Any little league parents here?

[TNTtoys]

I'm having my first taste of it this year with my youngest son, who's in kindergarten. It's been a lot of fun, and although he doesn't quite understand it all, he tries and wants to be good at it. I have never been so proud of him!

[skyking26]

I've followed my son from T-ball thru Little League and now at age 13 his first season of Babe Ruth. It all goes very fast.

[Blitzmaster]

been coaching my son for 7 years now. 12 years old and one of the best hitters in the league!

[allstarsplus]

Youth sports can be so much fun for the children and of course the family.

I coached Travel baseball which was like a full-time job for me and now I am starting over with my youngest in Coach pitch and at the same time I get to watch my 16 year old in High School Varsity where he is a top pitcher in the county so some days I jockey between 2 games and my daughters dance!





My son breaking this aluminum bat!

[allstarsplus]

Talking about Little League, I found this on another site.

This is a true throwback! LOL


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXVnb...layer_embedded

[BarryMeisel]

Andrew,

My son is 19, a freshman in college. He played and I coached him from the time he was 6 (t-ball), through high school (Fall ball season, when the HS coaches could not coach and I volunteered coaching the high school team).

So that's 13 years ... and this is the first spring I'm not coaching. And it kills me. It was so much fun.

Enjoy it. As Skyking said, it does go fast.

My only suggestion would be to be true to the kids, and let them all play and have fun. There will be PLENTY OF TIME for the better kids to develop. I was most proud of the fact that I gave every kid a chance when he was young, and hoped that I exposed as many young kids as possible to the enjoyment of the game.

There will be idiotic parents, and there will be gung-ho coaches who think it's important that their team of 7-year-olds beats your team of 7-year-olds. If you can ignore them, and be true to the kids, it will be a fun decade.

And if you need an extra coach, LMK. Anytime I pass a youth baseball field now I get a lump in my throat.

Barry

PS: My 17-year-old daughter is about to enter her senior HS season in soccer (I coached her, too, for 10 years) and I don't know how I'm going to handle no more sports for either kid. There is a great book written by Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaugnessy titled "Senior Year." It's his story of living through his son's senior baseball season in HS. Fantastic read.

[allstarsplus]

Andrew,

My son is 19, a freshman in college. He played and I coached him from the time he was 6 (t-ball), through high school (Fall ball season, when the HS coaches could not coach and I volunteered coaching the high school team).

So that's 13 years ... and this is the first spring I'm not coaching. And it kills me. It was so much fun.

Enjoy it. As Skyking said, it does go fast.

My only suggestion would be to be true to the kids, and let them all play and have fun. There will be PLENTY OF TIME for the better kids to develop. I was most proud of the fact that I gave every kid a chance when he was young, and hoped that I exposed as many young kids as possible to the enjoyment of the game.

There will be idiotic parents, and there will be gung-ho coaches who think it's important that their team of 7-year-olds beats your team of 7-year-olds. If you can ignore them, and be true to the kids, it will be a fun decade.

And if you need an extra coach, LMK. Anytime I pass a youth baseball field now I get a lump in my throat.

Barry

PS: My 17-year-old daughter is about to enter her senior HS season in soccer (I coached her, too, for 10 years) and I don't know how I'm going to handle no more sports for either kid. There is a great book written by Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaugnessy titled "Senior Year." It's his story of living through his son's senior baseball season in HS. Fantastic read.

Barry - Great story. The most amazing part of coaching is when a kid years later tells you how you changed their life for the better.

I was watching the Baltimore Orioles game on Thursday vs. Yankees and they did a piece throughout the game about Adam Jones and his childhood as it related to baseball. I know Adam's mom Andrea so I was interested to hear what they had about his youth baseball experience.

To my surprise, the story was mostly about his Coach and his wife who took Adam in like a son as he joined their travel team in San Diego at 12 years old, and supplemented all the costs that Adam's family couldn't afford. It was the turning point in his baseball career.

http://backstopbob89.websitetoolbox....oto=nextnewest