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I enjoyed Rich Ives's piece, though I don't work much youth ball any more. And while I find Peter's anecdote amusing and, in my experience, common, I also find it unsettling. Coaches' common attempts to gain an unfair advantage by knowingly misrepresenting rules or facts is fraud. Even unknowingly misrepresenting rules or facts is negligent misrepresentation, a form of fraud. Either way, it's unfortunate that we cannot eject coaches for fraud; it would be good for the game and for the kids if we could. If kids learn from their role-model coaches that society accepts the attempt to gain unfair advantages, then our culture becomes all the more immoral.
I always strictly adhere to Childress's admonition in his "51 ways" tome, "Never lie to a coach." It's unfortunate that Ives's colleagues don't adhere to a similar admonition, "Never lie to the umpire."
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