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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: "Winning at all costs"
Message-ID: <1277@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Jun-85 08:52:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.1277
Posted: Fri Jun 14 08:52:10 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Jun-85 06:38:58 EDT
References: <1097@ihuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 51

I would have to agree that "win at all cost" is fine for a
pro team, however, in many situations in amateur sports, this
should be discouraged.  

I have been coaching baseball for 8 years now and have seen both
sides of the coin.   We just finished a season which had some
rather bizzare scores.  The team I am coaching is what we call
an instructional "Cap League".  It is made up of kids form 7
to 10.  There are 8 teams in the league.  Three of the teams
happened to get a large proportion of 7 and 8 year olds.  They
had a tough season.  One of the teams did not win one game.

When we played the winless team, I would let our regulars start
the game.  The first inning would be a disaster.  Then, I would
send all of the regulars to the far reaches of the outfield where
they could not be a factor in any plays (they griped but they
went anyway).  (Oh, all the kids played, in the field and
at bat.  Sure looked strange with 7 or 8 outfielders).  Our less
than average players then made up the infield.  Since the other
theam had trouble getting the ball out of the innfield, the
chances of errors on our part were pretty good.  As a result of
all of this chicanery, the other team was able to score runs, and
in the process, feel a little better about themselves.  They
looked forward to playing our team as it made the game fun, as it
should be for kids.  It further, helped the less talented kids on
our team by getting them into the action in a big way and they
felt better about themselves.

On the other side of the coin in our league, there was one team that
was a win at all cost team.  It was the coaches on this team who were
into this sort of thing.  They practiced four times as much as the
rest of us and generally made fools of themselves.  They were even
bragging that they had beat the hapless team by 39 to 3.  This is
not the kind of thing that should be done at the level we are at.

Winning for winning sake is something that must be looked at in degrees
of sportsmanship.  As far as the pro's are concerned, that's their
job, short of maiming the other players with a cheap shot. (see Pete
Rose and a few others in football and basketball.)  When your down
at the level of play where I coach, fundamentals and fun are the
game.  Even the fundamentals should be introduced in stages.  You
do not teach an 8 year old to slide into second, spikes high (the
twit coach for the bad team was teaching this sort of thing).  You
have to concentrated on the most basic areas of the sport.  As
time goes by, you can begin to introduce those parts of the sport
that enhance the winning edge.  In the meantime, it is important
that all of the kids on all of the teams learn to have fun playing
a game, not that it is a job or effort that will turn many of them 
off.
T. C. Wheeler