Laughing or crying... Somewhere in between the two, my friend. What's worse, is they only hit one of those runs in. The rest were all walked in. Hoping they rethink the whole "Let's not leave the JV any pitchers" thing before tomorrow's game, or Saturday's double-header.

Last game of the season this year for football was like what you said... We were up 53-0 in the second quarter, so they sat the entire Varsity and put the JV in. Funny thing was, the first four scores were all one kid - TD catch on the first play, INT return for TD, then two punt return TDs in a row lol. We saved that one on the VOD, watch it every now and then for a giggle lol.

Oh.. And yeah, scruffy, baseball. *facepalm*

I know, and that's what I tried explaining to my kid (who, incidentally, is not a pitcher - 3B/1B exclusively - but will most likely be pitching tomorrow)... It's Varsity that matters, with state rankings/tournaments/whatnot... JV just exists to A: provide a pool of extra players for Varsity as needed and B: to prepare the players for when they're on the Varsity squad... To which he replied "How much are we preparing when we're just standing on the field watching base-runners walk by while batters walk on four consecutive pitches?" Y'know, it's a good question. I mean, at what point do you begin doing more harm by fielding a team that isn't capable of getting the ball put into play? Are you better off to just say "We don't have a JV team, everyone will dress and prepare for all Varsity games, and that's that"?

I know, most people reading this probably don't 'get' what my gripe is. But, as I said, I'm transitioning from being the dude who calls the shots to just another spectator... And I can't wrap my head around what I'm seeing. I mean, I was never a great coach, but I was better than most... And I could always manage to get the best production out of your typical underachiever... Where these guys are at risk of losing these younger kids, the ones they'll be depending on in a year or two.

Long story short... You gotta give the kids a chance to be competitive, don't you? If not, why bother showing up? Why set them up for failure, then trot them out there to embarrass themselves?

I'm devoting way too much thought to this, aren't I?

scruffy said
when i was in school, nepotism was the usual problem.  two families actually chose to move, because their sporto kids were sitting behind much less talented cliques of half-interested popsters who happened to be related to coaches and/or teaches. 

Actually, there's no nepotism problem at all. If you excel, you play. Simple as that. That's actually part of the reason why we moved him to the private school a few years back - if you weren't a "name" in his old school, you weren't going anywhere.

scruffy said
since i doubt all seven of the pitchers turned out to be the coaches nephews, im assuming the idea was to give every pitcher some varsity trigger time, maybe...?  how many pitchers is a team allowed to have, anyway? 

I'm assuming it's just a matter of them ensuring they have somebody else to put on the mound if their primary pitchers don't have "it" that particular day. It happens. Typically, two of the three freshmen pitchers just ride the bench and aren't even used - or if they are, it's at third or short - and the other is the varsity starter at center field. All three deserve to play varsity, as they're incredible athletes. Hell, I coached 'em the last two years. That's not the gripe. And I don't believe there's any limit to how many they have or use - but once you pull one off the mound, he can't go back to pitch again during that game.

scruffy said
wouldnt that be a long string of lousy hitters in a row?  or do they all get pinch hitted by the designated bullpen after an infield fly during a steal?

Huh?

scruffy said
baseball, on the other hand, is inscrutable because it starts with a list of simple rules, and complicated them with a ton of complex rules to partially undo the rules that came before them.  no one even agrees on standards.  hell, they have separate rulebooks for the two divisons-  er, the afc and nf-  or, uh... the national baseballers and the american baseballers.  

Couldn't agree with you more on this.

He's a good kid. I try to stay on his shit and not praise him too much, to avoid him developing too much ego. There's a couple factors that have led to me being a better dad than I probably would have otherwise been - plenty of mistakes my parents made raising me, that I have sought to correct; his mom ain't worth a shit, which led to me obtaining custody when he was 3, and pretty much being forced to be more involved because (for a few years anyway) I had to be both mom and dad. Beyond that, ensuring he stayed involved with sports, 4-H, a Youth Club at his old church, pulling him out of public school to go to a private Catholic school (and all the religion stuff that goes along with that), and helping him find a job at age 14... I think all those have contributed to him developing into a decent human being as well. People always laugh when they think of me, an agnostic, stressing the importance of religion to my kid; but I feel it's something everyone should be exposed to and be able to form their own informed opinion on.

Anyhow, thanks for the compliment, Pigg. I won't take credit for it - it's a combination of the kid himself and the situation we found ourselves in that made him what he is.

Either way, thanks again man. Looking forward to seeing ya again, and meeting Chief.

Your awkwardness is what made you so goddamn entertaining to be around. Embrace that shit, man.

Meh... Let's just say I don't think it's quite time for "Father/Son Strip Club Day". lol.