Baseball sure seems to have changed since I played decades ago Walk up songs, gloves, adjustments, giant bags and all the new look at me crap has killed baseball. The parents were goober back then I can't imagine what they act like now. Thankful my kids think it's a boring game.

We saw the same things with parents/fans/coaches in 6U girls softball. Glad she decided to play volleyball.

What happened to the days when the coach showed up to games/practice with four helmets, and maybe three bats, all being carried in his army duffel bag? No one actually owned their own bat and helmet. I don’t even recall anyone owning a new glove.

Did the coach drink beer all practice and talk his estranged daughter into pitching for the team? Hahaha

I thought Dixie youth died a long time ago. Our boys played Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth. And then a bunch of USSSA tournaments. PG showcases in High School.

I umpired for about 6-7 years before I started coaching my son. It was fun but you had to put up with some crazies.

Quick story about baseball umpires and such…

Me and the guys I coached with for 6-7 years all decided to coach a Babe Ruth League team. Each one of us a separate team. We all knew each other and gave each other a hard time. So I coach a game, ump is terrible, inconsistent zone. We go back and forth a little bit. We win the game. No big deal. So my buddy’s team is playing the next game against our other buddy. Well the games about to start, I’m still in the dug out, my buddy says man it just hit me… I got to take a dump! Quick call pitches for me. So I do. Same umpire. Same crappy zone. I complain about a pitch a little. He loses it. Calls time. The other coach is egging him on to throw me out because he is my buddy too, right? So he yells to each dugout. “Y’all aren’t arguing balls and strikes!! The next one that complains about a ball and stroke call is gone!!” Keep in my the real coach is in the crapper across the parking lot and has no idea. Well he gets back, walks in the dugout, ball pitched on the outside half and he calls it a ball. Before I can say any my buddy who just got back says “come on man you got to get bigger than that we will be here all night!” Boom. Ump tosses him! He starts arguing with him yelling he was taking a sh*t and had no idea. Parents are laughing. They all know us from years of coaching. His wife is pissed he got tossed. Absolutely hilarious

I've only gotten into 2 almost-altercations with idiot parents at kids' athletic events - one was at my son's 12u baseball game in Northport, and another a youth football game where my 9yo daughter was cheering. In both cases, it was women. One from Gordo and the other from Brookwood........both said they wanted to meet me in the parking lot to whoop my ass, and I honestly think both meant it. One of them likely could have, too.

We haven't had many bad experiences at Warrior Baseball in Northport, but that day we went to Brookwood for football/cheer sounded very similar to Brock's post. Every single person we encountered there, that was from Brookwood, acted that way. I've never sworn off an entire city/town before but I'll never set foot in Brookwood again if I have any say so.

The scrappy American “brand” of baseball has been fading for a while in my opinion. A lot of what you’re seeing with all these flashy distractions is the Latin influence on the sport. The difference in a lot of those players and the American kids is that a lot of these Latin kids grew up without a pot to piss in and watching soccer. Watch how teams like Miami, FAU, and FIU wait outside the box so they can listen to their walkout song a little longer, do some stupid hand gesture when they happen to hit a double, or try to “bat flip” if they ever get ahold of one. I never saw as much of that playing ball on the west coast. The difference is alot of these flashy Latin kids can actually play ball, it will be a miracle if there’s more than a few white kids playing professional baseball in 20 years.

No the difference is the Latin kids have 10 times the work ethic. And a lot of them didn’t have gloves growing up so they use cardboard or whatever they can find. Latin middle infielders have been superior to American middle infielders for 20 years. They work circles around American kids. No matter what race the Americans are. It’s not the scrappy American brand of baseball that is fading. It’s the scrappy American that is fading. Sports, work place, where ever. Americans are not what they used to be. Parents are not what they used to be. Kids are not what they used to be. The scrappy brand of baseball would be fading regardless of the Latin influence. Every college team in America does what you said happens in Florida. Fans love it and that’s why it happens. Walk up songs are for the fans. Coaches love the stands packed and boring baseball is not what America wants. They are changing rules now to make it more appealing to fans. And without fans, competitive baseball dies.

Tents. 😂

Pwyse speak th the truth.

You should should take those bitches mudding!

One of them could’ve probably pulled me out. She was a big ol’ gal

You should’ve put that size 8 foot of yours up her ass.

Yeah I didn’t mean they don’t generally work a heck of a lot harder than American kids, that’s what I meant by them coming from nothing and being able to flood the league right now. I’ve played with many of them as teammates. Not every college team is like that. Every team has a different culture that is cultivated by the coaching staff and everyone else that has anything to do with the university. You won’t see a mariachi band parade bs playing at vandy as opposed to what you would see playing in Miami. Some coaches recruit more heavily in other demographics than others. From my own experience Latin players aren’t typically as team oriented as players who have grown up playing in the states. Probably because they are playing to make it to the show and lift their families out of poverty. Overall they are much more stat driven and are more apt to jump teams because they aren’t happy with their playing situation.(again I don’t blame them, a lot of them didn’t grow up watching teams from the states play)

Sounds like the Dominican Republic players really have made their way

That’s a fact. Down there a lot of times the only type of organized schooling they have access to is a MLB sponsored baseball academy.

I remember watching a short documentary on it. Seems like Anthony bourdain had a show there too and made a reference to the baseball based life.

Any baseball team with salt gives the next batter one in the ribcage after a bat flip “pimped” home run. That’s one of the oldest rules in the book

Did y’all watch the MLB Home Run Derby the other night? 1 white American. All the others were Latin. It speaks to both of your points. They had higher exit velos and better launch angles though. They were better at hitting home runs.