Sportsmanship going too far?

[Omni]

So, I attended the first game of the little league world series, and the pitcher.who gave up the first homerun came off the mound and gave the batter a high five as he was.rounding the bases. Of course, I can see congratulating your.opponent and shaking their hand after the game. But while he was.rounding the bases right after hitting a homerun off of you? Come on!

[Westheim]

Do they teach that to kids in school these days? Ridiculous. As the coach, I would have taken him right out and sent him to do his geometry homework, because he's obviously not an athlete, lacking guts and all.

[Omni]

There is a cartoon I saw a while back that exagerrates the idea of being overly sportsmanship like. Rather than competing against eachother as competitors in sports, they were working with eachother. They kept using the word YEAH!! And just acting overly goofy. It was pretty funny. This incident kind of reminded me of that.

As I said, I understand being respectful towards your opponent and revelling in the fact that you are here; even if you ultimately lose. I can definitely see congratulating the opponent who has defeated you and being a good loser (or winner.) But during the course of the game, you have a job to do. I mean, If iwere the coach, I would never dream of berrating the pitcher for doing that. I would talk to him respectfully in a one-on-one manner, and tell him to reserve the handshakes and hifh fives for after the game. During the game, they are still the opponent, and we are still trying to win in this contest.

The pitcher didnt do anything BAD, of course. Just a bit too much, too soon imo.

[RchW]

Don't blame the kid for the indoctrination imposed on him by misguided adults.

I'm all for sportsmanship but that seems contrary to the concept of competition.

[Omni]

Right, thats what in saying. The moment the kids arrive, the league shows them video after video of diversity, sportsmanship, and history, eetc. And it isnt documentary-like videos either. It's in the same vein as disney's it's a small world afterall" ride.or, if you ever been to hershey park, it's like the ride through the so-called "factory." Basically, a museum about the history of chocolate-making that has been yuckified. It's like a creepy nazi-style propaganda or something.

Just let the kids be kids. Adults dont realize that kids actually enjoy the spirit of competition and want to win. It's fun.

[RchW]

Yeah the people who need training on how to behave are adult family members most of the time. It's a reaction to over the top aggressive behavior by parents and family members living through their kids meager accomplishments. I don't like it but it's a form of cause and effect. We wouldn't need all this crap if parents behaved like adults.

Many years ago my son's team was losing 7-1 in a house league (everybody plays) hockey game. With about a minute to play the winning coach put out his biggest player (against the change rules) to face off against the kid who had scored the single goal for our team. The big kid ignored the puck and viciously crosschecked our kid in the face. The winning teams parents erupted in wild cheers. The people in front of me were actually yelling, "that's what you get for scoring against us". I had to be restrained from physically attacking them which doesn't say much for me. After getting no satisfaction from the officials in attendance, no penalties no suspensions. I left the arena and I've never watched a game or supported minor hockey since. I'm told that not much has changed and the demographics show that kids hockey is dying in Canada. The dinosaurs are making themselves extinct.

Just my rant.

[Omni]

Ya know, thats a good point. Those videos and ettiquette is probably more for the adults.than the kids!

I laugh, but what you pointed out is a serious issue. It seems it's more.for the adults as a spectacle, than for the kids. It was definitely more pure 20 years ago than it is now. Note all the advertising if you ever catch a game on tv. The logos on uniforms. The coca-cola signs everywhere (used to be rc cola,) etc. It's crazy. Never used to be that way until about the year 2000

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Omni

Ya know, thats a good point. Those videos and ettiquette is probably more for the adults.than the kids!

I laugh, but what you pointed out is a serious issue. It seems it's more.for the adults as a spectacle, than for the kids. It was definitely more pure 20 years ago than it is now. Note all the advertising if you ever catch a game on tv. The logos on uniforms. The coca-cola signs everywhere (used to be rc cola,) etc. It's crazy. Never used to be that way until about the year 2000

The most obnoxious people I meet are those that have regional and local level athletic kids. It's Jonnny this and Betty that. Strangely when you have a real athlete they and their parents often say nothing. My daughter has a friend of her and her boyfriend who played on the Junior A Hockey Memorial Cup Champions this year. That's equivalent to a NCAA championship at least. When I found out I asked why no one ever said anything about it. She said he doesn't talk hockey when hanging out with his friends from high school.

[Omni]

Originally Posted by RchW

The most obnoxious people I meet are those that have regional and local level athletic kids. It's Jonnny this and Betty that. Strangely when you have a real athlete they and their parents often say nothing. My daughter has a friend of her and her boyfriend who played on the Junior A Hockey Memorial Cup Champions this year. That's equivalent to a NCAA championship at least. When I found out I asked why no one ever said anything about it. She said he doesn't talk hockey when hanging out with his friends from high school.

Yeah, most of them will just go out, do their job and have fun. When I played AYSO as a kid (I wasn;t at all very good at soccer! ) one the best players in my league (he was also on the travel team,) was a great guy. He sorta took me under his wing. He was soft-spoken, and hardly anyone praised him when he made a goal (which was many. He made more goals for our team than anyone else.)

Maybe it is just confirmation bias, or just anecdotal evidence, but I know playing baseball, most of the best players were usually the quietest. And some of the worst teams we played against, were usually the most brutish.

Maybe that is just a product of what I saw in that first game. Maybe that pitcher was just a really nice kid, and I'm being an overly cynical adult. I dunno. I just know that the indoctrinating videos they play for these kids are a bit much. I have to sit through them every year, and every year, I just roll my eyes. When I started helping out, before the expansion of the LLWS, they didn't used to do that. They were usually fed a speech about how this is going to be the greatest moment of their lives, etc, etc, etc. I didn't much care for that speech, either. Yeah, being 12 is great, and playing on such a stage at that age is amazing. But it's kind of depressing, to think that you have peaked at the age of 12, and nothing you will ever do will be as great.

If it were up to me, I would tell the kids to go out, enjoy this moment in the sun, out of many in your lives; and to just relax, slow down, and have fun!

(The weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend! I knew it would be, after that stiff, all-day rain shower on Thursday! )

[RchW]

If you are playing a sport you should play to win. Otherwise there is no real point. Taken to a ridiculous point if kids are not supposed to want to win then there should be no penalty for approaching academics the same way.

[CD1083]

I have zero problem with what the kid did.

IT'S. A. GAME.

[ihatenames]

Ne neither. When I was playing in high school our first basemen would always high five the opposing player on their way around the bases after a homerun. The 3rd baseman would sometimes too.

To me it just shows he's a kid loves the game and was impressed by his opponent. Let him be a kid.

[CD1083]

Originally Posted by ihatenames

Ne neither. When I was playing in high school our first basemen would always high five the opposing player on their way around the bases after a homerun. The 3rd baseman would sometimes too.

To me it just shows he's a kid loves the game and was impressed by his opponent. Let him be a kid.

I remember my first homerun and the thing I remember most is the 1st basemen telling me good job on my way past. We were having fun and sure it was competitive, but it was more fun that we were allowed to be in awe of each other's accomplishments.

[Omni]

I dunno. I think it's kinda lame.


I do enjoy the trash-talking catchers, though. Especially this one guy my high school team played against. He was pretty damned funny. Forget his name, but he made me crack a smile a few times while I was batting.

[MorseMoose]

Great sportsmanship shown today during Chinese Taipei and Uganda - Album on Imgur

Yeah, I'd take these examples every day of the week. It's a game. They're having fun. They're trying to win. It's not the end of the world if they don't. I'd take that stuff over the anger and hatred I've seen from people that try to win at all cost and forget to have fun.

I completely agree that parents are the issue in youth sports, though. Mike Matheny has a brilliant letter to parents from when he coached his kids' teams.

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by RchW

Yeah the people who need training on how to behave are adult family members most of the time.

Best place to coach?

An orphanage

[Cobra Mgr]

its a game. Emphasis: GAME. They are 12 yr olds. The first things we adults should be worried about is are the kids safe & having fun. When they are getting paid to play, then lets worry about all of that competitive nonsense.

[Airdrop01]

Didn't make sense.....typed when exhausted! Anyway...point is that they're kids playing a game. For fun. All of them.

[canadiancreed]

Originally Posted by RchW

Yeah the people who need training on how to behave are adult family members most of the time. It's a reaction to over the top aggressive behavior by parents and family members living through their kids meager accomplishments. I don't like it but it's a form of cause and effect. We wouldn't need all this crap if parents behaved like adults.

Many years ago my son's team was losing 7-1 in a house league (everybody plays) hockey game. With about a minute to play the winning coach put out his biggest player (against the change rules) to face off against the kid who had scored the single goal for our team. The big kid ignored the puck and viciously crosschecked our kid in the face. The winning teams parents erupted in wild cheers. The people in front of me were actually yelling, "that's what you get for scoring against us". I had to be restrained from physically attacking them which doesn't say much for me. After getting no satisfaction from the officials in attendance, no penalties no suspensions. I left the arena and I've never watched a game or supported minor hockey since. I'm told that not much has changed and the demographics show that kids hockey is dying in Canada. The dinosaurs are making themselves extinct.

Just my rant.

One I definitely support. The parents that think little Johnny is making the NHL come hell or high water need to FOAD. I keep getting told it's better now, but as someone that has never played the junior game (my parents wanted me to play baseball instead of hockey, as our local hockey team would make the '75 Flyers look cute and fluffy), I can't confirm.

Originally Posted by Omni

I do enjoy the trash-talking catchers, though. Especially this one guy my high school team played against. He was pretty damned funny. Forget his name, but he made me crack a smile a few times while I was batting.

Personally I hated trash talkers, outside of that I always seem to do well against them. We had one pitcher in our league that apparently had a greet curve. SO first game, he's bragging to every batter that they won't hit it, and he's sitting people down over and over. SO I get up, he does his same boast, first pitch, and CRACK!, its heading over the fence like a rocket. I distinctly remember saying "Your curve ball looks better 400 feet away.". He was an exception though, we rarely had trash talkers, not because of any ingrained respect or anything, more you'd get your head kicked in afterwards (hooray for small towns)

As for the OP....eh it's little league. From the description I'm picturing some 4 or 6 year old doing this, and I'm like "hey sure whatever". I mean I can't picture myself doing that at that age, but I'm also a lot more competitive, maybe too much so. Now if the kid was 12 or something? Ya then I'd have a raised eyebrow.

[stl jason]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

its a game. Emphasis: GAME. They are 12 yr olds. The first things we adults should be worried about is are the kids safe & having fun. When they are getting paid to play, then lets worry about all of that competitive nonsense.

and even when they are getting paid/professionals, you still see instances of opposing players giving their congrats to an opponent on the field if they just achieved some milestone (see McGwire's 62nd HR and how the Cubs infielders reacted when he rounded the bases as an example).