I know there are bigger things to discuss right now with the Rays and Magic, but I have to get this off my chest. At my son’s little league game yesterday I came across some stupidity that just floored me. I will try to put it into perspective for you. There was a conversation during pre-game warmups between a coach, one of the kids fathers and some kids that stunned me. Here it goes..
Coach to father: When you’re done throwing with that kid will you come teach this one to throw a slider?
Father: Sure
Kid: I want to throw a curveball.
Father and Coach: No, that is bad for your arm. We’ll teach you a slider.
I was floored by this and finally spoke up saying “a slider is as bad on your arm as a curveball”. The coach said “really?” I was shocked that a baseball coach at any level wouldn’t know this, but that wasn’t the real shocker. The real shocker was the father’s response to me saying “no it’s not, it doesn’t hurt the arm at all”. What?! I tried to argue with him and he now went into why a slider wasn’t bad because when you throw a slider it breaks down, not across the plate. I said no, if you’re throwing it correctly it breaks across the plate with some downward action, if it breaks straight down you’re talking about a sinker. He then said no, you’re wrong, a slider breaks down and wanted to teach me how to pitch at that point. I walked away completely flabbergasted and just told my son not to listen to any of the other parents or coaches and just play the game the way I taught him.
I simply can’t get over this stupidity. Think about why the pitch is called a slider. It slides across the plate, hence slider. All of these coaches that are at this league have shown me nothing but incompetence and I just can’t get over the lack of knowledge I’ve encountered within this little league here. I grew up playing baseball in this area and never encountered this type of stupidity before this season.
These poor kids are going to blow up their arms in a couple years all the while learning nothing about the game of baseball. It’s sickening, but I can’t go back to coaching right now so I can’t do much to change it.
I beg all of you out there, if you don’t know baseball that well, don’t pretend you do and don’t teach kids a sport you don’t know!
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