When Winning is Losing + Friday Roundup
A vent about taking the idea of the "guest player" too far.
Before we begin, a quick thank you to our new subscribers that joined in the past couple of days. And special shoutout for those coming from The Football Girl. Excited to have all of you in this community and can’t wait to start getting to know you in the youth sports realm. Word of mouth is the best way to keep growing Good Game. But for fear of transforming into an incessantly annoying saleswomen, I’m just going to casually drop the Share button today and get on with the show!
A shitty thing happened last weekend that I need to get off my chest. My son’s 12U baseball team played in a tournament and faced a top-tier team that likely would have won without extra help. But this squad cared soooo much about beating my kid’s team and winning in general that they brought in some nationally ranked pitcher to guest play and shut us down. The not-on-the-actual-team-or-in-the-actual-organization kid was a stud who threw at least 10mph faster than anyone I’ve seen at this level. Maybe he’s a future MLBer or maybe he’s just ahead on the puberty train, who knows. I do know he struck out almost all our dudes (one kid lined out), and we got crushed. It was such a mismatch – like Ivan Drago vs. an old, crumbly Apollo Creed – that it was actually more ridiculous than psychologically damaging. My kid said it was a much better way to lose than, say, on a strikeout or game-ending balk. Heck, he felt accomplished just being able to foul one off this guy!
I’m sure this happens in all sports. Admittedly, my kid has been on a soccer team where they have had a kid from the same birth year who plays up for the same organization guest play, but only if they really needed someone and no one from the other tiers of the same age was available. It’s not great but it’s not the same thing. With all due respect to the Zava character from Ted Lasso ***spoiler alert*** no single person is going to control a soccer match like an elite pitcher playing well below his level can control a baseball game.
After the pitcher dominated, the other team won and went on to win the championship. And yet I left feeling sorry for them. What was the point? This was a random tournament; the same exact ones are put on in the same location every weekend. This wasn’t a showcase or nationally televised Little Game World Series game. What message does that send to the regular players who practice together and are supposed to be forming a brotherhood? Oh sorry, we really need to win this random tournament so we’re bringing a ringer. If any balls come to you, just don’t fuck up. Oh, and make this dude, who is better than the rest of you, feel welcome.
Again, I suspect stuff like this is common across all sports (though I’ve only experienced it in baseball, soccer, and basketball, so would love to hear anecdotes from other sports). I just don’t see how it’s helpful to anyone’s development.
Moving on, here a quick run-through of some of the stories and news that caught my eye this week…
A star wrestler in Iowa explains his decision to quit.
Ugh, another week, another adult punching a ref, this time it’s a police office (or shall I say, now former police officer). Relatedly, if you haven’t read our piece on the state of youth sports officiating, I highly recommend it.
Good dive by the NYT into the ever-growing income gap in youth sports.
Not new, but I saw a respected Vassar professor share a fascinating research paper on the ills of talent identification in youth sports this week.
Lol. North Carolina introduces a bill that would eliminate participation trophies. Thoughts?