Little League Baseball

Little League Baseball

I have gone to many little league baseball games in the past year and it has been quite an experience. The field has nicely cut, green grass. You have all the bases and of course home plate. Both teams get on the field to start warming up for the game. All around the outside of the field are all the spectators which usually consist of parents, siblings, friends and other family members of the players waiting in anticipation for the game to start. You even have usually the other players from the league there as well and also other neighborhood kids hanging around and watching the games as well. There is the home team side and the visitors side. There is also what they call canteen. This is a food shack that the parents of every child is to do at least one volunteer day. They sell everything from hamburgers and hot dogs to candy and popcorn and all varieties of beverages.

Once the game starts all spectators seem to get silent for a moment. The visitor team is always up at bat first. As every player gets up at bat all the parents cheer for every batter one at a time as they get up to the plate. The rest of the team mates are in the dug out cheering each batter on with their baseball chants, and cheers. On the home team side the spectators are all watching and cheering for the pitcher as each pitch is thrown. The coaches for the visitors team are placed at first and third base, so when the batters get on base they instruct them when to run, steal, and stay on base. The coaches from the home team stay in the dug out area. Last but not least you have your two umpires out on the field. You have the umpire at home plate and usually an umpire at first base who usually moves around wherever the ball is being played to call out the correct plays. Then once three outs has occurred the pitching team comes in and the batters take the field.

As each inning ends the team taking the field gets a few minuets to warm up. The pitcher especially, to get in synch with the catcher. As the game is underway the parents start to talk about the game and how its going. One thing I have observed is that most of the parents always seem to have something negative to say. I have seen it one to many times. If there child is not played enough they start to complain, in some cases I have seen the parent pull their kid out of the game and go home with them. Which in my opinion doesn't say much for the parent, and what are they teaching their child to give up every time things get tough, and that it's OK to let their team down by giving up. Parents also try to use the favoritism complaint. They even tend to say that they could coach the team better and the coach doesn't know what his doing and anything else bad they can think of. All the parents tend to get to know each other as the season goes on and for most instances they have known each other for a few years because of their kids playing on the same team in past seasons, so this negative criticism seems to start to come out of all their mouths. I tend to just sit back and listen and keep my mouth shut and wonder how much do they really like coming to these games, and why do they come at all. I do have to say that the attitude of the parents varies from game to game. I guess it depends on whether they win or lose.

At the end of each game the head coach always seems to give a small speech to the kids about the game and there overall performance. If they win it is usually a positive speech from beginning to end with the same "keep up the good work" scenario. If they lose the speech isn't all bad but always tends to have the "we need more hits" scenario. He ends the speech by saying overall good game and see you at practice. As all the players disperse with their parents they all say goodnight to each other and they all look forward to the next game, I think.