Are we SURPRISED...? - Repost for Knowledge Base

People often wonder why I get so set off about AAU, travel, tournament and all star teams from time to time. Things like the Danny Alomonte issue is a perfect example.

Now, someone please tell me this kid had the G2 to engineer such a scheme, if the allegations are true. I doubt this kid had the resources to on his own fabricate his age and legal documents. So WHO was the mastermind behind it all? While we may never know the actual names of all those involved, it's safe to sum up their descriptions:

ADULTS.

Whether is was the coaches, the boy's parents, other team parents, sponsors, boosters or what have you, it was the ADULTS who allowed it, concealed it and now compound it by playing the race card. People TOO wrapped up in baseball and WINNING a tittle, by hook or crook.

This is why from time to time I frown on such things as AAU, travel, all star and tournament teams where the "best of the best" are filtered out to play. When you get into leaving the "less skilled" players behind for ANY reason and try to create an "elite squad" of players, everyone's ego usually goes along for the ride. There's a friend of mine who helps direct a local cable TV show who had a travel team on a few weeks ago. He said the kids were great. But, the coaches were about this side of arrogant and the parents! He said they were intolerable. Snooty, pompous, demanding and pushy were a few of the words he used to describe them. He also likened them to a tank full of sharks around feeding time.

While I know there are certainly people who associate themselves with these teams and leagues who ARE NOT like that whatsoever, (and actively frown upon those who are), I've also had more than one run in with these kinds of people that reinforces my friends observations.

When such "ELITE" squads are created and the "inferior" players are weeded out, it's my personal opinion that we've thrown away the true meaning of youth sports, especially LL baseball.

It's NOT supposed to be about creating a team of little superstars traveling around the four corners of the nation battling it out with someone else's team of little superstars. It's SUPPOSED to be about LEARNING and BUILDING CHARACTER. The skilled players need to learn that not every player is as good as they are, but also need to learn that being of good character means helping your team mates who are less skilled become better skilled. I cannot see how segregating skilled players away from less skilled players by moving them on to more elite teams full of skilled players helps build the concept of teamwork or character. If you are a skilled player, can you only be bothered engaging in teamwork if the rest of the players are as good as you are? Do you only bother helping your team mates if they are those who passed a skills try-out first? Not in my book.

My own son had to learn this lesson this past spring. The AA team he was assigned to was mostly either kids who just came up from tee ball or had never played before. At first, he was upset and frustrated that he had to play with a bunch of kids who couldn't play anywhere near as good as he could. He wanted off that team in the worst way. He cried. He begged and pleaded. I told him that instead of whining about how his team mates weren't as good as he was, go out there and help them to get as good as he was. Show them how. He was the oldest and most experienced kid on the team, and the younger kids needed his help. Funny as it may seem, once I explained it to him this way he really got into being the team leader on the field. I'd catch him showing the younger kids how to field, how to bat and how to run bases. When those younger kids began to make plays and get hits, my son was very proud. He stopped thinking about whether we won or lost, but HOW WE PLAYED. If we lost, he'd say something like, "Guess I'm going to have to spend some more time with Josh on the batting tee". If we were in a game, he'd talk up the defense and keep the rest of the players on their toes paying attention. He'd call where the play was and even set the kids sometimes for a lefty or righty batter. Now, when he sees kids not as skilled as he is, he goes and helps them without even being asked. He knows that's his team mate and his job is to help. He's been approached by AAU and all star squads to try out, but he isn't interested. He's more interested in being just part of a team that just plays baseball.

It raises the question: If things like the Alomonte scandal continue to happen should we continue to have leagues, teams and tournaments that invite unscrupulous conduct from coaches and parents with the children being the pawns in these schemes? If we allow it to continue without confidence that LL officials will severely punish those involved, what can we expect next? How do we maintain any level of trust? What lessons are we teaching our kids?

If we can't do this cleanly and fairly with trust and honesty perhaps we shouldn't be doing it at all. The loosers in all of this are the kids who simply want to play ball. They're the ones always shortchanged by the self serving, egotistical adults who should know better.