I’ve been anti-organized kid sports for years. I really exploded in 1974 when a Judge ruled the Little League program had to allow girls to play calling it “discrimination” to block them from playing baseball with the boys. On my sports shows I frequently attacked “organized” sports. It wasn’t only Little League baseball I attacked but I also went after Pee Wee Hockey and Pop Warner football. I made no bones about my feelings, parents had stolen kids sports, and needed to give the kids their sports back. Disband all “organized” sports.
Leave the kids alone with their games. Let them play, have fun at their early ages and then when they reach high school age let them decide if they want to become the new Mickey Mantle, Joe Namath, Bill Russell or Bobby Orr of the sports world. Why at age’s 5 – 7 – 10, or 12 does a kid need the pressure of “organized” sports?
The demise of spontaneous neighborhood games is bad news. Instead of playing an informal game of baseball or football on the corner lot, kids are suiting up and playing for an audience at younger ages. Now they have the pressure to compete at an organized level and the “psychology changes” – “Kid’s haven’t learned the social aspect of playing.” Parents believe if they had they’re kids playing hockey since age 5, then they’ll end up with a college scholarship and playing in the NHL. Parent expectations are much higher than they’re kids.
The photo with this story was taken just last week at the end of a Little League game in Georgia. A game at Columbus, Georgia between two Little League All-Star squads. You might have read about it in your local papers or watched the brawl on the ABC Evening News. The scuffle between parents began over music being played by someone on the winning team. The losing team parents didn’t care for the loud celebration. The President of the Columbus Little League called the brawl, “the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in Little League in all the years I’ve been doing it.”
The loud mouth, obnoxious parent at their kid’s games say after a loss, “WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?”
If your a parent who needs to be a “loud mouth” at your kids games you “need help.” Here’s the question you need to ask yourself. “What are you trying to accomplish by yelling at your kid? Are you trying to belittle them? Teach them? Lets face it, if you yell and scream, it’s very likely your children will act the same way. As a parent you need to be able to understand the big picture. “Is your son or daughter enjoying the sport? Losing is not the end of the world. When it’s all done, it’s still only a game.”
Parents, hijacked kid’s sports years ago and because of it we have brawls like seen in Columbus, Georgia last week. We had a man killed in a town’s ice skating rink during a Pee Wee hockey practice when he thought his ten-year old’s “stick practice” was getting too “aggressive.” He called from the stands to Michael Costin, 40 who was on the ice coaching. “That’s what hockey is all about” the 275 pound coach shot back. Within minutes a fight broke out between the coach and parent (100 pounds lighter) and with the 10 year old boy “begging” the coach to stop hitting his father, the coach never stopped until the man was dead. What could make a father angry enough to beat to death another parent in front of children?
A father knocked down and kicked a baseball coach when his son wasn’t chosen for the All-Star team. Soccer parents were arrested for disorderly conduct and assault after they fought at a boys under-12 tournament Memorial Day weekend. Weeks later a youth baseball coach broke the jaw of an umpire whose call he disagreed with.
Is “sports rage” just a reflection of the fact that society is becoming more violent? I have a quick, easy solution to our sports rage problem. Ban the parents. Ban organized sports until age 16. Not now easily done since all youth sports have become cash cows for organizers.
Kids under 16 deserve to have their sports returned to them. “BAN PARENTS.”………….
“Upton on Sports”-source:pbsorg/yahoosports/statee.edu/
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