Behind the Plate

RE: Cheating At The Little League World Series??

Joe Molter — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:42:20 GMT

Sounds like good coaching from NY and poor coaching from IA. To be in the most advanced tournament for LL baseball and not be coached to not give away pitches is surprising. I believe in not cheating but if you're going to show me what's coming, I'm gonna pass it along. I don't think there's a question here. If you know the SS and second basemen aren't covering the bag between pitches, as a coach don't you tell your kid on first to steal??

RE: Cheating At The Little League World Series??

ScottEC — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:12:44 GMT

I'm not sure if that's ethical, but I can't call it cheating. The coach for the pitcher should probably teach his kids to only position their hand on the ball inside the glove where nobody can see. That being said, it's kind of cheap to exploit the inexperience of a 12 year old like that.

RE: Cheating At The Little League World Series??

RyanActive — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:29:09 GMT

Wow. I think Tom has this one nailed.

I'm not sure if it's cheating, but this is definitely not appropriate competitive strategy for Little League. This pitcher is just a 12-year old kid, and he's still learning the art of pitching, which includes not tipping your pitches to any spying adults who will use it to their advantage.

If a coach got caught doing this at a higher level, a batter would get drilled right between the numbers for retaliation.

I can't say I've never benefited from something similar, though. When I was playing in high school, a catcher flashed signs so obvious to our first-base coach that our coach would say "Let's go Ryan!" if it was a fastball and "Let's go 18!" if it was a breaking ball. So I won't profess to be the role model of sportsmanship. In the same breath, some of us were a year away from playing college or professional baseball. Things were a lot more competitive playing high school varsity, and by that point some of us had been playing for 13 years and were much more aware of potential tips that other teams might expose.

Some of these kids haven't been alive for 13 years. Play fair and quit spoiling the spirit of Little League.

RE: Meet South Dakota's Bill Hendricks

Active Toby — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:30:57 GMT

12 years old, huh? How does that happen? I'm so curious as to what clicked for him at that age that doesn't for the rest of us...? This was a great story and I will look for this little man making headlines in the near future. Thanks!

RE: Kansas Falls Short - Heads Home

Justinfisher222 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:23:22 GMT

Thanks for the updates!

RE: The Final Four

bcswllfan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:24:16 GMT

You do a great job behind the plate and with Active. It is fun to watch someone who enjoys Little League baseball as much as I do. It was great chatting with you after the semi final game last night. I am looking forward to a great game between Bay City and Midland. Bay City won the State Championship as 10 year olds and Midland won it as 11 year olds. It should be an awesome game and I suspect a huge crowd with both teams only 20 minutes apart. It should be fun!!!

RE: The Final Four

CoachMinnesota__1 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:40:56 GMT

Thank you for taking time to write this blog. As an umpire-in-chief of my district, I know what a lot of work it is and to add on writing this blog and keeping the MI website updated, I can't imagine how tiring that all is.

I am also one of the team hosts for the Michigan State Champions in Indianapolis. I have been able to follow the state tournament easier this year because of your work. Thank you.

Brent

RE: A busy day....

Ken34 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:05:19 GMT

I was at the Gull Lake site for the Parchment/SPLL Nationals game. You were goofing with me when I told my son to back up in right field. "No coaching from the sidelines" you said. I cracked up. It was so nice to see an good umpire with a sense of humor and a love of the game. Even though our team lost, I will probably always remember that short banter between us. My son thought you were serious about kicking me out of the game. Thanks for being a great ump!

RE: And Then There Were Eight

Pens2595 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:23:09 GMT

Hey I just wanted to point out a small mistake in your post. Both Birminghamn and Midland NE are 2-1. Midland came back and beat Birmingham. There was a three way tie in Midland's bracket but it was Midland, Birmingham, and Schoolcraft all at 2-1, and Midland actually won the tie breaker.

RE: First Game Completed

ptgump — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:32:40 GMT

Thanks for your continued volunteer commitment to Little League. Keep the blogs going through to World Series, and take care of your partner Pat Griffin as you mentor him towards his climb to our next S.W. Michigan participant at the LL World Series umpire level.

Joanne Willson

MI D15