophole. He elevated those star boys to being in the sky instead of talking to our boys about how to play against them. In that moment, being a champion wasn't coming from within. It's hoping that someone trips instead of hoping you can be faster than them. And that drives me crazy. No wonder the boys faded once those other boys came onto the field. They weren't taught strategies on how to play against them. They were being taught how to avoid playing them. That is not a winning attitude. Not in my book.

This weekend we watched as that other team pummelled the lowest seed team at the beginning of the tournament. One of the star boys had gotten 3 home runs by hitting the ball over the outfielder's head repeatly. One of our players was literally awestruck as he explained it to me. All of our boys who were watching the game had their mouths wide open. I asked the boy who raved about the 3 homers, "so, if you were playing them and they hit the ball over your head what would you do the next time that kid was up to bat?". He just looked at me, completely clueless. I said something to the affect of "wouldn't you position yourself further back so you could have a chance to catch the ball next time?". Inside my head I screamed, "Wouldn't you?" Because I already knew the answer. He wouldn't. He would again just stand there and humbly bow as the ball flew by. Because he would have already given up.

Our team isn't very good this year and we've been surprised by how the team in general seems to lack the drive and ambition to try to be really good. None of the better players are that leader-like. Our N and one of the other good pitchers seem to be more the loner types who perfect their skills on their own. I know N feels that being new on the team puts him in the backseat. He's that kind of kid. We couldn't figure out what the heck had happened because we knew that last year's team had been so strong. And the story we had made up in our own minds was that the harda$$ parents had followed the a$$ coach and the "nicer", less pushy and competitive, parents had stayed with our coach. But now I have to wonder...was it the parents and kids who felt confident enough in the abilities of the kids' to play the game, really play the game, who left, leaving behind those who were less certain, more apt to slump the shoulders rather than play as hard as they could even if they ended up losing in the end.

To be fair our coach had told the R a similar story about what had happened last year. Except he told the story as though in the first game there were injuries and they decided to forfeit to give the boys time to rest before the next game. Important details that he left out: that the next game was against the same team for the championship, who the other team was, that the game was to follow immediately so there was NO rest time, and that the opposing team had two star players on the way for the second game. The story sounded quite different given those slight modifications.

As a footnote, just in case you thought our coach was the only jerk on the field, this weekend the awesome kiss the sky team played against another team we know and almost lost. I would imagine they were a bit on the stunned side. According to a parent who's son was on the losing team, the coach for the awesome, invincible team called "get off the mound" while his kids were up to bat (bad because his team wasn't on the mound pitching). The pitcher for the other team thought was his coach and he made the move causing him to get called for a balk, which had effect of allowing the tying run to come in due to the penalty. Another run came in that resulted in our friends' team to lose against awesome, star boys team. This was the story as told to us by parents on the losing team, but it doesn't surprise me. We were watching the game on the side of the awesome team and the stress was palpable. They didn't know how to lose. Winning at all costs is the lesson to the kids.

I hope to use these baseball coaches as lessons for my kids too. Children: This is what you don't want to be when you grow up.

What I want them to learn:

You practice how you play. You need your passion to make you want to practice and play hard. Watch the seams of the ball. Hit the ball. Run as fast as you can. Pitch on the corners below the belt. Play back when you are in center field. Try to make the catch; your glove isn't a magnet; you may have to run after it. Throw bullets not rainbows. Be in the game. Have fun with it. Let your passion lead you.