Randy was my son’s baseball coach this season. The team is made up of 13- and 14-year-old boys. They are in a critical phase of their baseball education. They have the fundamentals, they know the game. At this point it’s about refining skills and reducing mistakes. At the end of the day it’s still a game and they should be enjoying their time on the field. Randy is a self-proclaimed “expert” regarding baseball. “I know this game inside out and it’s so frustrating that these kids just don’t get it.” Hardly a game went by this season where Randy’s wife didn’t run over to the bench, tell Randy to, “Settle down, shut up, and let the boys play.” And very few games went by this season where at least one boy wouldn’t break down in tears after being verbally attacked by Randy for missing a ground ball, not catching a fly ball, or the one that always struck me as a no-win: “Don’t stand there and watch the third strike cross the plate, if you’re going to go down, go down swinging. If a player did strike out, Randy would yell, “What did you swing at that for?” Randy was not building up a team, he was beating them up for mistakes by yelling and swearing, all the while sucking the fun out of the game for these young boys. radioink/Article.asp?id=2821244&spid=24698
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 21:33:03 +0000
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