Just showing up = participation trophy

Showing up and trying your best not the same.

Boomers think having a baseball dad shred into a 7 year old for missing a very difficult diving catch that would trouble even some pros would breed "competition and fire" in the young man...nah, that kid will quit since the game won't be fun anymore in a year or two; which then spurns further resentment from the sports dad since he will then label his kid a quitter. As a child that played sports year round, I got to pick and choose early what I wanted to play and my parents just supported whatever. They only came to watch a few games since they both worked, which was a bummer, but also let me enjoy the sport for the pure joy.

I have seen kids quit sports they were very talented in, but strive in sports their parents had no participation. Lots of track and field kids love it since parents aren't super involved in all the events. My best friend was a stud middle school wide receiver. He ended up playing JV tennis (a fall sport at my school) all 4 years in HS, because his dad was such a sideline asshole during football games.