The Big Race

I'm curious as to what we proved with that great thread that went from the LLWS thru pictures of teams.

I'm still open for any new revelations, but as far as I can tell, kids who are much bigger in size than average, get much better coaching than average, play against competition that better than average, devote more time than average and who's parents spend more than average end up being better players than average.

I feel sorry for the average kid who just wants to have fun.

Yesterday, a friend was telling me about his 6 YO son and how he was learning to play Commie Kickball. He said he liked working with him and showing him how to (yuck) dribble and block shots. He said he figured that if the kid wanted to play, he should do it right.

When he told me how the boy gets really angry and wants to fight when another kid gets past him, I asked how in the world at 6 YO that child got so aggressive. He said it was the just nature of the boy.

I'm no one to talk about aggressiveness since we usually had at least one fight every day when I was a kid, but isn't what we're really talking about is trying to induce the maximum aggressive behavior in kids? And I don't mean trying to teach them to fight! What I mean is teaching them to want to just get better, or I suppose if put another way, to win!

What we really have in baseball is a big obstacle race made up of several stages with new people entering all the time. If we could take all of the players everywhere and put them in a long straight line, we'd be able to see what's going on.

There would need to be some handicapping done though. The size and number of the obstacles would depend on their entry form, there entrance test and the stage they were in. The stage with the most players would be the "early youth" stage. Let's say below 9. At that age the only real obstacles would be created by how much their parents had taught them and their physical abilities.

The kids who were health, energetic and had parents who spent time with them working on the game would have relatively few and small obstacles compared to the kids who had physical limitations or had not training what-so-ever.

So we line 'em up and fire the gun. The object of this stage is to just get to be 9 years old. When a player gets to be 9, we look at where he is on the course and use that to handicap his next stage.

When they get to that 2nd stage, "mid youth", 9-12, more things from the entrance form are taken into account as well as their performance in the earlier stage. A player who didn't enter the first stage will obviously have more obstacles early in the race than one who did. Now where the player lives, the coaching and even the players size start to take on more meaning, so the obstacles have to be generated accordingly.

To use an analogy, kids in RAD's neighborhood will have a slightly downhill course to run with smaller obstacles than the kids in Bangor, Maine. The kids in an affluent section of Miami will have a much easier course than kids living in cardboard boxes in Saigon. And so, the race judges will add obstacles and take them away depending on each player and then send them off!

This stage also has a new dimension added. There will be several "checkpoints" along the way where player's decisions change the course. IOW, they may decide to take a shortcut to gain ground. Of course that short cut will be more treacherous than the regular way, but the rewards are greater because they will have fewer obstacles to contend with in the next stage. Of course depending on the ol' entry form, it might make taking the shortcut much harder, but that's the way life is! To use the same analogy, The kids in RAD's neighborhood have more opportunities to find good coaching and good teams than the kids in Kodiak, Alaska. But that's ok, the race must go on.

As each player reaches the finish line, 13 YO, their performance to date get evaluated again. this time the length of the course is much shorter, 13-15. But, there are far fewer players left and the course becomes much tougher and the obstacles will be much bigger.

The farther back the player was in the previous race, the more problems he will have, but because of changing physical characteristics and many other opportunities, everything will be taken into account and the proper obstacles will be set up.

This race will go on until the players reach 16. Its possible that a few of them will have completed their course early and that's ok because if and when they finish, they are allowed to go on to the more advance course, and as before, the players may choose to take more difficult shortcuts. The analogy here would be that they would move on to varsity ball for the players in this country or some kind of semi-pro or pro ball for players without the formal HS system we have.

This time when they reach the age limit, things are entirely different. At this point, the performances on the earlier courses have absolutely no bearing on anything. Only the progress made during the previous course is used to determine obstacles for the next one, so no matter if the player was 1st or last when they were 9 or 13 has no bearing on what will happen now.

Once again the race officials will take everything into consideration and send the players off. As on the previous starts, there will be far fewer competitors, so the competition will be much tougher and the obstacles will be much more difficult.

Something else comes into the mix here too. There are a limited number of players who are allowed to finish this race. The analogy here would be that there are only so many college and pro spots available, so in order to finish this race, players have to beat others who may have been on the course for years! Also, as before, only the last race means anything to the judges doing the handicapping.

There is also a change in the prize for the winners of this race. The earlier winners got pats on the back, trophies, and fond memories, but the prize in this one has monetary value! It may be a scholarship or a pro contract, but it definitely has value. The result is, this course gets to more of a war zone than a race course and ends up being reduced to the lowest common denominator of evolution. Survival of the fittest!

The thing people don't seem to understand is that the people who judge who the winners will be are in a balloon hovering at 5,000 feet with only a view of the very last race course. They not only can't see the other courses, they don't care! All they're interested in is seeing who battles their way across the finish line.

They might pick a few of the players who couldn't make it across but fought hard and got close and allow them to go into a consolation race, but it will only be the bloodied winners of this race who go on to the winner's circle right now.

But even the winners circle is another battlefield. Now, instead of it being a race over a course, it turns into King of the Hill, with new players constantly trying to knock the King's off the mountain.

When I look at the whole process like that, its easy to see how the decisions made and opportunities taken advantage of early in the process can have so much value. Anything to "condition" the player for the rigors of the next race will make it easier.

But on the other hand, its also easy to see that as long as the player stays in the race, he has an opportunity to win!

Here's something to consider. Barry Bonds is being touted as possibly the best player who ever played. Although his fielding has been above average and his running has been too, we all know if he hadn't turned into a home run machine, his name would never have been mentioned with the likes of Mays, Aaron or Ruth.

But looking at his career like the big race and comparing Sammy Sosa's race to his, who had the easier race and who is more deserving of respect? Barry was sitting in ML dugouts when his father was playing and getting help from everyone all through his life. I'm not denigrating his accomplishments by any means, but how many obstacles were removed for him? If Sammy had been given the same opportunities, what would we be seeing from him?

How many other players are out there like that who have survived the race by luck of birth or luck of where their parents happened to live? The battle field is littered with corpses!