OT: Pathetic Parents Throwing Hands at a Little League Game
BRAWL AT LITTLE LEAGUE GAME: @LakewoodPDCO are looking for the adults who got into a physical fight at a Little League game on Saturday.https://t.co/4WHQnbYoFY pic.twitter.com/e88K8MMBjs
— Anica Padilla (@AnicaPadilla) June 18, 2019
My oldest son, now 32, umpired baseball when he was 14 and I had to go to the games and sit behind because the parents were such fucking nutjobs. He was barely older than the players he was umping and parents would be yelling at him cause he they didnt like the call he made.
The problem, IMO, is that today's parents invest a TON of time and money in their kids sports under the misguided idea that their child is "special" and will be a professional something if they just get a chance. No child is average and god forbid, no child is BELOW average in anything. And anything or anybody gets in the way of that delusional fantasy of their prodigy's eventual greatness they snap.
I dont do travel ANYTHING with our kids. I dont give up our weekends in the winter to go to far away cities for basketball tournaments and I sure as hell dont give up our summers to go to travel baseball tourny's either. You know why? Because my kids, like 99.99% of the population are pretty damn average athletes and their road to glory will be with their mind (God-willing), not their feet and hands.
Well said, I agree with your POV about travel teams. I’ve heard too many stories of traveling out of State getting back late Sunday, kid has school Monday. Time, money, etc
This scares the heck out of me. I played rec soccer until I was 11 and then school and club soccer year round. Club travelled at max an hour on a weekend and then three tournaments two in state and one out of state. There was a cost and time, but it seemed relatively reasonable cost my parents could manage. I now see clubs starting way earlier and the costs are thousands of dollars with lots of travel. I want soccer or any sport to be a fun activity where my kids can learn about teamwork, winning, and losing both big and small, hard work and a lot of fun a long the way. I don't want it to define mine or my kids lives.
Best comment I have read on here in a long time.
I agree with you that we're too focused on our kids. I think it handicaps them, and makes them feel like they can't function independently. BUT......What if your kid was good enough? Both my kids are. Not D1 stellar athletes, but good enough to play in college, and they want to play in college. My son already does, and my daughter is shooting even higher, low D1 at this point. I HATE going all over the place for these games. I don't love the parents. It's crazy expensive. I would be fine if she changed her mind abut playing in college. But I feel like she's learning a lot in the process. She took it upon herself to email 10 coaches. She keeps them up-to-date on her schedule. She decided she needed a hitting coach and found one herself. She finds the camps she wants to attend; all I do is give her the money to do it. We don't say yes to all of them; she tries to figure out who's going to be where and goes to the ones that have the most bang for the buck. She started taking her ACT's sophomore year (her idea; I was against it) and studied for them. It's hard to say no to ambition.
It sounds like you have what I consider a true gift: a child who is talented, driven and is ambitious on her own, with a parent who is supportive and not over-involved. That’s awesome, even though I realize that it comes with its share of frustration and expense. It clearly stands in contrast to those parents who want it more than their kids do.
I get the temptations. My 11 year old is a very good baseball player (an All-Star, but not a superstar) who is technically sound and enjoys the game but doesn’t play with a killer instinct. He’s cautious and measured, and that’s who he is. I love it, and I love coaching him and his teammates. It also drives me bonkers, and I catch myself thinking “if he only played with more aggression...maybe we should get a pitching/hitting coach.” But then I’m sliding down the slippery slope.
He will more likely be an engineer or a pilot than a draft pick, and that is an incredible blessing.
My son was a gifted young player who now plays in college, but didn't have the same ambition and drive as my daughter. I had the same thoughts about him that you have about your son. I call them the "If only..." thoughts. If only he had more confidence, if only he would take more risks.....He was incredibly competitive but only on the field. Off the field, he was pretty unmotivated. He especially hated the weight room. He only decided he wanted to play in college when he saw that guys on his high school team who weren't as good as him were pursuing college play. I still think if he had taken himself more seriously, he could've played D1. With that said....I couldn't be happier for where he ended up. It's perfect for HIM. He fits. He's motivated, doesn't feel overwhelmed, had a great season, loves the guys on the team. Through him, I learned a great lesson about letting go of my view of him and embracing his view of himself.
I think I saw Stan Marsh out there.
Gonna go out on a limb and say an umpire needs to be older than 13. Partially to confidently handle stuff like this.
You think a 22-year-old would make a difference? I think not.
The solution is not being douchebag parent
I just don't see a 13 year old being good with "SIT. YOUR ASS. DOWN."
Going to go out on my own limb here and say everybody; parents, kids, coaches and umps, would be better off if the parents were banned from the stands during these kind of games.
Strongly disagree here BECAUSE THESE ARE 7-YEAR OLDS supposedly *playing*. I'm not sure how Little Leagues around the country are going to recruit experienced 35 year old umps to endure a slew of 7 year old games. This should be the perfect training ground for teenagers to ump. But the damned adults ruin it - all the time.
I would love to be the crowd control person at little league games. I'd stand behind the ump, behind the fence at the backstop. If anyone so much as says a wrong word, I'd pull out my taser and zap them into submission. Not injure, just correct. I guarantee the shenanigans would end.
A lot of those parents probably deserve more than just some probably mild tasering, if we're being honest though.
That's fucked up, Wendy.
Absolutely not!
The parents need to act like they are older than 13.
Refs/umps need to get experience somehow.
I coach youth soccer... half of our refs are basically older kids in the league. Our first season as a team we lost a game 5-0. All 5 of the opponents goals were scored offside. I took it in stride. Stuff happens. The kids are playing for a t-shirt and participation trophy. Dropping that one game doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
The parents were fucking livid at the ref and at me though.
What pieces of shit - way to be a model parent to a bunch of kids.
Speaking of, the majority of these asshole parents are usually trying to live vicariously through their kids. And usually they have little to no athletic talent and didn't play sports so have no fucking clue.
Nailed it. And, the parents take it as a reflection on them.
Side note, read the Mathany Method (former Michigan Ball Player). His manifesto is a must read
I agree with that. I was fortunate to play two years of basketball in college before rupturing my Achilles but I didn’t want to waste my summers paying AAU ball in hs because I had to work. I loved the game and practiced and got better by myself. I was lucky to have parents that wanted me to enjoy what I’m doing. No pressure from them and it’s honestly how I treat my 11 year old now. He is a talented swimmer but I don’t push him too hard I just instill in him the desire to improve and have fun. Some parents on the swim team are fucking insane helicopter parents. I feel sorry for their kids. My son gets upset if he doesn’t do well but I just try to keep it positive and support him. I find a majority of parents that were pretty decent athletes are either really chill with their kids or uber competitive assholes but the worst parents are the failed no talent athletes that live vicariously through their children
Pretty sure every little league has that one coach and multiple parents. I’ll never forget when word spread through my little league back in day of a huge fight between a few coaches from other teams. We played one of the teams a few days later and sure enough their coach had two black eyes and a broken nose.
are sleeves outlawed there?
Um, it's pretty clear that the sun is out.
Fortunately, nothing close to that happened when my son was a Little Leaguer.
However, his LL experience was definitely not Norman Rockwellish. He was a really good player who loved the game. Once he got to the LL Majors, he started seeing how his coaches were either favoring their own kids, tearing down some of the other kids on the team, or messing with the other teams' kids during games. My boy just wanted to play ball.
It left such a distaste with him that he decided not to play in Babe Ruth, a travelling team, or even in high school. It's a shame that so many dads choose to live vicariously through their own kids.
Moms do it, too. When my daughter played house softball (ages 10-12), the coach was a mom whose only mission was to turn her daughter into a softball player (she was not one and never would be). She did that by putting her daughter first all the time. It was frankly embarrassing. I had heard that the same mom coached soccer and spent most of the time just cheering her daughter on. That was when we decided to leave the house league for the travel league. The travel team was coached by girls on the high school softball team, which was infinitely better than a self-serving mom who was only interested in her own kid.
Double.
Poor kids. When I played little league, there were two kids with a big school feud that played in the game preceding my team's game. One was pitching, and sure enough, he pegged the other kid. Crazy enough, the other kid charged the mound.
The parents and coaches were beyond PISSED. We thought it was awesome. The boys calmed down and you could see the look on their faces that butt-whippings were coming. Both moms were out there in tandem dragging the kids off the field. That's how you sports parent. Boys will be boys, but adults should always be adults.
This shit here is disgraceful and should lead to DCF inquiries.
Haven't seen that much blubber bouncing around since Ahab was drug to the bottom of the ocean...
Pathetic. It is an appropriate word to describe these nincompoops.
Not surprised at all. Some kids-sports parents are insane and say awful things to their children, or even worse, to their kids opponents, that would reasonably merit having they're facial features rearranged. Watched a documentary on little league where the kids, now grown, talk about how awful adults basically ruined their lives. I'm a level headed person but don't know how I'd not throw hands if a lunatic was screaming obscenities at my kid.
Jerry Jerry Jerry!
That blonde woman was throwing
Looks like the race war has started in Colorado.
I see that joke didn't go over well
Complete trash
I'm only surprised this doesn't happen more often. Parents freak out just as badly about academics or any other facet of their children's lives, and it's almost always because they've stopped treating their kids as human beings and instead as some object they have to move from one station to another. And yes, a lot of that comes from the fact that the world is tougher to excel in than it was decades ago, with increased competition and an leveling of access to resources making it harder to, say, get a shot at an academic scholarship or that choice internship. But good lord, you're punching other parents at a little league game over balls and strikes.
Also, the guy who sucker-punched a couple of people should be used as a Tee for a couple of swings by the parents. It's one thing to get into a fight with other people; it's another to knock a couple of people when they aren't looking.
All parents—especially the fathers—should be subjected to extensive questioning prior to signing their kids up for any kind of sport. If there's the slightest indication that said parent thinks his kid is a sure-fire bet to make millions as a pro, ban him or send him to a special league set up for assholes.
People don't (always) think their kid is going to make millions - that's not the driver. But they do always want a fair (or better) opportunity for their kid. Whether it's batting, a choice fielding position (pitcher is popular in LL because a lot of hits are dribbled up the middle; first base gets all the throws; catcher gets the ball every pitch; etc...), a top order batting spot; a well called pitch count... All of that sets people off if they think their kid is getting a raw deal. Personally, I don't see how it ever comes to what it did there. It shouldn't...
WORLDSTAR!!!
THUG LIFE - The Hate U Give Little Infants Fuck Everybody
That is a really not good, acronym
So fucking sad. My son is 7 and is currently playing all star ball in San Diego, which requires a lot of travel. Yep, travel for 7 year olds. I just keep telling him to have fun and enjoy the opportunity you have. Sports are great, but it ruined by daddy ball. Parents projecting themselves and worth by what the kid does or doesn’t do.
Sad, so sad.
I’m in no hurry to put my 5 yr old boy in little league, crazy parents
All this based on a call made by a 13 year old umpire..wow, wake the fuck up
I hope they are very embarrassed, ashamed and I hope they get some type of punishment
Almost feel like parents should be barred from going to little league games. The kids would probably have more fun that way.
They definitely would. I feel pretty lucky to live in a community where that kind of stuff would not stand. We're all a bunch of former hippies. But we played teams from towns where the parents would get into it with the ump, and scream stuff at our kids. Very high character stuff.
So terrible. Just a few weeks ago my sons league director had to send an email about parents getting into it and the cops being called.
He also noted that in one COACH PITCH game, a parent of his sons team cheered the strike out of a player on the opposing team.
So many morons.
The father of a player on my son’s 15u team was in charge of the team’s Game Changer app, which keeps the scorebook etc. He was relieved of his duties when it was discovered that he was padding his own son’s stats while awarding phantom errors and not giving credit for hits to other players.
I find this one hilarious for some reason. Did he think major league teams were checking the stats for 14-15 year olds?