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Loyd:
"Politically Correct" wasn't even in the vocabulary at that time. Folks actually "played" baseball.
When I coached, I think our team may have won one game the entire season . . . and that was by forfeit.
But if you asked any kid in the league what team they wanted to play on . . . guess what the answer was.
I still have an autographed baseball . . . "To the coach that brought us donuts on Saturday morning practices."
Funny . . . I ran into a "kid" recently (who now plays in the MSBL) who recognized my name (I'm now an umpire). His memories of our time together when he was a pre-teen still remain with him.
I had parents (yes, parents!) tell me . . . "my son would have quit playing baseball except for how you praised all the kids no matter how poorly they did." Our most-prized trophy for the year was "The Most Improved" . . . meaning somebody actually caught the ball by the end of the year.
We had one kid who actually went on to play Minor League ball; he played a game with a broken wrist . . . because he wanted to. (With full approval of his parents, by the way.)
It's the crybabies and wannabe's of today's baseball that gives the sport a bad name; not the dedicated "kids" of yesteryear!
There's no such thing as a bad kid; they're all "All Stars" to me!
Jerry
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