the saga of the coaching debut
It wasn't pretty, but not for the reasons you might think.
By the end of the first inning we were down 1-0. After two innings it was knotted at 1, but after that it was slipping away. For the next few innings the players and parents of the Phillies got exceedingly more and more obnoxious. At one point one of the players called time to tell the umpire we weren't allowed to have an on deck batter (and he was in fact right. They had stopped letting kids on deck because of safety concerns, but that's not the point. If someone needed to address the umpire, it's not the 12 year old second baseman. It's a coach, but we got it straightened out. Hey, we shrugged and pleaded ignorance. We were rent-a-coaches.) They were loud and in a few cases abusive, to the point that the umpire gave their coaches a warning about the parents, saying if they don't setle down they'll be forfeiting the game. We went into the top of the 6th behind 9-4, listening to jeers and catcalls. The father of the 12 year old rules expert made a habit of standing beind the fence behind the plate, yelling "C-YA!" with each Met strike out. A forty-something year old dad yelling, "C-YA!", to twelve year olds! It was the worst display of sportsmanship I have seen.
Then came the 6th inning, in which our Mets batted through the order and scored 8 runs. We went into the bottom up 12 to 9. The Phillies scored one with the final out a kid in a pickle between 3rd and home who got hit with the ball and went down. Someone grabbed the ball and tagged him while he was kneeling in pain. I can't say I was pleased that a kid got hurt for the final out, but it just made their parents all the madder, and I didn't mind that. The fact that his mom was one of the worst (along with the father of the 12 year old rules expert), and she was screaming after it was over..."They hit him! You can't call him out! He should get to go home safe for that!" made it all the sweeter. I'm sorry that kid had to pay for his mother's ugly karma, but someone had to. The Mets pull it out, 12-10. What a coaching debut.
By the end of the first inning we were down 1-0. After two innings it was knotted at 1, but after that it was slipping away. For the next few innings the players and parents of the Phillies got exceedingly more and more obnoxious. At one point one of the players called time to tell the umpire we weren't allowed to have an on deck batter (and he was in fact right. They had stopped letting kids on deck because of safety concerns, but that's not the point. If someone needed to address the umpire, it's not the 12 year old second baseman. It's a coach, but we got it straightened out. Hey, we shrugged and pleaded ignorance. We were rent-a-coaches.) They were loud and in a few cases abusive, to the point that the umpire gave their coaches a warning about the parents, saying if they don't setle down they'll be forfeiting the game. We went into the top of the 6th behind 9-4, listening to jeers and catcalls. The father of the 12 year old rules expert made a habit of standing beind the fence behind the plate, yelling "C-YA!" with each Met strike out. A forty-something year old dad yelling, "C-YA!", to twelve year olds! It was the worst display of sportsmanship I have seen.
Then came the 6th inning, in which our Mets batted through the order and scored 8 runs. We went into the bottom up 12 to 9. The Phillies scored one with the final out a kid in a pickle between 3rd and home who got hit with the ball and went down. Someone grabbed the ball and tagged him while he was kneeling in pain. I can't say I was pleased that a kid got hurt for the final out, but it just made their parents all the madder, and I didn't mind that. The fact that his mom was one of the worst (along with the father of the 12 year old rules expert), and she was screaming after it was over..."They hit him! You can't call him out! He should get to go home safe for that!" made it all the sweeter. I'm sorry that kid had to pay for his mother's ugly karma, but someone had to. The Mets pull it out, 12-10. What a coaching debut.
John put this out here at 10:10 PM
1 Comments:
Not a great example of parental enthusiasm.... did she bare her teeth as she barked ?
Post a Comment
<< Home