[justanotherblue]

This took an interesting turn. I agree, there are a great deal of coaches out there that keep the "myths" of baseball alive simply because they have "never read" the rule book. Maybe a section here or there when an Umpire has shown him off the field for arguing a myth. The safety slide rules are good rules for youth players. I also agree, kids now days don't know how to play as we did as kids growing up. We hunted out our friends to play "500", pepper, four on four, with right or left field closed. Imagine that, we actually knew how to pull the ball for a hit, something a good deal of kids don't learn till they're in college or the minors. If we coudn't find someone to play we threw a ball against a wall to perfect that pitch we loved to throw. We played hard, in league, we had a baseball hat under our masks when catching, our batting helmets were ear protectors only, (ouch, I know I'm getting older now) and yes, we were ready for contact at the plate. We never fought, we laughed and joked after the game. Today, a kid thinks he's something special because he can hit 70 homers in the first half of a computer game season. There is no sand lot play, and no matter what, little Johnny makes the team and gets two innings of play. We played six innings of baseball, no mercy rule, and yes, I was on both ends of those. Not as many play the game today, our kids sit on their arses and play computer games. If you want to see kids playing ball as we did, you have to go to other countries, were the game is still played as we did growing up, everyday, with passion. OK... getting off the soap box now