WHEN DID SS BECOME THE #1, ONLY FUN POSITION?

I agree. Shortstop is being elevated to a glamour position, and it's too bad...

But for those who can see EVERY position for what it's worth (if they were worthless, why would we field those positions?), and help guide their child through the morass of "feel good" vicarious living that many player parents (and coaches) are in denial of being inflicted with, they will serve their kids interests better in the long run.

By example (indulge me a long story here): Last spring I managed a coach pitch team. At the end of the season, I passed out ballots with little pictures of all the players faces on them to the team and one to the players parents. I told them to pick 5 players to represent our team on the All-Stars. If a ballot had more than 5 or less than 5, I warned them I would throw it out (didn't have to, all were valid ballots). The best player on our team was voted in unanimously and there were no real surprises in the picks. Store that info for later in the story.

Now, because our team finished last (no biggie. We played every game close and MY goal was for every kid to hit safely in at least one game, and hopefully cross the plate once - 100% success!), my 5 stars were split up. 3 went to the Red team, and 2 to the Blue. As such, I passed on the honor of being an assistant coach for either AS team, and asked 1 each of my assistant coaches to participate as an acknowledgment for their contribution.

As soon as I stepped aside, one of my assistants never spoke a word to me again. He immediately began campaigning for his son to play an infield spot with the coach he and his son were now playing for. That's cool, I thought. It's his son, he wants what's best for him. But the kid wouldn't get to play shortstop because that was reserved for their new coach's son.

So, I wasn't surprised to see our best player (the top vote getter I mentioned earlier) get "relegated" to right field (habitually where this league tries to hide the weakest players). It's because he didn't have a grown-up on the field pushing for a different position.

No matter, because that player knew then and knows today, that EVERY position on the field is equally important (otherwise, why would we field the position?)

During the game, the star shortstop couldn't handle a hot chopper and took it square in the face (yes, blood was involved), but interestingly, our dedicated and unselfish kid in right field gets pulled in to play shortstop while the bloody nose went for ice. While there, he made a nice backhanded pick and throw for an out at first, executed his cutoffs properly, and looked every bit like he belonged there (even though he played first and third for us for most of the regular season).

An inning later, the bloody nose was subdued, and the injured kid was commanded to retake his position (in all fairness, he was a decent shortstop) by his dad the coach. But the unsung hero trots back out to right field without a complaint and does his job as he should and even gets to catch a fly ball hit to right by a left handed batter.

That was last spring. By fall he was playing catcher in the kid pitch division of a different league. Now, he's been invited to play for a USSSA travel team, and he's only 8 years old.

The way I see it, the more different positions a kid gets to play as he progresses, the more flexible a player he will be and coaches will value that for the options it brings with it.

Baseball is a marathon. If you're in it for the long haul, relax and let nature take it's course. Don't let ranting, whining, begging parents and/or players bother you. There will always be someone moaning in the stands or in the dugout. Has been for years...