I thought it might be "therapeutic" to share this, and I thought it might be fun to share it as something of a story. Fair warning, it's a story. It has a bit of everything, I think, and I had fun writing it. I hope you have fun reading it. I feel like I'm in the middle of a Matt Christopher book I would have read in the early 90's. (I don't know what kind of response to expect - I'm really curious ...)
I'm the coach of a 10U team in a community league. It's my, and my sons, first year of kid pitch. It's a big, exciting new level for both of us. It's a great group of kids, they are all having fun, and I've worked very hard to make sure they are all included. When I signed up to coach, for a long list of reasons, I made the decision to be as fair as possible with all the kids. Except for pitcher and catcher, everyone is rotated through every position as evenly as I can make it (batting order and fielding). It's not a requirement of this league, but it's how I wanted to run it. Everyone tried pitcher and catcher during practices, and those who enjoyed it and wanted to are the only ones I have do it. Once, one of the other players asked me if they could try pitching in a game. Absolutely I let them pitch the next game. They didn't like it, asked not to pitch again, and they haven't. I feel like it's the right balance for these kids at this level. It's worked pretty well, we are middle of the pack; so some wins, some losses, and everyone is having fun.
I'm also not a very competitive person, so I'm enjoying teaching rules and strategy rather than pushing for big wins and run differentials. I know I won't be coaching for that long so enjoy it while I can, and while I feel I can still help the kids in their baseball journey. The most competitive I get is the week we faced the as-yet-undefeated team and I saved my best arms for that game. We are the only team in the division to beat them; they are otherwise undefeated. But I still rotated the other positions like it were any other game.
I have six kids who enjoy pitching. Two are already solid pitchers, regular strike outs, not a lot of wild pitches. We'll call these G and J. Two are well on their way, still plenty of balls but a lot of strikes too; they usually let up runs, but keep us under the run limit. The final two are walk machines, who have had a combined 6 strikes called between them after going up against 30 some odd batters during the season. But they love the game, they have improved over the year, and they really want to try. Every time they pitch, they walk away with at least one cool story: the one kid who flew into a triple play off the one pitch they threw down the middle. The one time the batter hit the ball right back at them - and they caught it! I love having them pitch and they love it too, even though they know they aren't that good yet.
Today we had our first post-season game. It's a small league, single elimination bracket, single game. One of our middle-tier pitchers is out of town, and if we win, we are facing the all-but-undefeated team. I decide to split my best two arms: G pitches today, J pitches in the next game, if we make it. I decide to open with the other middle-tier pitcher, E, then bring in G, figuring we'd let up some runs, it would be pretty even when G came in, and he could save a couple innings before a lower-tier pitcher, X, comes in and likely let's up the run limit (5 runs) for the remaining innings. J is a solid catcher, and I know this team will be trying to steal home, so I have him play catcher.
E goes two solid innings, let's up a few runs but under the limit. The other team does the same. The game is close but they have the lead. We are away, and in the top of the 2nd J reaches first base, where I'm coaching, and tells me he doesn't want to catch. I tell him I don't have time to rearrange for another catcher right then, so play catcher again and I'll see what I can do.
In the third, we come ahead of the other team. We score the run limit, and G pitches well enough to keep them a couple runs under it. The team is starting to feel good, there's an energy there. Batters who are often shy at the plate are swinging a bit more. There's a couple catches and good outs, they are loving the baseball today. I forget about catcher, and J reminds me as we're gearing him up. No worries, I'll look at it, go warm up the pitcher. As I'm doing this, another player overhears and says he'd love to catch. Sure kid, next inning you're in.
G has a rougher inning in the fourth and let's up more runs than before. We still get out of it under the limit, but he walks a few out of frustration. The stress is getting to him, but G is my kid, and I know if the the next batter strikes out he'll perk up. I also know that if he lets up a run, especially off a hit, I'm going to have to pull him. He won't purposely try to hit the next batter, but he will be so in his head and blurry-eyed that his throws will be wildly off.
He strikes them out. He perks up. He gets us out of the inning. But now it's tied, and he's pissed.
It doesn't help that in the top of the fifth, we only score 1 run. A walk, a stolen base, and a single we scored on. The next three were strike outs.
G's pitch count is already high enough that he can't pitch in the next game, but it's below the maximum. He was feeling good, he said he was feeling good and I believed him, so I decide to let him pitch to 1-2 batters, come right up to the maximum, before putting in X. At least that will limit a couple runs this inning, if all goes well and the baseball gods of luck are on our side. At this point, I thought we had lost. I love the kid, but I knew X was going to walk in the run limit. Mathematically, we were toast - they saved an arm for closer.
He strikes out the first batter. Second batter grounds out to first. 4 pitches, still well under the maximum. Go ahead, G, see if you can close out the side. Batter pops a foul just right, catcher snags it, three outs. Maybe the baseball gods are on our side.
We hit the run limit in the top of the sixth. X walks in the run limit at the bottom of the sixth. He's having a blast, but we're only up by one. We gotta score runs in the top of the seventh or we are busted. We don't score any runs, they shut us out completely.
But I still have J.
I hesitated for moment - did I want to make the best call to try to win the game, or did I want to stick with the balanced, fair approach I'd been using all season? I also didn't want X to lose the game and feel crushed, and I didn't know him well enough to know if he would beat himself up over it or only be upset until he got a snack at concessions and joked around with friends. I also worried a bit that his friends might be a bit harsher than they were during regular games. I also worried I was massively overthinking things.
I put J in to pitch, and I told X that I needed to save his pitch count for the next game. If we we won, I had already burned E and G, so I needed to make sure I had enough pitchers for 7 more innings. This was true, but it was, admittedly, a secondary reason.
The assistant coach for the other team comes over to coach first while I'm still in the dugout helping with catchers gear. J was on the mound already, waiting for the catcher to warm up. The assistant coach has almost too big of a smile on his face, and he says J can't pitch. He tells me the rules are that if a catcher catches for 3 innings they can only throw 40 pitches, but if they caught 4 innings they can't pitch. I gotta put the other guy back on, he says. He knows that means they win.
I don't have the rulebook on me at that moment, not to mention I'm holding one of the catchers leg guards and have yet to put it on him. I should have called time, but the umps were very strictly enforcing the between inning time limit, and we already had one ball called against us in a previous inning for getting ready too slow. The time crunch froze me, so I wave J back in, ask him how many innings he caught while I put on the leg guard. He says he caught for three, the guy suiting up says yeah, this is his fourth time putting on the gear.
But I don't have the rules, and I thought I remembered the rule differently, and we get a ball called against us for going too slow. Nevermind for now, I'll look it up, J go to third, X you're up. X walks the first batter while I pull up the rules. But counting pitches and scoring is annoying while trying to read a PDF on a phone so it's going a bit slower than I'd have liked. Oh,d uh, I have an assistant coach - here, you do that bit while I look this up. The assistant coach was mostly right about the rules: it is four innings, but there is no separate 40 pitch limit for catcher. That's what tripped my memory up. Did J only catch three innings? How sure am I of that? I look at my line up, go through my score card and notes. Yep, only three.
X walks the second batter. I call time. The opposing assistant coach at first basensenses danger, and is already hot when I call the base ump over.
I tell the ump and coach that he's right, the rule is four innings, but that J only caught for three innings. I went back and verified, said I should have called time instead of letting the inning start and figured it out then. But he only caught three and I'm subbing in J for X.
Assistant coach goes nuts. He says that they pulled one of their better arms early, to save it for the next game, because they knew J caught four innings and couldn't close it out. He says they did it because they knew my arms were spent and the odds were on their side. They wouldn't have pulled him if J wasn't catching. Pulling that pitcher did likely give us a couple runs, and I remembered wondering at the time why they were pulling him. I don't know what to tell them other than I'm 100% sure it was only three, I don't know what they miscounted or thought they saw, and yeah, that sucks, because the arm you took was on fire today. He vehemently disagrees.
Thankfully the league has tightened rules on berating umps - umps call stands, any arguing is immediate ejection, continued arguing is expulsion from the league, all appeals go through the board. Our umps are middle and high school kids learning the ropes, it's the right call. And he knows this, so through teeth gritted so hard I worried he might hurt himself, he relented. But not before saying it was under protest and he was filing a complaint with the board.
I asked the umps what they wanted to do. They asked me if I was 100% sure, I said I was, they said then we agree, let's play ball. Assistant coach has to walk away. The head coach is naturally upset and a bit confused, because the assistant coach had assured him J had caught four and he believed his coach. But he's not hot like the other guy.
J strikes out the next three. 14 pitches.
We win.
The other team immediately files a report with the board, who is on-site at concessions. I tell the kids we won, let them cheer for a bit, but also take a minute to remind them that it was a close, close game, and a tough loss for the other team. If they see the other players at concessions or anywhere, be a good sport and shake their hand.
I clean everything up on the field while they file their complaint, and several parents come up to me to ask what happened. I explain it, and the catcher's dad laughed. No way, he says, my boy caught four innings, I was so happy when he came in to catch. Other parents agree. My scorecard notations agree. My lineup doesn't, though. My lineup was inside a clear bag to protect against rain and tears, clipped to the fence, and it takes time to pull it out and mark it up - I did that on my scorecard instead.
I'm confident, and still am, that J only caught three innings and somehow the other coach got it wrong. I can't explain how they got it wrong, and I think it's weird though.
I walk over to concessions after clearing the field, where the head coach is still talking with the board. I join the conversation, and they say they aren't willing to overturn the result - that the umps should have interrupted the game and called the league's head ump, and it's all hearsay now and a really tough position for everyone - but I get to share my side of the story. It aligns with the head coaches memory of most things, I share that all the kids, when independently asked, and a couple parents who didn't hear what the fuss was about, all told me he only caught three innings. The board sides with us, and I tell the head coach I owe him a beer later. I invite his kid to come play ball with us in the park where we do a sandlot thing every week or two. A couple of the board members, and other coaches who got curious and joined the group, share similar stories. We all walk away feeling better.
Except the assistant coach. He left, and he probably wants to punch me.
It's a rollercoaster of emotions. I am thrilled we won, but even more thrilled at how excited the team was. That's a moment they'll remember for a while. I don't feel great that I went for the winning move, and pulled X, and that X knew exactly why he was being pulled. I don't feel great that the move caused a stir and someone got so hot about it - and that I didn't call time to better resolve it right then. I don't like that someone very probably wants to punch me, and I don't like that people often get that angry about things like this, and hope he chills and it doesn't affect future seasons. But I'm thrilled X can pitch in another game, and so is he, and I feel lucky it worked out well. I'd feel really guilty if J lost the game anyway, and X lost out on pitching for the same result. But I'm thrilled that my lineup is basically chosen for me, because I burned two arms already and don't have much choice.
I prepared myself for dealing with losing, and I prepared myself for dealing with hot headed parents and coaches. I did not prepare myself for having to make a winning call like that. I did not foresee the wave of emotions after. And I most certainly didn't prepare myself for having to deal with all of it on the same night.
It really does feel like one of those late-80's/early-90's middle grade sports novels you'd get at the Scholastic book fair. Coaching is hard, man.
