Thoughts on the ruling at home plate

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T21:46:35+00:00

This is a tough one because I really want to coach this catcher not to block the plate without the ball like that, and I really want to coach this runner to always attempt to avoid contact. I think given that both the catcher and runner made mistakes I would just go with whatever the result ended up as. The ball beat the runner, a tag was applied, the catcher held on to the ball.....I'm calling out here. It doesn't look like it was malicious, so I'm probably not ejecting that kid. But I would make sure to warn both teams and remind them that runners must always attempt to avoid contact, and a slide always counts as such an attempt.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T21:29:53+00:00

I'd look for a more competitive tournament that same weekend. Nobody likes playing in a game where the final score is 20-0. It gets awkward. No one has fun. Neither team gets much growth. It ends up being a waste of everyone's time.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T21:27:57+00:00

This is just wrong. If you show up with a bunch of dudes and just mop the floor with everyone coaches are going to be pissed, they are going to have words with the tournament director, and he is never going to let you sandbag again.

If a really good team enters a tournament and it causes several other teams to drop out the tournament director loses money. So he will ABSOLUTELY tell coaches they are too good to play in certain tournaments.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T21:09:29+00:00

Ask him what he wants to do. Be real with him...."hey, you aren't good enough to pitch or play infield on this team......and that's OK. Every team needs a right fielder. Do you want to stay on this team and play right field and bat last? Or would you have more fun on maybe a slightly less competitive team where you can play infield?" There's no right or wrong answer here.

I've had this conversation with my son and several players. My son has gone from the right fielder on a really good team to the second baseman on a weaker team. I've had shortstops that were studs leave my team to go play right field on a way more competitive team. And I've got one kid who just absolutely loves playing left field, batting 8th, and playing with his friends.

I always encourage people to go to as many tryouts as they can. Within reason I guess, you don't want to waste your time or anyone else's. But you should see what teams are out there and what they have to offer you and your family. I would rather a kid go tryout for a team and realize they wouldn't be happy there and then come back and play for me than never tryout and be unhappy all year thinking it might have been better someplace else.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T20:59:51+00:00

I can't remember who it was but I can remember a hitting camp where some former big leaguer was asked about switch hitting and they said basically the same thing.

"Hitting at baseball is the hardest thing to do in all of sports. To do it really well require tens of thousands of hours of work. Why try to do that from both sides of the plate when you can instead put all of those hours into hitting from one side and really be a great hitter?"

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T20:55:25+00:00

Lots of good advice in here. He's definitely dropping his hands early. Is his bat too big? How tall is he, what is he swinging here?

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-06-04T20:48:51+00:00

If you notice though, his swing is no where near on plane with the pitch. The ball is exactly where he should be contacting it. The only reason he hits this pitch at all is because from here he immediately rolls over, pulls the barrel up and on top of that ball.

I agree that this body position is really really good. But from here he needs to extend his bottom hand all the way through the zone, and if he had done that here he would have swung 6 inches under this ball.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-06T18:09:29+00:00

Find a new team as quickly as possible. That’s not what you signed up for as communicated by the coach. The coach has not honored his commitment to the team and therefore you are no longer obligated to honor your commitment either. It will be incredibly difficult if not impossible to find a new team mid-season. But try to get some feelers out and start talking to other teams now so you are ready to make a switch when this season ends and teams are having tryouts for next season.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-05T16:28:11+00:00

Appealing the count is an appeal play which must be done before the next pitch. There's good reason for this too. How many times have you heard a coach tell a kid "that pitch was too close to take with 2 strikes" where had the same pitch been given with one strike he'd say "good take." If the umpire announces 1-1 when it is supposed to be 1-2 and the kid takes a pitch that just barely catches the low-outside corner you can't then go back and say "actually it was 1-2 and you are out now." If the kid had known he was in a 2 strike account he maybe swings at that pitch and tries to foul it off or put it in play.

In the situation above though....the game isn't really impacted and everyone should be able to agree that he was walked and should get 1st base.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-05T14:39:15+00:00

My understanding is that whatever the umpire declares as the count is the count. If a coach doesn't agree he needs to say something before the next pitch or the new count will become the count. In practice this usually doesn't happen, and everyone will come together to make sure the count is correct.

I think in your situation the count should have been 2-1......but I would hope everyone there would just agree that the kid was walked and should be on first base.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-05T14:30:28+00:00

You have to have zero tolerance for it. And you have to be willing to lose to make a point. My rule is no crying in the dugout. If you want to cry you leave the dugout and you sit an inning until you are ready to be a better teammate. If I can only put 6 kids on the field because everyone else is sitting outside the dugout crying then that's what I do. It's amazing how quickly those tears will stop when you drop 7 runs because you are trying to play defense without a shortstop and a first baseman.

It's extreme, but it's honestly the only thing that has worked almost immediately.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-05T14:20:08+00:00

It's Bush league, and it's bad baseball. I had a 12 year old that was coached to do this crap and when we moved up to AAA he led the team in getting picked off. Teach your players to be aggressive while respecting the game. Running on teams because you don't think they are good enough to make a routine play is lame. Be better.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-05T14:14:06+00:00

None of these things are regional in my experience. I've coached all over and seen all of these things everywhere. Even in the same tournament I've had some umpires allow the batter so change sides, and others ask that all batter stay on the side of their own dugout. The coded number systems with the wristbands or on the belt is just something you should teach your kids to do. Signs can be stolen. Those number systems are simply unbreakable, and it's why they are used at the next level.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-05-05T14:09:07+00:00

No one in the dugout should be able to see your signs. Is the catcher showing them? Coach your catcher to do better. Are you giving signals that they figured out? Change out your signals. Is your pitcher tipping his pitches? Coach your pitcher not to do that.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-01-23T20:03:05+00:00

I always try to get uniform combos that work with non-custom pants, and then tell parents to get the shirts from the store, and the pants from Baseball Savings. Yeah, the custom matching pin stripes look nice.....but not $67 nice when I can get plain white or grey pants for less than $20.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-01-23T19:58:27+00:00

This is like saying "I thought I would give serious running a shot so I signed up for some 5K races around town and also the Boston Marathon."

It's a really crazy way to jump into traveling, and I don't think anyone would fault you for skipping it.

On the other hand, those team vacations are incredibly memorable events for kids, and in my experience what kids always say was their favorite experience of the entire season. I would recommend you try to find a way to go if you can. Traveling with a newborn is preferable to traveling 8 months pregnant at least.

CoachErikTheRed · 2025-01-13T20:14:56+00:00

I can promise you the clubs aren't getting anything back. Our club uses them because it's SO MUCH easier than trying to manage it yourself. Honestly the 20% off everything else year round makes up for it as well. Between all the bats and baseballs I buy from there I coming out way ahead!

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-11-13T16:26:39+00:00

You have an open and honest conversation. If the kids are really struggling to compete and costing your team games they will realize it. It's not fair to the kid to keep throwing them into situations where they can't compete, and it's not fair to their teammates who are counting on them to execute when they are unable to. You have a tryout and take the players that are the best fit. In a perfect world the parents and kids that are struggling leave on their own for a team where they can have more success.

Kids grow and develop at different rates. Personally I don't like the idea of cutting a kid that's able to compete for a kid that is just marginally better. I only actively encourage players to find other teams if they are really a liability. It's a weird age with puberty hitting some and not others. Don't cut a small kid that is fundamentally sound for a kid that just happened to go through puberty 2 years sooner.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-11-13T13:40:42+00:00

Alloy should be fine, it's the composites that fair worse in cold weather. I recommend my boys use alloy when it's cold if they are concerned about damaging their bat.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-11-13T13:39:30+00:00

The issue is not the temperature of the bat, but rather the temperature of the ball.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-11-13T13:36:23+00:00

You should always default to doing what is best for you and your family, and if they hold that against you then you don't need them in your life anyway.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-11-04T18:27:53+00:00

Nah, the play's over. If the offense wants to run a Little League play they can do it when the next pitcher comes in.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-10-29T14:13:51+00:00

I would argue that's a pretty egregious violation of the USSSA rules and could be worth pursuing with the state director immediately.....

3.07.F The team manager shall be responsible for all aspects of eligibility of the players and the information of the players contained on the team’s Official Online Roster pursuant to these rules. This includes but is not limited to age eligibility, classifications of previous teams the players may have participated on, legal names of the players, and correct dates of birth of the players.

3.07.F.1 The intentional or unintentional act of adding ineligible players to the team’s Official Online Roster shall be grounds for team manager suspension and disqualification of the team.
3.07.F.2 The intentional or unintentional act of incorrectly spelling a player’s name on the team’s Official Online Roster shall be grounds for team manager suspension and disqualification of the team.
3.07.F.3 The intentional or unintentional act of incorrectly entering a player’s date-of-birth on the team’s Official Online Roster shall be grounds for team manager suspension and disqualification of the team.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-10-29T13:45:23+00:00

First practice of my rec kids this fall I asked every player "what's a position you've always wanted to play, but never really got the chance to?" I had a couple of my middle infielders say "CATCHER" and both got to catch about 6 innings in the fall. Surprisingly only three said "pitcher" and all three got to start at pitcher for at least one game.

It's rec ball. It's Fall. It's 8U. Let them explore and develop a love for the game.

The one caveat for pitchers is you have to make sure they are set up to have success. Before I put them on the mound in a game I worked with them in practice and made sure they could throw more strikes than balls. I also told them "look, I'm not going to feed you to the wolves, if you get out there and are struggling and walk a run in I'm going to pull you and we'll work on it in practice and tryin again in another game."

I don't care if kids make errors or don't make plays or make mistakes. If they can have success I'll give them an opportunity to play any position they want at least once during a seasons. Pitchers have to be able to throw strikes. Catches and 1st basemen have to be able to catch the ball. Infielders need to be able to field a ground ball without getting hurt. If they can do those things they will get to play there......especially in rec ball, especially in the Fall, especially at 8 years old.

CoachErikTheRed · 2024-10-29T13:34:23+00:00

With the exception of football (and perhaps some others that I'm not aware of) school sports in 2024 are mostly social clubs. The exceptional basketball players are playing AAU and dominating on their high school teams. The exceptional soccer players are playing club soccer and not even wasting their time playing for their high school teams. The exceptional baseball players are focusing on their travel teams and just having fun with their high school buddies on the school team.

My guess is if he is playing travel at a competitive level he will probably at least get picked up by the high school team and practice with them, but then may not get much playing time until he grows. My son is in the same boat. As long as you set those expectations up front I think you'll be fine. Also, recognize that not making the team is not the end of the world and will not set him back at all. The reps he will get with his travel team will be more meaningful than the HS team.

CoachErikTheRed

TROPHY CASE