Baseball dads ... sigh ...

So, my boys are playing T-ball/baseball this year. We skipped last year since we played spring soccer since I make them choose one or the other. Anyway, this year they chose baseball.

Then last week my sister called to see if I would be an assistant coach with her. Turns out the city didn't have enough parents sign up to be coaches, so they were calling parents to ask for volunteers. She said yes. Then she dragged me into it ...

So, we had our first practice this week. (We're not being anything extreme like the kindergarten T-ball coach for Zachary who has 2-a-week practices. Hello!) No, we skipped the first week and are having one-a-week practices from here on out until games start.

So, we're in the middle of practice pitching (underhand -- gasp!) to the boys to make sure they can all hit the ball. They're in machine-pitch this year, so it's a step up from T-ball. A dad walks out to us and says, "Can I give you a little advice?" Rachel and I looked at each other like, "Oh, brother ..." He then informs us that pitching underhand is going to make it so that none of the boys will ever be able to hit from a machine since the stance is TOTALLY different if you're hitting an underhand pitch as compared to an overhand pitch.

I told him that I wasn't comfortable pitching overhand, so he'd have to work with his son at home if he was worried about it. He said, "Oh!" and then proceeded to spend the rest of practice watching closely what we were doing. Did he volunteer to pitch overhand for us? Nope. For that matter, did he volunteer to coach? NO!

I guess the city warned my sister that parents would be there left and right to tell her what she is doing wrong, and they told her to inform them that if they don't like her coaching style they can volunteer themselves next year. Yes, as long as we're not screaming at the boys and excluding any from playing, back off!

Just one of those things that parents do that bug. Baseball is a little too "important" here, and I've seen enough to know that these attitudes are NOT exclusive to dads ... Let the fun begin!