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I thought I'd start another thread because I'm bored, and you people just can't get enough of my perspectives on youth sports. 
I am mild-mannered and easy-going. But I have little tolerance for annoying parents. I seem to have a few every season. This year has been no different.
I just want to know why baseball players are so insane. I just spent 30 minutes watching parents and coaches throwing tantrums at games. Of course, I've seen my share of it in person, too.
Here are some examples of things I've dealt with just this fall:
1. Mom has two boys on the team. One "broke" his arm and mysteriously couldn't play for two weeks. He wore a brace for one week. Then he announced that his arm had healed. He sat in the dugout before two games, saw that the pitcher was throwing hard and announced that he didn't feel good. In our most recent game, I didn't know that he had slipped away until I went to the scorekeeper and spotted him in the bleachers. He left the game after being hit by a pitch. That's understandable. But his mom wasn't there to watch him. She had left her two kids at the game. I have no idea where she went.
2. I have a mom. Oh my. You're going to enjoy this. She took a camera phone photo of herself in lingerie and somehow sent it to the mother of another player. This mom also punched my assistant coach in the arm one day because a mosquito had landed on him. This mom also has asked my wife twice if she needed some pain medicine for her sore back. This mom also waits until I'm on my way to practice to let me know that her kid needs a ride. And she does it all the time.
3. I also have Special K. You may recall him from another thread. A few games ago, he decided that he was going to bribe the kids to play well. He brought Twix bars to the game. Then he tried to give each kid a Twix bar before the start of the game. Can you imagine how thirsty they would be after eating a candy bar? Special K's list could be as long as the hills. He has not been to a batting practice in more than a month but has somehow decided that his 15-second talks to batters before they go to the on-deck circle is the cause of their success. He also recently decided that his son is going to start playing the field and pitching left-handed even though he has never been left-handed and does just fine as a righty.
4. I have a mom with a small child. She uses this child as an excuse. She drops off her kid for practice and leaves. Then I have to call her when we're finished. Some days, she does not answer. And I have to take him home.
5. I have a mom who just started complaining about some nonsense regarding her son and my coaching. She thinks I'm too critical of him because I told him to remember to drop to his knees to block balls. Her father has been sitting in the bleachers criticizing me and bad-mouthing players since the start of the season. When I showed her husband what she had written to me, he replied in all caps and said that he hates her, can't stand to be with her, can't have friends because she will not allow it and wants to divorce her but isn't doing it because he doesn't want to hurt the kids, who he adopted last year.
6. Mom is in drug rehab, and grandma is taking care of the player. One day, he was playing a game of punch your teammates in the nuts in the dugout, and I scolded him. I told grandma, and she acted like it was funny. A few weeks later, his dad brought him to practice, and the kid pulled down a really quiet, shy kid's pants. I talked to dad about it, and he just said that the boy lives with his grandma and that I'll have to talk to her.
7. Mom was working on a Saturday. So dad shows up with the player. The kid says his stomach hurts in the first inning, and I have to replace him. Later, I find him eating lunch in the dugout. It's 2 p.m., and the kid is eating his first meal of the deal. He left the field because he was hungry and thirsty. Dad didn't bother to feed him. A week later, the league tells me that mom hasn't paid her registration. Then she calls to tell me that her son isn't going to play. Presumably, it's because she can't pay his registration. I felt bad and offered to pay it but received no response.
I don't know if that's a lot for one season. The other coaches have knowledge of most of the parents. So they are able to avoid the ones they know to be annoying. I was blindsided by four of the five I mention. One was a known issue, and I elected to accept her because her son is buddies with my boy and he is talented.
I am mild-mannered and easy-going. But I have little tolerance for annoying parents. I seem to have a few every season. This year has been no different.
I just want to know why baseball players are so insane. I just spent 30 minutes watching parents and coaches throwing tantrums at games. Of course, I've seen my share of it in person, too.
Here are some examples of things I've dealt with just this fall:
1. Mom has two boys on the team. One "broke" his arm and mysteriously couldn't play for two weeks. He wore a brace for one week. Then he announced that his arm had healed. He sat in the dugout before two games, saw that the pitcher was throwing hard and announced that he didn't feel good. In our most recent game, I didn't know that he had slipped away until I went to the scorekeeper and spotted him in the bleachers. He left the game after being hit by a pitch. That's understandable. But his mom wasn't there to watch him. She had left her two kids at the game. I have no idea where she went.
2. I have a mom. Oh my. You're going to enjoy this. She took a camera phone photo of herself in lingerie and somehow sent it to the mother of another player. This mom also punched my assistant coach in the arm one day because a mosquito had landed on him. This mom also has asked my wife twice if she needed some pain medicine for her sore back. This mom also waits until I'm on my way to practice to let me know that her kid needs a ride. And she does it all the time.
3. I also have Special K. You may recall him from another thread. A few games ago, he decided that he was going to bribe the kids to play well. He brought Twix bars to the game. Then he tried to give each kid a Twix bar before the start of the game. Can you imagine how thirsty they would be after eating a candy bar? Special K's list could be as long as the hills. He has not been to a batting practice in more than a month but has somehow decided that his 15-second talks to batters before they go to the on-deck circle is the cause of their success. He also recently decided that his son is going to start playing the field and pitching left-handed even though he has never been left-handed and does just fine as a righty.
4. I have a mom with a small child. She uses this child as an excuse. She drops off her kid for practice and leaves. Then I have to call her when we're finished. Some days, she does not answer. And I have to take him home.
5. I have a mom who just started complaining about some nonsense regarding her son and my coaching. She thinks I'm too critical of him because I told him to remember to drop to his knees to block balls. Her father has been sitting in the bleachers criticizing me and bad-mouthing players since the start of the season. When I showed her husband what she had written to me, he replied in all caps and said that he hates her, can't stand to be with her, can't have friends because she will not allow it and wants to divorce her but isn't doing it because he doesn't want to hurt the kids, who he adopted last year.
6. Mom is in drug rehab, and grandma is taking care of the player. One day, he was playing a game of punch your teammates in the nuts in the dugout, and I scolded him. I told grandma, and she acted like it was funny. A few weeks later, his dad brought him to practice, and the kid pulled down a really quiet, shy kid's pants. I talked to dad about it, and he just said that the boy lives with his grandma and that I'll have to talk to her.
7. Mom was working on a Saturday. So dad shows up with the player. The kid says his stomach hurts in the first inning, and I have to replace him. Later, I find him eating lunch in the dugout. It's 2 p.m., and the kid is eating his first meal of the deal. He left the field because he was hungry and thirsty. Dad didn't bother to feed him. A week later, the league tells me that mom hasn't paid her registration. Then she calls to tell me that her son isn't going to play. Presumably, it's because she can't pay his registration. I felt bad and offered to pay it but received no response.
I don't know if that's a lot for one season. The other coaches have knowledge of most of the parents. So they are able to avoid the ones they know to be annoying. I was blindsided by four of the five I mention. One was a known issue, and I elected to accept her because her son is buddies with my boy and he is talented.
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