I've said it before

And, I'll probably say it again and again. Coaching youth sports is something we really enjoy. Our kids love having us as their coaches and we feel like we are very organized (which is helpful in a coach). We have a love for sports and teaching children teamwork and responsibility, in addition to teaching the rules of the game and the basics.

But, it is always the parents that seem to make it bad. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes, it is frustrating to see the blank looks on the faces of the kids while they're "playing" (and I use the term loosely.) Tonight we had one of those games. It has been more than a week since they played because of rain. But, we scheduled a practice Wednesday night and of the 11 kids on the team only three showed up and one of those kids is ours! Little wonder the team stunk it up tonight. It seems that Dad Gone Mad can sympathize with that one. One little boy on the team could be decent if he ever came to practice, but his mom and dad seem to think he is the studliest of all baseball players and should be in the major leagues next week. His dad is always coaching from the sidelines on the rare occasion when he shows up. This kid was really off tonight and the other kids just all looked blank to me. It was very frustrating.

Then, you get the over-the-top-dad like Kelly has on the team her husband coaches. I think I've blogged about the dad who told me he is a better pitcher than me, yet when I offered him the job of pitcher (currently my job) he hemmed and hawed that he can't be at all the games, to which I'm thinking at that point that he should just shut the hell up, then. But, I digress. We had to recruit the buttnugget to be our scorekeeper tonight because the mom that usually does it was ill. So, Mr. Better-than-me thought he'd be real smart and make sure to ask me how to score an error for a throwing error Hot Rod made. He didn't ask me about any other error or play for the entire game (and trust me, there were plenty), but he has to walk over and ask me whose error it was when Hot Rod overthrew first. What a dick. He knew how to score that. He just thought he'd be a giant dickweed. I started to go over and make sure he knew to mark an E-6 for each of the grounders his soon booted or didn't even get his glove down on or simply watched roll by. I've heard this guy's other son yell stuff at the batters about my pitching while I'm pitching and I'm sure the kid has heard his dad say all of them already. Tonight, the umpire *who didn't even know the rules of the game* made a really bad call because he didn't know the rules, so we questioned him on it and got out the rulebook to show him how the call was wrong. Well, Mr. Better-than-me was in stands complaining about how we shouldn't dispute the call and argue with the umpire. For one thing, we were right. For another, we never raised our voices, we didn't stomp or kick dirt or anything of the sort. We simply asked the umpire why he made that call when it clearly wasn't within the rules (play stops and the umpire calls time when an infielder has control of the ball and stops trying to make a play - if the runners are not halfway to the next base, they have to go back - however, it has to be infielder to do this. On this call, it was the leftfielder and that isn't the way the rules work). But, anyway Mr. Know It All has to bitch to the parents anyway.

There is more that I could bitch about, but it is really silly of me and I feel guilty for feeling this way. I don't expect a major award (ie a leg lamp, lol) for coaching, but it does get old to hear bitching and complaining and criticism from people who aren't willing to step up and do it themselves. We didn't ask to be coaches this season. The baseball association people asked us to coach and we would rather know what kinds of coaches Hot Rod is getting rather than see him get some folks who could care less. For our time and effort, we get to be criticized and villified. Yippee. Oddly enough, there are other things I could do with this time that don't involve teaching a kid that he needs a glove if he is going to play catcher or where the second-baseman is supposed to go.