Little League Season is Over

Both of my daughters played little league baseball this season on the same team. It was the second year playing ball for my eldest daughter and first year for my youngest. They were the only two girls on their team of ten players.

Early in the season the coach had to quit for medical reasons (doctor's orders), the assistant coach got saddled with more than he could handle and a couple other dads, my wife and I started helping out with practices. A lot more than I planned.

It was a joy working with the kids and watching them improve. When they were engaged, working with them was wonderful. The challenge was keeping a couple of the kids engaged. The ones who would goof around, wouldn't listen and wouldn't follow direction. But alas, this was grade school little league and I had to remind myself that these were 8 through 10 year olds, even when some were showing the maturity level of 5 year olds... Those couple of kids were also the ones who gave up easily. But we couldn't kick them off the team. Not allowed.

The final game was very telling ... it would decide if our team would take second place or third of the 4 teams in the division. We had one player more than the other team, so when we were fielding we had to bench one player. A different player each inning. The other team was up first and our team held them to one run. An excellent start. But then we were up and they held us to no runs. At the start of the 2nd inning, we had 3 kids who didn't want to get off the bench to field. How do you deal with that? When our coach told 2 of them to take their positions on the field you might as well have put "hit balls here" signs on them. It just wasn't fair to the other kids who were still trying their best. Needless to say, that inning didn't go so well and the team effort fell apart. The losers attitude became contagious. By the end of the 4th inning there was no hope of winning and our team didn't even want to get back on the field. We surrendered the game...

Oh ... but we can't call them losers. Or quitters. Even the ones who give up easily. We can only encourage them. While I understand the power of positive reinforcement, I also question the delusional thinking it can inspire. These kids know when they do well or not. But we tell them they "tried", "did their best" and try to make it OK. Then sometime in the future the realities of life sorts things out and with luck those who strive go on to great things and those who give up go on to be ... critics, hecklers and victims... No, I wouldn't call any of them losers. But I would make them face where they quit or gave up.

I saw so much talent and potential in these kids that it was a shame to see the season end like this. But every end brings lessons and every new beginning brings chances to do better. I did recognize glimmers of greatness in these kids. The question become how do you get some of them to recognize it.

My eldest daughter is going on to a different school next year and says she won't play baseball there. But I get the feeling that her final decision will depend on her new friends and the situation. She might just play again. It'll be her choice. My younger daughter is already enthusiastically saying that yes, she will be on a team again next year. So I guess I'd better set aside some practice time for the summer.

In that final game, our team scored 5 runs in total. 4 of those runs were scored by my daughters. Even when I could see that they were giving up, they turned it around and tried again. Even with the loss, that is something to be proud of.