I finally see why kids don't like playing baseball

[SpinJr]

So where in Southern Maryland? We're in St. Mary's County, so also as far south as you can go without getting wet.

I think in all sports there's a line between playing games and just practicing. I do find it unusual that here they practice for a few weeks, then nothing but games through the rest of the season. My other son plays soccer and I coach and they have practices all season in addition to games.

I'm in St. Mary's county as well. I must also say am not a fan of Little League baseball in general. Don't get me started on my opinion of the Little League World Series. I much prefer Babe Ruth which used Ripken baseball rules.

If your son has minor baseball games at Dorsey park on either Tuesday or Thursday this week I may be umping him.

[DrungoHazewood]

I'm in St. Mary's county as well. I must also say am not a fan of Little League baseball in general. Don't get me started on my opinion of the Little League World Series. I much prefer Babe Ruth which used Ripken baseball rules.

If your son has minor baseball games at Dorsey park on either Tuesday or Thursday this week I may be umping him.

Tuesday and Thursday at Dorsey. Although so far I think we've had coaches ump. At least one game... maybe the assigned ump didn't show.

[SpinJr]

Tuesday and Thursday at Dorsey. Although so far I think we've had coaches ump. At least one game... maybe the assigned ump didn't show.

We've had some issue getting Arbiter set up properly. The head of the umpires is working on it.

Interestingly enough I was the coach of the minor Red Sox two year ago. I HATED wearing the hat. At practices I wore my O's hat.

[MDtransplant757]

And I bet the future travel team kids are already off doing their own thing.

They are. My 12 year old brother, mom, dad and I can attest to it.

[Why Not?]

Good thread. I've read some snippets from beginning to end. I share similar concerns about youth baseball these days.

I live in Southern (as far as one can go) Maryland now and I've coached and currently am umpiring for little league baseball. I grew up in AA county and played for the Lake Shore organization and baseball took me all the way through college. My experiences growing up are FILLED with found memories of baseball. Not just playing games but studying the game, learning the game, having successes and failures, and developing life long friendships along the way.

However, I am concerned with what I've seen here at least locally. I'm not sure if it is a regional difference or generational reality? My biggest gripe is kids are not learning to play baseball. We place them on the field and they have no clue what they're doing. When I was coaching we had not time to practice. My main goal was to build a foundation like I was taught. I pulled out the tee, did form throwing, tried to teach proper base running, what is a crow hop, etc. We had 2 weeks of practice time minus any rainouts. My team was 8-10 years old and they weren't anywhere ready for games (as a team some individuals certainly were). I was left very deflated.

Of course we all romanticize our childhoods but even at my most objective I see why kids aren't playing baseball anymore like they used to. We don't teach them well enough to have more successes than failures. (Full disclosure I believe travel ball is most likely where the real players are these days)

Glad your experience is better this year as a parent. I hope my son (17 months old) has more to look forward to here then what I've seen thus far.

My kids' league suffers from a lack of practice time as well. We realistically can only play for about 9 weeks. We really can't start before mid-March because it's just too cold. Then we have to stop by early June because so many kids go on vacation when school lets out. During that time, we have to play a reasonable number of games (usually around 15) and the field allocation is pretty tight. The result is that teams hardly practice at all.

[Slappy]

This is a great discussion. I've been coaching since those 5-6 days (my son is now 11) and have always had many of the same thoughts.

Here are things I would do for up to 7 year olds:

1) Cut down team sizes from 12-13 kids to 7-8. This gets through the lineup faster and puts most everyone in the infield.

2) If they strike out with the pitching machine, put a tee up and let them hit and run anyway.

3) Don't keep score (outs or runs). Let everyone bat each inning.

4) Play fewer games and have more practices. Teach coaches how to make up competitive mini-games for practice to keep it fun.

As they get into the 7-8 range, you can start making it more like real baseball.

[DrungoHazewood]

So I'm going to zombie this thread rather than make a new one...

Nate really liked his kid-pitch Red Sox in the spring so he's playing fall ball. Now he's on the Phillies. Fall ball, at least in St. Mary's, is a little less... everything. Fewer players, I guess some play football or soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring. Practices got called off recently for darkness. Quality of play seems lower, although still well ahead of machine pitch.

Last night they had a game that featured 18 runs and one hit total. Really. I think it was 13-5. Nate led off the game with his trademark - pounds the ball into the ground up the third base side and there's not even a throw. He's the Ichiro of St. Mary's Minors Little League. 4' 0", 50 lbs and maybe the fastest guy on the team. He's hit the ball past the infield once or twice but is probably hitting .750. There are others in the league my size (5' 7" 145) and almost every team has a kid or two who have to be pushing 175. These are 8-10 year olds.

For the next hour and a half it was a long, tedious sequence of BB, BB, WP, WP, K, WP, BB, K, BB... By the end even the parents were joking around about a no-hitter and almost begging it to stop. The coaches and ump called it early, thank goodness. But despite some games like this it's a lot more like baseball than the season a year ago when I started this, and Nate mostly loves it.

[Frobby]

When my son Sam's team got to the age where they switched from machine pitch to kid pitch, Sam was unique in the league because he could actually throw strikes on a consistent basis. His velocity was just average, but he often would get through an inning in 12-15 pitches because the kids just weren't used to hitting live pitching, and were hoping for walks that he wasn't giving them. There was just a huge contrast between the innings he pitched and anyone else. As the years went by, he always did have great control, but his velocity remained average, and as the kids got older and more used to hitting, he got hit harder and harder. It got to the point where having good control was almost a disadvantage, because the opposing hitter knew the ball would be around the plate and weren't afraid of getting plunked. The kids at the bottom of the lineup -- the ones who still couldn't hit and were just hoping for a walk -- still struck out routinely, but the others got their bat on the ball very regularly and Sam was at the mercy of his defense, sometimes good and sometimes bad. When some of the better hitters started reaching puberty (Sam was late in getting there), they were crushing his stuff. Still, I always enjoyed watching him pitch, because the game moved along and wasn't just a long series of walks and strikeouts. He finally gave it up in 9th or 10th grade, when he was playing on an awful team that couldn't field and he just couldn't take having to get 6 outs in an inning.

[DrungoHazewood]

When my son Sam's team got to the age where they switched from machine pitch to kid pitch, Sam was unique in the league because he could actually throw strikes on a consistent basis. His velocity was just average, but he often would get through an inning in 12-15 pitches because the kids just weren't used to hitting live pitching, and were hoping for walks that he wasn't giving them. There was just a huge contrast between the innings he pitched and anyone else. As the years went by, he always did have great control, but his velocity remained average, and as the kids got older and more used to hitting, he got hit harder and harder. It got to the point where having good control was almost a disadvantage, because the opposing hitter knew the ball would be around the plate and weren't afraid of getting plunked. The kids at the bottom of the lineup -- the ones who still couldn't hit and were just hoping for a walk -- still struck out routinely, but the others got their bat on the ball very regularly and Sam was at the mercy of his defense, sometimes good and sometimes bad. When some of the better hitters started reaching puberty (Sam was late in getting there), they were crushing his stuff. Still, I always enjoyed watching him pitch, because the game moved along and wasn't just a long series of walks and strikeouts. He finally gave it up in 9th or 10th grade, when he was playing on an awful team that couldn't field and he just couldn't take having to get 6 outs in an inning.

Nate has pitched 4-5 innings this season, maybe one every two or three games. He has a good arm for his size, but his "fastball" tops out at about 35. Basically he's like watching John Stephens throw his 60 mph eephus curve. Last night his control was off, he's had better games. But I think the issue is that it's hard for a nine-year-old to control a 35mph pitch that you have to almost lob in to make it to the plate.

The engineer in me did the calculations and his pitch needs to peak at 8' off the ground. That's just physics. It's hard to control a ball on a parabolic trajectory.

It was funny to watch Nate relieve his teammate Logan last night. Logan is about my size and probably tops out in the 60s.

[glenn__davis]

When my son Sam's team got to the age where they switched from machine pitch to kid pitch, Sam was unique in the league because he could actually throw strikes on a consistent basis. His velocity was just average, but he often would get through an inning in 12-15 pitches because the kids just weren't used to hitting live pitching, and were hoping for walks that he wasn't giving them. There was just a huge contrast between the innings he pitched and anyone else. As the years went by, he always did have great control, but his velocity remained average, and as the kids got older and more used to hitting, he got hit harder and harder. It got to the point where having good control was almost a disadvantage, because the opposing hitter knew the ball would be around the plate and weren't afraid of getting plunked. The kids at the bottom of the lineup -- the ones who still couldn't hit and were just hoping for a walk -- still struck out routinely, but the others got their bat on the ball very regularly and Sam was at the mercy of his defense, sometimes good and sometimes bad. When some of the better hitters started reaching puberty (Sam was late in getting there), they were crushing his stuff. Still, I always enjoyed watching him pitch, because the game moved along and wasn't just a long series of walks and strikeouts. He finally gave it up in 9th or 10th grade, when he was playing on an awful team that couldn't field and he just couldn't take having to get 6 outs in an inning.

Man, this is me to a tee (baseball pun!). I was an excellent player as a kid, especially as a pitcher, always playing on all-star teams and such. When we all hit puberty, I like to say that everyone else got taller and thicker, and I just got taller. And never really did get thicker. Which isn't a bad thing now, but I just didn't have the power/strength to keep up back then. I see my younger son following the same path. He's always been a natural athlete, very quick, very coordinated, but I think he'll eventually suffer the same fate. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it. Watching my kids compete is my very favorite thing to do at this stage of life.

Glad your boy's enjoying it, Drungo!