When did things go so wrong? When I was a kid (I’m 40 now), I played all kinds of sports, both unorganized pick-up games as well as organized ball. My favorite was baseball, and when I was 11 and 12, I was on a Little League team. I was actually a pretty good player and one year I even won the MVP award.
But now, as I reflect upon my Little League experience, I remember that most of the kids I played with, whether good or bad players, didn’t take the game too seriously. We actually had fun–at least most of the time. I don’t remember any fights breaking out among the Little Leaguers, the coaches or the umpires and definitely not the parents.
Why is that? What was different?
The biggest difference between then and now–the main reason why fights didn’t break out back then, especially among the parents–is that it was very rare to find even one parent attending any of the games. When I ask my friends if I’m remembering this correctly, they agree. Once in a while a parent or two would show up or, on rare occasion, for a playoff game, maybe 10 showed up. The other thing I remember is that when they did show up, the parents didn’t say very much.
Maybe my memory is fading, but the game seemed more like a game and nobody took it too seriously. Today spectators come in droves and it’s not just the parents–it’s the relatives, friends and neighbors. And, as we all know, when the audience for anything gets bigger and bigger, the stakes get higher and higher, and all of a sudden the game becomes much more serious and much less of a game. Whether or not the team wins or loses has become more important. And, as the people come, the pressure builds, and when the pressure builds, eventually it blows. And then parents fight, kids cry and coaches scream at umps, using every four-letter word they can think of and more, in front of kids who are too young to be allowed into a movie with such language.
Things are getting out of hand. Kids are getting into organized sports at younger and younger ages (baseball at 4–give me a break), practicing for hours each week and participating on traveling teams while still in elementary school.
Hey moms, dads, relatives, friends and coaches, and hey you kids, remember this: Little League baseball and other sports are games and are meant to be fun. So think about whether or not you are getting your kids into organized sports too early, whether you should show up for every game, whether you should say anything during a game and how much time you and your kids are spending on this stuff instead of on other things to help them to become successful human beings in a more important game–the complex game of life.
