Little League Sportsmanship

[Jefe]

11-yr-old baseball. Tournament trophy day, single elimination. The games have a time limit, when it expires you finish the inning.

You're the home team, you have a 4-1 lead when you start a new inning with about 12 minutes left in the game.

So you tell your pitcher to stall. Step off the mound a ton. Once you let a runner on 1B, throw over there 5-6 times (as opposed to normal times, when you might throw over there once or twice an entire game.)

Then in the bottom of the inning, have your batters take every pitch until they have to swing.

Good gamesmanship? Poor sportsmanship? Both? Neither?

[Erik]

Both. The league needs to tell its umps to be vigilant about teams obviously trying to run out the clock.

[Judge Jude]

Sounds like at least one coach has some serious psychological issues he's trying to work out on a group of children.....

[swampdragon]

horrible display or poor sportsmanship - just a plain crappy thing to do to win

winning that way should be a great source of embarrassment

[Jefe]

Crazy thing is, they really were the better team. We'd gone into that game expecting to lose by 10+.

It's tough. I know I've been in that position as a coach and felt an urge to do it. But they were so blatant about it... just soured what was otherwise a good experience.

[Frank]

horrible display or poor sportsmanship - just a plain crappy thing to do to win
winning that way should be a great source of embarrassment

Totally...These are children and today they were cheated by an adult with serious leadership and standards issues.
Concur with swampy.....shameful exhibition of poor sportsmanship.

[baldgriff]

OK - I am going to get beat up for this potentially.

Teams win and teams lose. Why would it be wrong for 11 year olds to learn this lesson? At what age is it appropriate or not appropriate? This is the end of the year tourney and the team that plays the best wins.

Assuming this is the championship game the problem here is that there should never be a time limit on Championship games.

That is all....

[overkill94]

Whatever is legal within the confines of the rules is okay...within reason. If I were the coach I would tell my team to take their time but not do anything out of the ordinary. If I were the umpire I would warn the pitcher and/or coach that any overt stalling techniques would result in ejections.

[Jefe]

OK - I am going to get beat up for this potentially.

Teams win and teams lose. Why would it be wrong for 11 year olds to learn this lesson? At what age is it appropriate or not appropriate? This is the end of the year tourney and the team that plays the best wins.

Assuming this is the championship game the problem here is that there should never be a time limit on Championship games.

That is all....

Not an end-of-season tournament. This is select ball, where the teams play tournaments every weekend. 2-game seeding play-in on Saturday, single-elimination bracket on Sunday.

None of these kids need to be taught about winning and losing. They're doing one or the other, from 3-6 times a weekend.

Pretty strong tangent from the subject of the thread.

Also, they're 11 -- there's no such thing as a game without a time limit. So... yeah.

[Jefe]

Whatever is legal within the confines of the rules is okay...within reason. If I were the coach I would tell my team to take their time but not do anything out of the ordinary. If I were the umpire I would warn the pitcher and/or coach that any overt stalling techniques would result in ejections.

Yes... just wondering where the majority would draw the line. The constant throws to 1B were over it to me.

[Lucky]

Eleven year olds didn't dream this up by themselves. My money says they were doing exactly what their coaches told them. If so, those coaches exhibited extremely poor sportsmanship.

I had similar situations when I was coaching Boys and Girls Club. I told them this: "You let me worry about what time it is and what inning it is...you guys get out there and play ball."

The umpires really can't enforce a "no stall" rule, other than through the existing rules of baseball. An ump can't tell a kid not to take a pitch, or not to throw to first. But a coach can, just by telling them to play the same way they did in the first inning.

The fact these kids are 11 is significant. Coaching 16-year olds is very different, but you can still make the game about sportsmanship.

[Judge Jude]

The weirdest thing is that they were up 4-1 and apparently have the better team.

Not to justify a team of 11-yr-olds trying to pull off an upset this way while up only 2-1, but at least there's a likelhood that they are not that likely to win the right way, so it wouldn't be so unexpected.

But this idiot seemingly could have done it " the right way" and won without controversy.

Seems like that's pretty telling about the psychosis of this coach - I wonder if he simply couldn't handle even the thought of losing this game.

Not only is it pathetic, but I wonder if he sold the parents on this "By any means necessary" claptrap for 11-year-olds.

Is there a commissioner, and what does he think?

[baldgriff]

Not an end-of-season tournament. This is select ball, where the teams play tournaments every weekend. 2-game seeding play-in on Saturday, single-elimination bracket on Sunday.

None of these kids need to be taught about winning and losing. They're doing one or the other, from 3-6 times a weekend.

Pretty strong tangent from the subject of the thread.

Also, they're 11 -- there's no such thing as a game without a time limit. So... yeah.

OK Not an end of the season tournament - but this is "Select Ball". These kids are not here just learning fundamentals like how to catch. They are playing competitive baseball - even if it 11 year old baseball these are tournaments where you are seeded based on how you do in the 2 games. Then on Sunday you only get to keep playing if you win. Keep in mind here, as you said, Im the home team with 12 minutes left. I would say that its a pretty big gamble to ask kids to keep throwing over to first when someone gets on. Throw the ball away and now you have kids running around the infield. If you give up the lead - you only have one at bat to make it up.

When kids are playing at a competitive level that is higher than rec ball, the kids are there to win. Its the only way you get to keep playing, and win the trophy. You may not like the method that the coach used - it definitely had some risk if the kids throw the ball around - that said it was an effective way to win and keep playing.

You may not like it, but when you play competitively you play within the rules and occasionally use them to your advantage. Ultimately, its a game and the point is to win.

[Judge Jude]

Ultimately, its a game and the point is to win.

ok, you buy that at age 11, that's the real point. the other stuff is just touchy-feely, I guess.

how about age 6?
age 4?

is there any age at which playing to win is not quite the only lesson being taught?

geesh.

[swampdragon]

They need to learn to play to win - not to exploit some type of loophole.

Ultimately losing gracefully and understanding the ridiculousness of the situation makes you a better person - and the choice between better person or better ball player isn't even close.

This is what I try to teach every day to my middle school students.