Question for Bear & friends

I'm going to preface this post with.. I do not recommend OVER-USE nor abusing an athlete. And while I do not ban the "dreaded" CB.. I do not recommend its exclusive use.. (or more than 10-15% for that matter) And I'm a big advocate for limiting the number of pitches... but that number is dependaent on the athlete.

But the whole premise of Sports is to defeat an opponent and in our society that is GLORIFIED.

I understand what the original post is saying but its at a very philosophical level and it appears its poster trying to get everyone to agree with him. That's the only constant in life besides Death and Taxes. Never will everyone agree with you.

When you bring up risks you have to talk in relative terms... And you are talking about Human nature. Most humans crave attention and affection. And our society dishes that out to Sports Heroes… so there is a Large return for great athletes. Its like economics SUPPLY vs DEMAND….. REWARD vs RISK. Plus a lot of people don't perceive the risks…and they over emphasize the REWARDS.

How many parents let their kids drive at 16?? Do you now how many Teenagers die each year from auto accidents... Is letting them drive an acceptable risk if you know that someone will die? Or do the benefits outweigh the risks?? Of Coarse the risk increases if you drive 100 mph and mess around as opposed to following the speed limits and rules of the road.

Also how many people want that 15 minutes of Fame?? How many people never get it?

Realistically, how many Youth ball players make it to the MAJORS??? How many blame it on an injury instead of lack of talent or skill or hard work, or just bad luck. I've heard very few people tell me, "I tried to be a Pro Major leaguer but I just didn't have the talent or drive..." but I've heard literally hundreds who claim "if it wasn't for an injury...."

So what should be the goal of most Youth ball players?? MLB or success as a LLer??? How many LLers even make it to HS ball... In my immediate area there are 3 HS and 6 LLs with 600 to 700 kids each. So out of 4000 kids maybe 100 will play Varsity ball for their HS (and that's a reach since we have several 3 and 4 year varsity players)

Granted, I'm not saying that a coach should go and abuse young kids. I liken it to my auto analogy above. Teach them to complete(drive) within the normal confines and the RISK is reduced. But there is that need for SPEED or Glory in the LL case. But when you get down to it … 95% or more of those kids will not be playing competitive baseball beyond about 15 yos... That's the facts in my area!!! So should we let them have their taste of fame??

I feel it's a coaches job to try to develop a player and hopefully prepare him to continue on to the next level. But some kids (parents) may want to be the LL STAR and have that fame NOW! Ultimately the decision has to come down to the parents (but a coach has to provide guidance) especially to parents not knowledgeable in the sport.

But who coaches LL? Parents, … some knowledgeable others not. How many of them have ever reached the level of sports that everyone claims to aspire to?? How do they even know what its like to taste the thrill of victory? Perhaps the victory may be worth the injury?

That's brings up another point… Who determines who coaches your kids… Well in LL it's the league president and the board of directors and depending on who you have on the Board , determines on who returns… I've seen several VERY good knowledgeable coaches not given a team the next year for reasons such as…. a certain board member wanted to coach the All-star team (given to mgr of league champs) and knew he would have a hard time beating one coach who was the All-star coach for the last two years… So Board member makes up a rule that anyone coaching a "Travel" cannot coach a LL team and gets it approved. Well, guess which coach that affected!!! Probably the best one in the league… All in the name of Youth Sports!!!!

So what do you do to solve it…

Well…. Let me know when you solve WAR and CRIME and GREED, Jealousy etc etc…

We all crave glory and sometimes the LURE of Glory is worth the risk of INJURY... but only the individual (or parnets) have the right to make that decision.

And with 20/20 hindsight we would all make different decisions at some point in our life.