When I was in college, I read a short story about this guy living alone who’s horribly depressed until he gets the idea that he should move to another state. I’d be so much happier if I was living there, he thinks. Filled with purpose, the guy busies himself with the mechanics of moving. He finds a new place. He puts his current place on the market. He packs. Toward the end of the story, he finally crams everything into his car and heads to his new house. He gets there, and he’s happy. But in the subsequent days, the familiar depression creeps back in and swallows him up, that is, until he gets the idea that he should move again and that everything will be better once he’s starts afresh. And he starts the cycle all over again and plans the next move.
Put a more modern way: “It’s me, Hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.”
In the context of club baseball, I’m sort of that guy who’s never truly happy and probably overestimates his kid. My son is 14 and has played for five different club teams (yikes!). You would think I’d learned something, but here I am in April of the spring season questioning whether we made a mistake joining our latest club.
But with all that said, I had valid, somewhat objective reasons for leaving all our prior clubs. A lot of clubs are fucked up and are consumed with trophy chasing or take way too many kids for financial reasons and dilute the product or favor certain kids to the point of being like daddyball. Yet still, I’m a critical person who takes this stuff way too seriously and that has also lead to some of the breakups. I am definitely not blameless!
But here is what I really don’t like about our current club.
Pitching
They throw their pitchers way too much. In his second game, my son threw 94 pitches on a cold day and his elbow hurt for a week (it probably still hurts). This week, they had another kid throw over 100 pitches. A second kid threw about 50 pitches Sunday in the morning and then they used him for another 40 for our third game three hours later. They’re trying to win tournaments, I get it, but I’m not going to blow my kid’s arms out for that purpose. We eventually won the tournament, and that’s great, but at this stage I’m looking toward high school (next year) and hopefully college.
Like I wrote in a previous post, after they pitched my son 94, his arm was killing him and he couldn’t play in the field for the rest of the games because he couldn’t throw. So even though he’s not a pitcher only (PO), he was essentially being treated like a PO.
Fielding Time
They favor one of the kids for no discernible reason. Here we are at 14u and the kid in his own world dancing in the infield between pitches and his throws are all over the place, but he’s in the field more than my kid. I realize my kid is new on the team and has to prove himself, but that bothers me.
I have to admit my son hasn’t really distinguished himself in the field, either. He hasn’t really made any errors but he’s been slow going to his right and left (he let a ball get past him down the line when playing third that he should have probably stopped) . He hasn’t made any plays that would cause anyone to take note. He’s also horrible at tucking in his shirt and often looks like a sloppy David Wells, which doesn’t imbue coaches with confidence (you have to look that part!). I still find myself really pissed off when he’s sitting on the bench ever other inning, whether it’s reasonable or not.
Batting Order
My son didn’t perform in our first two tournaments, so they naturally and fairly dropped him in the batting order. Also, being on a new club, they don’t know him and his past successes. Yet they dropped him all the way to last in the order this past weekend, and he responded by hitting a double and going 2 for 3 with a walk in the first two games of the tournaments, but they kept him batting last for the rest of the games (even though they change up the lineup a lot). I guess this is more frustration on my part than a real grievance, because the same thing happened last year on my kid’s middle school team. He started off slow, and dropped in the order, and then it took him a whole month to dig himself out of the perception that he couldn’t hit. I just hate that he’s going to have to do all that digging over again.
Conclusion
So there you have it. The only legitimate reason I have to be bothered is the overpitching. Also I didn’t complain to the coaches or anything. I’m not that stupid. So I’m aware that I’m being mostly unreasonable and trying to work on my unreasonableness and not do anything stupid based on it.
For more Club Baseball Dad, see:
- Should You “Reclassify” Your Kid for High School Baseball?
- I Spent 30K on Youth Baseball Last Year; Here’s How
- Youth Baseball: Why Do I Care So Much?
- Anger Management and Youth Baseball: How to Calm Down
- How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
- What’s Your Baseball End Game?
- How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
- How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
- Is It Okay to Complain About Fielding Errors?
- Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?
For information on hitting, see:
- How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
- 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
- 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
- 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
- 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat
For information on pitching, see:
- What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
- 4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity
- Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
- Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
- How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Basebal
For ways to get faster, see: