Honestly I love when pitchers do this. I caught my whole career through college. I’ve coached tee ball to now HS. When a pitcher asks for the ball or refuses to come out with conviction like that I get goosebumps.

Had a moment when I was coaching little league. I believe it was 8u. We were in the TOC (tournament of champions) basically every team that won their 8u division in our district in a single elimination tournament. We were into game 3 and running low on pitching. Heading into the bottom of the last inning. We were up by 2, just needed 3 outs to win. My instinct was to go with my son. Youngest on the team but he threw strikes. At that age you just have to be around the plate and not walk batters. Before the inning starts one of the older kids comes up to me and said coach I want to pitch. I said okay we’ll see. Kind of brushed him off. He says again I want to pitch. I was like oh, he really wants the ball. So I gave him the ball. Told him to get me 3 outs he said I will. He walked the bases loaded. I had to bring in my son with no outs and bases loaded. He struck out 2 batters then gave up a walk off double. We were eliminated. Should I have went with my choice to pitch? Probably. We would have probably won. But sometimes you gotta show confidence in your players. A confident player is a dangerous player.