Girls Gone Wild!

I'm still trying to figure out if life has really changed that much in the past few years or if it is simply that technology has changed the way we view life. A few years back, celebrities had paparazzi making their lives miserable: stalking them, photographing them in compromising positions and selling the photos to the National Enquirer. Nowadays, anybody can be stalked because everybody else is a potential paparazzo! All it takes is a camera phone and a facebook account and bang! One's momentary lapse of reason lives forever on the internet for all to see. So, what once may have been a word-of-mouth story that lost steam and went away, is now a living, breathing testament to bad behavior. In that vein, let's take a look at two recent incidents, one a girls high school soccer match and the other a women's college soccer match. In the first, the Rhode Island Division 4 State Championship game erupts into a melee when one girl starts pushing an opponent and the benches clear. In the other, a college woman athlete from New Mexico takes a page from the Conrad Dobler playbook as she uses every dirty trick in the book to get an advantage. Ouch!

New stuff? Or is it just better documented these days? As for the first incident, it's great theater and certainly bad sportsmanship, but new? Nope. Turn back the clock 27 years ago. Thanksgiving Day. Traditional football game between my high school and our traditional rival. We are getting beaten pretty soundly, frustration boils over and there are punches thrown. Benches clear, because that's what kids do. Fans of each side scream and yell at each other and maybe a few punches get thrown there as well. Yes, it was embarrassing back then, but it was largely left to word of mouth, and it damn sure wouldn't have made the 11:00 news because that wasn't something they wanted to promote! Nowadays, where we are on that 24-hour news cycle and you've got local cable news fighting with the web and traditional media for eyeballs, this stuff is exhibit A, front and center. A guarantee that viewers will come in droves unfortunately.

As for the college game...brutal! But unprecedented? Nope. I guess the question with this one is, did the girl just snap? Or has she done some of this throughout her soccer career and this time it just happened to get caught on tape. I know I only have a one-game sample, but given the material I think I can solidly conclude that Lambert is a dirty player. And judging from the fact that she only got a yellow card and continued to play dirty, she is sneaky as well.

Rain, rain, go AWAY!

I'm not entirely sure about the impact of global warming, but it sure seems like 2009 has seen more than its share of baseball and soccer games affected by mother nature. We don't live in Seattle, but rather in a close-in suburb of a major east coast city. Our playing field space is precious and probably not sufficient for a town of about 12,000 and all the baseball, softball, soccer, football, lacrosse, rugby, ultimate frisbee, etc. that is played. The "nice" fields must be nursed through the season because of all the traffic, and sometimes this leads to controversial decisions about when to close them. It seems the "Field Czar" is probably one of the most powerful people in town, given his absolute power over usage (and lighting!) issues. We should probably be considered an upper middle class town, not exceedingly wealthy, not terribly working class overall, but somewhat diverse economically, and highly taxed from a real estate standpoint. So, what do we do when it rains? We struggle. Fields are closed at the drop of a hat. Games are cancelled. Attempts to move indoors on the fly are sometimes successful, sometimes not. So, you would think we are a great candidate for artificial turf, no? Well, that one was put up for a referendum a couple of years ago, and despite the shifting demographic toward a younger population with school-age kids, it was soundly defeated. Some were concerned about health issues. Most were concerned about money. As I said, taxes are high and people are fairly fed up with the increases. Sure, they will swallow hard and vote in favor of things like improving the schools from an academic standpoint, but dumping more money into sports wasn't going to fly. So, here we are with our over-taxed natural grass. A little bit of rain (which we've had a lot of this year) stops us in our tracks and we are consigned to playing wii indoors. I guess we'll just pray for a drought next year.

Milton Bradley: It's no game

It never ceases to amaze me that professional teams continue to take chances on proven bad apples. This week's case in point, the Cubs' Milton Bradley, baseball's "quintessential recidivist" (apologies to Billy Martin). Here is a guy who has proven time and again that, despite tremendous talent, he just cannot keep his act together for an entire season. Bradley's latest antics have now led a frustrated Cubs management to suspend him for the remainder of this lost season. The real problem though, is that the Cubs and Bradley are only one third of the way through a 3-year, $30 million deal, so what to do now. This one was a head-scratcher from the beginning: why would anyone sign this boob to a 3-year contract?

Let's put Bradley into a youth sports context for a minute. We can all probably make an educated guess as to what this guy was like as a kid and how he became enabled. My hunch is that he was a kid with other-worldly talent who probably was given repeated free-passes for his bad behavior because he was just that good. We've all seen those kids, right? They know they are great and they've been told as much for their entire lives. Usually, these kids meet their match at some level and either become team players or wash out. But, occasionally a Milton Bradley, Carl Everett or Ryan Leaf makes it all the way through to The Show.

As a coach, you just have to nip this thing in the bud early. I've got a 10-year old kid on one of my own teams who I had to deal with this weekend. While he's not an "other-worldly" talent, he is better than the average bear, but he's a crybaby. I like the kid, but I am just not going to let my team break down because he feels the right to melt down, storm off the field, refuse to go in the game, or sulk when things don't go his way. So, in our first soccer game of the season on Saturday, it didn't take long for that 1st quarter snit to rear its ugly head. So, I subbed for him, he came to the sideline and flopped down like he's been shot with a Magnum. I calmly walked over to him, stood over him and asked if he was (physically) hurt. He began to go off about something tactical from the game, so I cut him off. I told him that his antics were unacceptable and that if he was going to do that he could leave now. I then told him that he had all the talent in the world and that if he didn't get control of the emotions he would never be picked for any of the "elite" teams he thought he should be playing on. I guess it got his attention, because he thought about it for a bit and then went back in the game and played his heart out. I have the feeling, though, that my position will likely need to be reinforced periodically until we can shake him out of this permanently.

I know on many elite teams, there just isn't the time to make one kid a project at the expense of everyone else. But, this is a rec team and I think it's worth working with him because for me it is the "right" laboratory. I am a volunteer coach and part of the satisfaction comes from helping these kids get something positive out of sport, aside from just winning a league. Don't get me wrong; I love to win as much as the next guy and I know it's no fun for anyone involved to have your team get crushed week after week. But working with a kid where his talent is the least of his problems is a challenge that can be very rewarding in the right context.

I wonder if Milton Bradley ever had a mentor who tried to rein him in during youth sports. Or, was he just one of those kids where they said, "I can't stand this kid but he really can crush the ball...."

Helping out the Coaches

In our town's AYSO rec soccer league, we rely on the parent volunteers to coach the kids' teams. While everyone is grateful for the time and effort these busy folks put in during a season, this league model comes with its own set of challenges. In particular, the demand for volunteers usually exceeds the supply of experienced soccer people. At some of the very young age groups, this is ok, as the session seems to be more about photo opps, snack time, and parent interaction than it is about 2 v 1's and 3 v 2's. Nothing an extended game of "Sharks and Minnows" can't handle! But as the kids get older, inexperienced coaches present a real challenge. Many of the kids also play on more advanced travel teams, and the thought of spending an hour on Saturday at practice with a coach who may be a great person but hasn't much of a clue about the game is a big negative. In my web travels, I found a product that seemed to fit the bill and we are now "beta-testing" (sounds official, eh?) it during our current season. It is called "Coach Deck" and we've given it to every one of our parent coaches to start the season. it is a deck of 52 playing cards, each with a soccer drill broken down on it. The drills are broken down by skill category: dribbling, passing, defense and shooting. Think of it as a "Cliff Notes" version of soccer practice for the coach. Understanding that every coach has a busy day job, the cards should go a ways toward helping to quickly plan and implement a productive practice. The deck fits in a pocket and the drills are pretty easy to understand. So, as we go through the season, it will be interesting to see how the coaches find the product. I was encouraged to see one coach using them at a indoor session this weekend. My goal here is to go through a season without having my soccer-loving British neighbor tell me his kid doesn't want to go to 8:30 am practice because the coach runs a "dodgy"practice. Time will tell.

Where have you gone, Big Papi?

Numb. That's how I felt when I got the news, conveniently emailed by a Yankee fan, that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were on The List. Oddly enough, by numb I don't mean shocked into a catatonic state. What I felt was more akin to a yawn, a ho-hum feeling of non-surprise, and that's not a good thing.

The whole steroid thing never really surprised me, unfortunately. That the merry bunch of Red Sox known as the "Idiots" might have been looking for an extra edge is not a shocker. Athletes have always been looking for an edge, something to make them stronger, faster or just a tad better than the guy on the other team. In baseball, 162 games is a long season and guys have used things since the beginning of time to help them stay in the game and off the bench. Jim Bouton told us about greenies in "Ball Four", and Ken Caminiti introduced us to steroids in baseball, and Jose Canseco has become a best-selling author chronicling the steroid controversy in his own inimitable way. I guess I'm not surprised that a guy who is on the border of washing out of the Bigs (where are you, Jim Parque?) might use something to stay because it might mean the difference between a $1 million contract and trying to catch on as an assistant coach at some high school in the boondocks. I'm not surprised that Manny Ramirez or Roger Clemens might think about how to get an edge when their body starts to do what most bodies do after the age of 30 and their former team has told everyone their best days are behind them. So, I don't react with shock and surprise and outrage. The innocence left for me a long time ago.

It has now been nearly a week, and Big Papi has declined comment until he gets "the rest of the story". Opinions on talk radio have been flying around, heck I've been listening to a Boston sports talk radio station for the last 3 hours and the Ortiz/steroid chatter has not let up, despite the fact that the Sox lost a heartbreaker to the Rays in extra innings last night.

But what of our children? How about the 12-year old boy who worshipped the Red Sox and the lovable idiots? How do we deal with the fall from grace of his heroes? Well, we live in a society where the camera is on 24/7 and no one really has a private life anymore. We had a former President admit an affair after the sordid details were laid out for all to read. And what was it that James Carville said about Bill Clinton? "He's a good man who done bad". That's probably the way we ought to think about our athlete heroes too.

The more important question from all of this is how do we teach our kids about performance enhancers? What am I supposed to think about the parent who lets her 9-year old kid drink a Red Bull before a football game so he "wakes up"? Is this kid well on his way to being someone who keeps upping the ante until he's taking speed to get through high school football practice? Hey, I'm 42 and I remember guys talking about "the juice" back in high school in the 1980's. You are never going to solve the PED problem because anytime you match up hyper-competitive people with the potential for glory or dollars or scholarships, someone is going to think it's worth it to go after that extra push.

So, the "solution" is like it is with anything else. Take away the secrecy and the silence. Talk openly to your kids about the dangers of PEDs - and don't think it's only Major League ballplayers who have access to it. Newsflash: if your kid is playing competitive sports in high school, there is stuff around. Should the schools test for PEDs? I personally hate the violation that is drug testing, but if it takes away the peer pressure and makes kids understand the consequences, maybe it's a good thing.

So, let's all come down off the high horse and admit this stuff is a lot closer to home than anyoe ever wanted to think. We need to talk about it with our kids and make sure they get an understanding at a young age about what is right and wrong with competition.

Throwing Conventional Wisdom a Curve

None other than the "Paper of Record" had an article this weekend by Mark Hyman suggesting that the notion that little league pitchers should avoid throwing curveballs is bunk. Most of us who grew up in the 1970s and later have had it drummed into our heads that attempting to throw the deuce before age 14 would cause irreparable elbow damage, hairy palms and maybe even blindness, and should be avoided at all costs. Fathers who teach their sons the old Uncle Charlie are to be scorned and dismissed as men who would ruin their son's arms for a shot at vicarious youth sports glory. Well, what to make of all this?

First off, it appears that the notion that curves are bad came largely from anecdotal evidence and was never studies under controlled conditions. Instead, Hyman's article compares it to the Middle Ages belief that the world was flat, well, because someone said it was. In this case, Sandy Koufax's orthopedic surgeon may have been the first to curse the curveball, and was followed by others including the esteemed James Andrews who has performed over 100 Tommy John surgeries. The two independent studies undertaken to investigate the curveball's impact on young arms seem to conclude that not only are curves less stressful than fastballs, but nothing linked curves to elbow injuries!

The Alabama study can be found in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, and concludes that, "the curveball may not be more potentially harmful than the fastball for youth pitchers. This finding is consistent with recent epidemiologic research indicating that amount of pitching is a stronger risk factor than type of pitches thrown."

Andrews, for one, takes issue with the study precisely because of its controlled environment, and states that fatigue and game conditions need to be factored in before anyone takes the new information as carte blanche to get every kid over 6 raining down hammers on opposing hitters. I guess the lesson here needs to be a common sense one, in that we are really looking at overuse as the main culprit in destroying talented young arms. Maybe teaching a kid to throw a curveball as a second pitch isn't going to be the immediate death sentence to his arm that it was once thought to be. But, throwing 30+ curveballs in a row at age 12 (as Andrew's related had been the case with one of his recent surgical subjects) is certainly not going to be a positive contributor to a kid's baseball longevity.

I am in the northeast, where baseball begins in the early spring and ends in late fall. I know in some areas of the country, kinder weather can extend that season. But even for us, kids arms can take a ton of abuse in those 9+ months of the year. Maybe it's not the curve, but coaches and parents need to follow a common sense approach overall in order to keep young arms healthy. I know that in Little League, we monitor kids pitch counts and innings, but when we get into some of the travel seasons the monitoring is less stringent. Add to that the fact that some parents may have their kids playing in multiple leagues and you've got a recipe for trouble.

Driving me Batty

Anybody else spending beaucoup time trying to figure out what type/size/weight bat to get for their little leaguer? It's enough to drive a grown man crazy, or at least get him fired from his job for lack of productivity....My son just started playing summer baseball for the local Williamsport tournament team. He must have had a great Little League season, so it's all good, right? Well, sort of. You see, the problem is that our Little League season is now a wood bat league. So, the kids spend March through June using the lumber to ply their trade. And they do a damn good job once they get used to it. However, when we start tournament play in late June, we are faced with the dilemma of metal bats. So, your ten year old has acquitted himself well all spring with a 28" Louisville slugger ash bat, what do you do about a metal bat once you go to tournament play? We struggled with this one. Say the wood bat has a minus 3 drop, it's now a 28/25. Do you go to a metal -12.5 DeMarini 28/15.5? It's all about bat speed right? Or do you compensate with a longer bat (bigger sweet spot) understanding that the kid swung a much heavier wood bat with success during the regular season? The brain damage involved in the decision was unbelievable (Youth Sports Crazy, right?), but we ultimately decided upon a 30"/21 oz. metal model from Anderson Bats. The "Techzilla". It's a little heavier than most, but at 30", the sweet spot seems legit, and the added heft gives it a little more power. Well, 5 games in, so far so good. He is scalding line drives like I haven't seen from him before. And, he doesn't seem to be having much trouble getting the extra 2" around on the faster pitchers. Again, it's probably also a question of weighting, and how the bat weight is distributed, but we have been very happy with the results so far. I think the extra 2" is giving him confidence to get on pitches on the outer half of the plate (and we all know that LL umps have a generous definition of "the outer half"). Also, the extra couple of oz's has given him a little additional pop versus an ultra light model. The final question for many might be, does it really make a difference to spend $200 or more on a bat when I can get a $40 model at Wal-Mart that seems just as good? I believe the answer is yes, unfortunately. An expensive bat won't make your kid hit the ball if he doesn't already. But, if your kid is squaring it up and putting the ball in play, a high-tech bat will wring out all the advantages of modern science to put the biggest charge into the ball. Ask yourself, are you a guy who would spend $300 on a graphite driver to help out your golf game? Well, it's the same parallel...

Launchtime!

Yes, it is approaching 12:00 noon, lunchtime for many of us, but it's also Launch Time! Time to launch a new blog, conceived in youth sports craziness and dedicated to the proposition that all kid athletes are created equal. Well, except my kid just might be a little more equal than yours! But seriously, I am a father, three times over, with three kids ages 12, 10 and 7 who are all heavily involved in youth sports. I have coached kid sports now for about 8 years, and finally came to the realization that, intentionally or not, there is a lot of great material in that milieu. We seem to be a society that is completely obsessed with youth sports. Kids come out of the womb and the programming begins. When we see a strapping 3-month old smack at a toy mobile, we don't say, "boy, with dexterity like that, he's sure to be a brain surgeon", but rather we say, "man, that kid is sure to be batting in the 3-hole for the Mets someday!" That's just the way it is in America. So, the mission here will be to explore kids sports in all its raw craziness. The good, the bad and the ugly. It should be a fun ride!