Select Baseball Is Starting To Be Disgusting

Hello everyone and welcome to the summer! Hopefully, this entry finds you all doing well, emerging from our "holes" after the pandemic has settled, and spending lots of time on the baseball field.

Today's entry is going to be a little bit of a rant, unfortunately, as I saw some things at a baseball tournament this weekend that I found extremely disturbing. First, a little back story, on Ryan and I specifically. About three weeks ago we left our previous team due to some philosophical differences with how the team was being managed. Things like batting the roster, rotating players equally, dodging top level competition and overall poor management of game situations and lack of coaching from the staff. Anyway, I only bring that up to help tell the story for this past Memorial Day weekend. We have now joined a team called Line Drive Black.

Our team participated in an invitation only USSSA tournament that was sponsored by Marucci sporting goods. The tournament featured 8 of the top 40 teams in the latest Perfect Game National Poll. Number 2, 4, 7, 8, 18, 25 (that's us), 37, and 39 were all in attendance. These teams are without a doubt some of the best teams you will see play at 12u. If you think the teams you see in the Little League World Series on TV are good, these teams would absolutely destroy those teams no joke.

Without a doubt, the level of play and the talent of the individual players were incredible. We saw kids hit the ball 300-350 ft. We saw multiple pitchers touch 75mph on the radar gun. Heck, we even faced a kid that was hitting 80-81mph on the gun. (For the record, from 50 ft that equates to about a 97-99 mph fastball in the big leagues.). Those things were awesome to see!

But then there was the disgusting part as well. In a game that was basically the equivalent to the semi-finals, as the winning team advanced to play in the championship, things went south. In the second inning of the game, there was a play at the plate. The runner was clearly out as the catcher caught the ball and tagged the runner sliding into home. When the runner slid, it took the feet out of the catcher (completely clean play - this just happens) and it dumped the catcher on top of the runner. The runner, apparently thinking the catcher lingered too long on top of him, got mad and got up and pushed the catcher with one hand off/away from him. This caused the fielding teams pitcher to rush to the plate, bow his chest out and hover over the much smaller runner in an attempt to intimidate him. When the runner took exception to this action he mouthed off to the pitcher who in turn pushed him to the ground. At that point, coaches from both teams quickly stepped in and started yelling at each other and the umpires as well. Of course the yelling and cursing spilled into the stands between the two teams as well.

Several minutes later, a tournament director shows up on site and decides that both the runner and the pitcher should be ejected from the game. Well, duh.....I'm not sure why they needed a TD to figure that out, but they did. One would think it would be over at the point, but it wasn't. Upon learning of his ejection, the pitcher once again becomes irate and stomps off the mound, pauses and spikes the baseball like he just scored the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. He wasn't done there either. He walks off the field, gets to the gate to exit the area and turns around and throws up the double bird (you know, the middle finger) to the other team, who of course was cheering his dismissal.

After that things settled down for the most part, but the tensions were high and the poor and uncalled for behavior continued. Players hit home runs, stared down the pitcher walking down the foul line and did "bat flips" where they tossed the bat literally 15+ feet in the air half way down the 1st base line. Now I'm old school so I admit my first thought is that is disrespectful and I understand the new school baseball let them have their fun, so my opinion about it is obviously skewed one way. However, I don't see any place in the youth game for this at all, new or old school. I also think it's ironic that dozens of times in youth sports I've seen umpires issue warning for players "throwing their bats" immediately after a swing, but now we are going to let some kid hit an HR and toss his bat 10-20 feet in the air having no clue where it's going to land all while 10-12 players are rushing out of the dugout to greet him once he takes his "victory lap" around the bases? Come on, it's ridiculous and highly unsafe.

So here's the thing, all of that in my opinion is enough to be disgusted with the game, but for me that's not what really got me fired up and still bothers me almost a week later. I can honestly say that while I don't like it, I can a least understand how the emotions of a "big game" and tightly contested game cause people to overreact. I don't condone it, but I can at least get it. What I felt was truly wrong was that the very next day the same two players were back on the field without any further consequence.

First of all, I don't understand how USSSA doesn't have a plus one rule in regards to there ejection policy. It's there for coaches and fans, why not players? Almost every, if not every, high school federation in the country long ago implemented the plus one rule which states if you are ejected from a game you are automatically suspended for the next game. Why shouldn't and wouldn't our youth sanctioning bodies follow their example? In this specific case I was personally told by the event tournament director that they would review video footage of the event to determine the players eligibility before the next game, but then the next day told "no, they are eligible as the plus one rule only applies to coaches."

But let's forget the sanctioning bodies, we know they are only there for one reason and one reason only, to make as much money as possible. No way they were going to risk pissing off parents or the coaches of a couple of the top teams and run the risk of their team or organization not playing in their tournaments. It's not a good value proposition for them so again while I completely disagree with it, at least I can understand.

What I can't understand and will never agree with is how in the world the two coaches of each team allowed those players to play the next day. Ultimately, the head coach is responsible for the behavior of his/her players. I find it insane that these coaches let those kids back on the field the very next game. In my opinion, it shows what their main objective is and that's winning at all cost. They are more concerned about their win-loss total than they are doing what is right and making those players better young men. To be perfectly honest, I would have been appalled and completely embarrassed by the behavior of the pitcher who not only got into a physical confrontation, but his actions walking off the field were 100% out of line. I would have been hard-pressed not only to suspend him but more than likely he would have been dismissed from my team permanently. A message needed to be sent to those players and to the rest of the players on the team. That type of behavior will NOT be tolerated, I don't care who you are or how good you think you are at baseball. We will not allow it! Such a great life lesson could have been taught, certainly, an opportunity missed.

There is no place whatsoever for that type of behavior in the youth game. There is no argument that anyone could make that could change my mind to make me think anything that happened around the situation was ok or justified. (Trust me though, I heard parents trying to though). I fear for the game and our society in general, we can't keep letting stuff like this go on. I hope you coaches out there have the discipline and the courage to ensure it isn't ever accepted on your team. Pray for our game - it's headed in the wrong direction!