Here we are two weeks away from the high school age travel baseball season. Of course the youth travel ball season has been rolling since the end of March. One of the first questions I always get from Youth Travel ball coaches is "How many guys can I have in my lineup?" This always puzzles me. I mean, I understand the question but what I don't understand is why Perfect Game, USSSA, GMB, Nations and many others will allow teams to bat 10, 11, or even entire rosters. These organizations have become enablers. They have enabled coaches to be soft. Which in turn has made players and parents soft. Yeah, it sure is easy to build your line up with everyone. NOBODY gets benched. Well, its just wrong. Players and parents need to learn how to sit. Player's sit in high school, players sit in college, players sit in A ball, AA ball, AAA ball and the Majors. Why would we create a game in which at the youngest of levels players don't sit. We need to create warriors not whiners.
Writing this on the back of watching a YouTube video with Louisiana Lafayette Baseball Coach Tony Robichaux about a dozen times and he is on point when he talks about learning to sit. If you would like to watch the video I have embedded the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zWTX7I8aHI
The video is a little long but it is so good. The first 4-5 minutes is about the game/series they just completed but then gets into why travel ball has a broken model. We have lost the ability to teach our players to Throw Down. Coach Robichaux uses that terminology referring to being tough and playing hard. Baseball Toughness is a lost art on the American Baseball Player. Think about it. If you are on a team and you get to play all the time, there is no internal competition to drive you to work harder then that creates complacency. Nothing can kill the "MOJO" of a baseball team faster than being complacent. If you have to fight, claw and scratch for every inning in the field and at bat you learn to have more appreciation for your effort. If you get to play no matter what then there is no reason to work hard. Coach Robichaux said that most people don't quit at the bottom of the mountain but about half way up...(when things get tough). Well if we make it tough from the beginning and players and parents know that players have different roles based on ability. If you want to change that role then you have to get better.
My favorite part of the video is when Coach talks about working while you wait. If you are not playing as much as you want then get better. Coaches play the players in the positions that will best help the team. If you can't hit get better, if you can't throw strikes then get better, if you can't field a ground ball then get better, if you don't have lateral agility (range) then get better. You were good enough to make the team but now you have to get on the field.
Back to my first thought. I would challenge all youth travel coaches to start 9 players and have subs on the bench. This teaches players and parents how to deal with adversity and become fans of the team rather than just their own interests. When you roster bat (start with 11 or 12) you have added hitters 10, 11, and 12 and now you get to freely substitute defensively. Wow, how crazy is that. (Of course this is not allowed in real baseball.) Now when a player gets hurt or sick and can't continue you get to take an out every time that spot come back up in the lineup. If you have subs you can replace the injured player. I have no problem explaining that to my team or their parents. Splitting games is fine. If you have equal or almost equal talented players then rotate players in and out of the game. However I would always have that one player that is his turn to sit...yes the entire game. This could be anyone of your players...let that player know why. Its your turn to sit. If it seems that you or your son is sitting the most then get better! Don't give the coach a reason to be the last man out all the time.
