It’s a wonderful time of year – Baseball is here! The season is in full swing. Has your family adjusted to the rhythm of the ball season yet? Practice Monday, home game Tuesday, road game Wednesday, tournament Friday through Sunday. How’s your dinner schedule going – on a school night, no less? It is a busy time of year, but we love it. Rushing to practices and games, meals on the run, the excitement of game nights, the car rides – the MEMORIES are piling up, and they are wonderful. Take a moment to soak it in. Many parents who have had a child move from youth baseball to high school and beyond will tell you those years playing 9-15U baseball were the most fun.
Treat Umpires with the Utmost Respect
As teams start to play tournaments and players (and parents) encounter those pressure-filled situations at the plate or on the mound, we want to remind everyone to manage your competitive spirit. Take a breath and make sure your behavior is appropriate. It’s easy to get caught up in an exciting game with seemingly a lot on the line. Breaking news: umpires make mistakes. Just because the game is a semifinal or a championship game, it does not mean the umpires will suddenly be perfect. Spectator, coach, and player behavior at youth baseball events has come a long way toward the positive in the past decade, but we still need to be better. The small comments are big comments. Those comments are the reason many young people and adults decide not to try officiating. Parents and coaches need to be good role models and set a positive example for our kids. It’s never okay to yell at an umpire. Period.
Baseball Lessons That Last a Lifetime
It’s early in the season and it’s not too late to think about your team goals. We gravitate toward wins and losses, earning state tournament bids and Sunday bracket play appearances, but the focus should really be on having fun, having a great summer with friends, and piling up memories. Player development is certainly important as well.
Ultimately, we want the kids to improve and make memories at the ballfield. We want them to learn life-lessons through baseball, how to deal with failure, and gain mentorship from coaches. These are core pieces to youth baseball and the lessons learned from baseball will last a lifetime. How closely is your experience linked to winning? Parents and coaches should ask themselves: if we don’t win a lot, if we don’t qualify for state or get out of our pool at tournaments – are we still going to have a great season? If your definition of a successful season is closely tied to winning, you could be setting yourself up for a rough season. And, most importantly, you’ll be cheating your players out of what still should be a fulfilling experience. Learning, development, mentorship, role models, and hopefully a lot of laughs. These things do not need to be linked to your record.
The good news is that we are still in the early stages of the season. Goals can be revised, and teams can refocus. If your team isn’t having a lot of fun thus far, you’ve got time to make changes. This is not just on coaches. Parents play a vital role in the morale of the team. Be supportive of all players – not just your own son or daughter – and be positive. The players see how the parents are reacting; they feed off you. Youth sports lessons start with parents – be good role models and help the team!
Other things happening at the MBL:
* We recently scheduled over 200 games at the 15AAA and 15AA levels, including some cross-division matchups. Most of the games at the 15U level will take place after high school freshmen schedules end in late May.
* In an effort to spread baseball rules knowledge amongst umpires, coaches, players, and spectators, we’ve started sharing some graphics and short posts on our X account (linked). We plan to add these to our main MBL page as well. Our slogan has been “Baseball has a lot of rules; let’s learn together!”
* The MBL Community/Rec season started this week! We are excited for our third year of Comm/Rec baseball. We currently have three age levels of Comm/Rec baseball: 3rd grade, 4-5th grade, 6-7-8th grade. The past two seasons have been really fun, and this year is sure to be a blast as well.