Baseball etiquette

[just another ref]

Last night, bottom of the 1st, my team down 2-0. (13-14 boys) Well, their ace pitcher couldn't throw a strike and things got ugly rather quickly. 45 minutes and a pitching change later, we finished the 1st up 16-2. Now, I thought that I was conscious of the situation from the beginning. When we got up 10, we stopped stealing home on passed balls,
(there were a bunch of them) but we did still let runners advance to 2nd and 3rd. In the 2nd and 3rd innings I gave the bunt sign to a couple of my best hitters. I thought that it was obvious that we pulled off a bit. The game finished 20-4 in 3 1/2 innings. (10 run rule and time limit)
When we met after the game, the other coach starts the traditional speech: "One of those nights.....we couldn't do anything right....next time it could be you on the short end, etc." I agreed with him. I thought that he was going to thank me for trying to pull off, but his last line was
"...and when we are up 15, we are going to steal some bases, too," or something like that. I was shocked, but let it drop. Shall I just write it off as the raving of a frustrated coach going through a hard time, or are there some unwritten nice guy guidelines that I am unaware of?

[Jerry]

Just Another:
You probably did just fine. With that type of score, your opponents are pretty hard-pressed to come up with any logical explanation.

In the future, I'd probably hold back on any type of advancing on passed balls. At that point, you wanna get the game over as quicky as possible; without any more chance of scoring. Explain to your players, "hit the ball and run casually; no need to embarrass." You could end up in the same situation some day. Swing at everything; forget about bunting or walking.

Jerry

[bluezebra]

For the gazzilianth time: Advancing on a wild pitch or passed ball is NOT STEALING. To keep runners from attempting to advance to 2B and/or 3B on a PB or WP is more insulting than letting them run. "Hey, we can whip your butts without running". The other manager is a fool. He should try teaching his players how to pitch and catch, and stop whining.

Bob

[JEL]

What is it they say about football? on any given Sunday........... You cant teach the boys to purposely get out, you can teach them to hold back. That is sportsmanship. It seems that losing coach needs to learn how to lose, and not blame HIS poor performance on someone else. Write it off as the raving of a frustrated (and childish) coach going through a hard time. That is a nice guy guidline---if you reported it correctly, you have taught your boys a lesson well needed, and seldom taught, nice guy guidline #2. Good Job Coach

[Bfair]

As Bob said, you don't "steal" when it's a passed ball---that's advancing. So when you say "we stopped stealing home on passed balls" you merely quit advancing home on those. That should have been considered long before a 10 run lead.

When you get a "comfortable" lead, start playing station to station baseball where possible without avoiding obvious advances. IOW, there is no need to attempt to stretch hits. There is no need to steal. It's not wrong to advance on obvious passed balls where runners should advance with little risk. Not advancing on obvious plays where you can and should advance is throwing salt in the wounds---but no need to advance on any play where any risk could be involved.

Don't bunt with big leads---nobody. That's also considered throwing salt in the wounds. Hitters should attempt to hit, but no risky stretching of hits. It's a time to attempt to hit merely to build averages. It's their job while on offense to attempt to hit, but not to now practice their bunting.

Bottom line, put on cruise control unless your comfort starts to disappear. While I've seen occasions where comebacks have occurred, they are the extreme exception and generally a result of poor play and not a result of avoiding to kick someone when they were down.

A little common sense combined with confidence in your team's abilities goes a long way.............


Freix

[CDcoach]

I agree.

I had this happen the other night. I coach a group of 11-12 yrs. There is a team in the league that is horrible. We went up 25-1 in two innings. We could have easily scored another 20-30 runs in that second inning. I told my kids they were not to leave any bases except on hits...yeah well that meant them leaving on about everything. We had 12 triples and 9 doubles in the inning I think. If a kid hits the ball you've got to give him what he earned. Well in the top of 2nd inning we've got bases loaded and our best hitter up with 1 out. I called time...apoligized to the coach and asked him if he'd like to call it a game and let his kids have another time at bat. He thanked me and my kids all got a chance to play wherever they wanted. They scored 4 more runs to total thier high of the season...they went home smiling and our kids built a little confidence. I also went to thier dugout and told them not to give up...if they kept working there's possibilities of a good team. Thier kids came and thanked us after the game for making it a fun outing for them...everyone else just sent them home crying.

I've found that in a game like that...it seems to help a lot to just walk over to the team after the game and let them know there's stuff to look forward to...keeps everyone positive.

Sounds like in your situation you were fine...I would never have anyone bunt though...I'd take that as very insulting. But it would also be insulting to not lead off and to sit on the bag when there are passed balls, so you did the right thing there.