Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Pitcher's Parents...what to do?

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fancy- the only thing more stomach twisting than watching your daughter struggle on the mound is watching your daughter pitch a good game riddled with errors. Another mom on my dd team would always remind me that it will only build my dd character and make her a better pitcher. She was right(you know who you are)!

As parents of pitchers it is just as important to teach them how to behave on the mound. After my dd sat 1 entire game in jr. high ball(mom insisted she sit to learn a lesson) because of her attitude toward her teammates in the previous game when they were making errors, she remembered the rest of the season.

 

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It is rought to sit through one of those games no matter which kid is yours.

 

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I hate to see any pitcher struggle. I have watched games when I didn't know anyone on either team and tried to encourage a struggling pitcher.

I watched a game in the Pony Nationals this season when the fans on the other team were actually heckling a 12u pitcher. Very sad that the fans would want a 12 year old pitcher to fail.

 

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Softball those people that were heckling the pitcher aren't fans! > >

A true fan knows what is involved in giving all you have and trying as hard as you can. If you are a fan you apprciate the effort put forth by all of the players on the diamond. To abuse, heckle, whatever, shouldn't be part of the game. It is sad to hear of such an occurence. Whom ever did this should be ashamed of themselves. :-[ :-[

JMHO

 

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That is kind of weird, my dd's have the exact OPPOSITE problem - they ONLY listen to me when they are between the white lines! I think it is the only time they think I have an inkling about which I am talking! Maybe we should get those with the hearing loss and mine together and do some DNA research to sove the problem?!

And Pitcher-Dad, I am about half way through what you already have experienced and I love being able to share my own experience in baseball with my dd's. Whether they play in high school or college, I'll always cherish (as hopefully someday they will too) the time we have spent together practicing and at games.

Seeing my daughter look for me after hitting a triple, striking out a batter or throwing someone out at 2nd and grinning ear to ear when we make eye contact makes me the happiest guy out there, bar none!!!

 

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ok, it's my turn to hijack a thread since we are talking about/to pitcher's parents. Do those of you who catch for lessons wear any sort of protective gear? I was thinking about work, back to school, basically not really focused & took a nice shot to the foot. I don't think I've seen another parent in gear, so I'm just curious as to what others think/do?

 

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Warriors 21:

Haven't ever seen a parent catching with gear on; have seen a lot of parents with BIG bruises who probably should have been wearing the gear.

I laughed when I read your post, because I knew our DD was really starting to "get it" when I woke up several years ago at 2:00 am to find my husband on the net desperately looking for a catcher's mitt for a lefty. He finally decided to gut it out with a few sponges under his glove until he developed a super-thick callus on the heel of his hand.

 

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I catch my dd, no gear! I limped from one tryout to another a couple of Saturdays ago from being hit with a fastball in the shin!! The coaches at the second tryout gave me ice asked if I was stung by a bee ;D I laughed and told them I was stung by a rogue fastball!! Ouch!!!

 

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As a mom, I catch my dd once in a while w/o gear and it is scary at 14U. My husband gets that job while I cut the grass and wash the cars! Speaking of bee stings, he actually did get stung by a bee at our tryouts last weekend - right in the mouth. Took a bite of a sandwich without examining it first and got stung inside the lip. It was so swollen that I compared him to Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor when he morphed during the dinner scene. Hubby was not amused!

 

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Warrirors I use to use shin guards when my DD would pitch in our lumpy bag yard. Now she has given it up so I can heal. LOL ;D ;D I do know of a guy who had his eye socket busted when his DD's drop ball caught part of a wooden plate on the floor and came up on him. I have seen a couple of guys use pieces of gear right up to the shin guards and a mask.

I see cats94 mentioned having your DD pitch a great game only to be beaten due to errors. This can be very frustrtaing. It does teach them a life lesson. I told my DD this but she was too mad to listen at the time. It may be hard for us parents to watch though. This team couldn't win a game unless she pitched an almost perfect game. I told her to lead them by example and keep things as positive as she could. By the end of the year this seemed to work. They improved and actually won some games. She mentioned to me later that she saw how the positive attitude worked. It did build character in her. But, this was a long season for me and the DD. : :'( LOL

 

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cats94 - DD went through that SAME scenario in high school. She could pitch a no-hitter and her team would STILL lose the game - errors and lack of offense. During our trip down "Frustration Road", I was enlightened by a very wise pitching coach. He reminded me that softball is a team sport, and you win as a team, and you lose as a team. Wow - did that knock me down a few notches! As the old saying goes, I couldn't see the forest for the trees.

DD is now playing in college, and looking back, I see the equal (but different) importance of high school softball and travel. She honed her physical playing skills through travel ball, but high school ball taught her to deal with the mental aspects of the game. Both played a very important part in making her more of a well rounded team player. Enjoy the trip with your DD, even the bumpy roads. It goes by far too quickly.

 

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My wise old(not so old) aunt, whose daughter pitched in high school, travel ball, and in college, reminded my daughter after one game where she was mad at her fielders- "you need to support your fielders, you want them to support you when you can't seem to find the strike zone". Great advise!

 

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for classic 12u most pitchers I know dont get many RBI on thier own 0-0 isnt a win.

 

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yeah, but a tie actually gets you points in some pool divisions and it surely doesnt hurt your team to give up a donut when they account for runs given up at the end of a saturday

 

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statman the giving up the runs thing is hard to swallow when you are trying to win your pool. ?The tie can at least is a bit easier to handle. ?I like winning the pool and a lot of time getting the by until the second set of games on Sunday. ?Our team doesn't do well in the early morning games. ?

 

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Our coaches don't do well in the early morning games. Including me. :-[

 

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CoachRob I didn't say that the coaches were too with it early in the morning too! ;D ;D