Posted by: Mike's mom () on Wed Nov 5 15:44:36 2003

Please explain then.

I been to enough games and around enough boys to know how this game goes, especially with regards to the younger boys.

Teaching an 8 year old boy to act like a bully whether it's on the mound or at the plate may develop him into a good player, but it also develops him into a thug with a bat or ball. There's plenty of them in the major leagues, and no one likes them.

..And I know very well how important it is for both pitchers and batters to defend themselves in this game and not to take any garbage from the opposing hitter or batter, and I'll admit I rather enjoy a good baseball fight at the ML level -- Yankess v. Red Sox!!! ....but, 8 year olds don't play this way!!!!!

This over-aggressive behavior, knock 'em down, hit 'em in the eye or throat, may be an attitude for older boys, but if you're coaching little kids the objective is to get them to love the game, develop their skills, win games, build confidence, and keep them playing....not instilling fear in the hitters or pitchers, that's for the older boys. Not too many 8 years olds would come back to the game if they were constantly under attack by the pitcher or hitter. Maybe I missed the "to hell with sportsmanship" and "beat their ass" rules in the Little League handbook.

What I'm reading here is it's too bad if your 8 year old gets hit in the face or knocked on his butt by my son's line drive. I won't have any sympathy because my son did his job and that's the way the game goes...it a war you know!! I really hope I'm misinterpreting, but I don't think I am. These are little kid....the hitter may have done his job, but a kid is a kid and we should all be concerned about injuring a little boy and be sympathetic to it.

My son has hit plenty of line drives that have hit or skimmed opposing players. He's beaned plenty of players when he first learned to pitch. He is not taught to aim at an opposing player, but to hit or pitch to a particular spot. He broke his nose this spring after getting hit in the face with a line drive (that wasn't your son rql, was it? -- wink), was back in the game the next week (wearing a protective helmet to his protest) and he and all his teammates are agressive players, winning many championships, but not one of them would take pride in injuring another player or purposely do it. There's more than one way to teach a boy to be aggressive.....teach them to aim at a spot, not at at other children.

Fill me in on what I don't understand.