Taking One For The Team
 

Outside the obvious stupidity, is there a specific rule governing a coach or assistant coach telling/yelling to a batter in little league baseball?

Offense or defense?

Bob

Offense
 

The coach of the team batting yelled to the batter "take one for the team". I clearly heard this from the other side of the field.

Who cares what a coach says to his players?

lesson time
 

You can understand PLAYERS yelling out, "take one for the team". For a youth COACH to do so is worse than stupid. How about this: A kid OBVIOUSLY takes a pitch to the lead arm as instructed by the coach. You correctly announce, "that's a ball" (assuming the pitch was outside the zone when it hit the player) "get back in the box". When the coach comes down the line waiving his arms and barking at you, run him for conduct. My guess is he won't do it again.

Amen.

I did a game the other week where one coach constantly berated his players--a real hard-***. A fan (from that team) who was parked next to me, asked my opinion on the coach's manner.

"Don't care," I said. "He didn't yell at me."

Ace

You should care!
 

Anyone concerned about the safety of youth players should care. The issue is safety not the coach saying something to the player. Deliberately asking/telling a kid to do something that could get him severely injured or killed is unconscionable. Everyone involved should care. In my opinion the coach should be ejected and banned. Regardless i was just asking if it was against the rules.

Wow!
 

Gosh I can't wait until the Little League WS is over.

Let's not go overboard......
 

Ease up some, man. We're not talking about a coach telling his players
to bat without a helmet and then take one in the cranium.
If the kid's parents don't have a problem with it, why should I ? If they
do have a problem with it,they'll handle it. Besides, you hear that crap
all the time, from players and coaches.

No. but someone will always want the umpire to do something the PARENTS and the BOD should do.

Nope. No rule that i know of ...if he gets hit by it...he goes to first. end of story :D

Gee Tim, thay haven't even started putting them on TV yet. :D

I am sure you are correct. I am just overreacting.

Here is what the American Academy of Pediatrics has to say about the issue.

"The AAP estimates that in 1995, emergency rooms treated 162,000 baseball, softball and tee-ball injuries to children ages 5 to 14 years old. Although it is rare, children have been killed while playing baseball: between 1973 and 1995, there were 88 baseball-related deaths of children. Most (43%) of these deaths occurred when a ball hit a child in the chest. About 24% of the deaths were caused by a ball striking a child's head. There have also been reports of spine injuries to children who have slid head-first into a base."

I would hate to be the one who told one of these kids to take one for the team. I agree it happens all the time.

Jeez o man.

Wow, you gave stats. So we're all convinced you're right.

Obviously 4 deaths per year in the US over a period of 22 years is a tragedy, not just to the individuals involved but to society as a whole. Of course, before we submit your name for a Nobel prize, can you tell us how many of these 88 deaths over a 22 year period were a consequence of a coach yelling "take one for the team Billy!!". I'm sure the Nobel committee wil ask.

And for completeness and comparison please provide stats on the number of deaths by lightning during baseball games for this period.