Ray Karpis
Footballguy
I've coached youth baseball for the past 5-6 years. I've probably mentioned before that I have two boys (now 11 and 9) that play rec league ball in the spring and then play all-stars in the summer through the Cal Ripken organization. I've had an amazing stretch of having great parents....honestly almost never had an issue with parents complaining. I'm not Connie Mack, but I played enough and know enough about baseball to teach fundamentals to this age group. We moved to a new park this past season, and even though it's my first year in the program, I get voted by the league coaches to coach the 9-year-old all-star team. We have a very good little team, win a few tournaments and ultimately finish as the state runner-up. This age group had never finished better than 5th in the past.
The night we finished the state tournament, I get the craziest, delusional parent text I've ever received. It was from the dad of my starting CF/3-hole hitter. Athletic kid, very good player, fast, big arm...natural outfielder. He was playing exactly where he needed to play to help the team win. Played nearly every inning of every game. Anyway, here's the text:
I don't know why I'm sharing any of this, but it's been driving me nuts the past 2 days. About 36 hours after receiving the text, I finally responded to the guy today with the following:
The night we finished the state tournament, I get the craziest, delusional parent text I've ever received. It was from the dad of my starting CF/3-hole hitter. Athletic kid, very good player, fast, big arm...natural outfielder. He was playing exactly where he needed to play to help the team win. Played nearly every inning of every game. Anyway, here's the text:
11 of our 12 families were thrilled with how our team finished....beat two our biggest rivals in the state tournament. And yet this jack### is mad because his precious kid didn't play in the position HE thought he should be playing...regardless of the fact our team had a tremendous amount of success. I know coaches deal with this crap everyday but this is new territory for me. This kid is a good ballplayer, but he's not even close to being the "top player in the league." It's comical. Like his dad, the kid is a bit of a headcase. In the semifinal game, he made a great catch in CF to end the inning that prevented the other team from taking the lead. As he's coming off the field, I go out to congratulate him, and he says, "I don't really want to win this game...I'm ready for the tournament to be over...I want to go swimming."Forgive the late hour as we just got home. ( stopped for a cool swim in the river) . Congratulations on Second place in State Tourney. It's too little and too late, but I want to get a couple things off my chest. I don't know you outside of baseball so let's just stick to that subject so nothing is "personal". Suppose I was the All-Star coach and I put [your son] in the outfield for every game? Suppose I gave [your son] one start pitching against a 10 year old team and one start against [Team A] and a butt load of errors cost him the game? [My son] is at LEAST as good at short stop (maybe better) but I started another kid at SS instead of [your son]? How do you think the Cardinals won the league?? We beat your league team once with [my son's] pitching , and once with [my son's] hitting . (Grand slam off of [your son]). You had the gall to tell me that hit was luck? You listened to bad advice from your lap dogs my friend. [My son] brings energy, excitement , and enthusiasm to the game. For whatever reason you insisted on starting Davis and Young on the left side. You kept the books; how many runs on errors did that cost you??? Did you make a deal with the devil? When you brought Johnson in to pitch the last game , Davis and even Johnson's parents were asking why [my son] wasn't pitching. Who got in your head. Did You really think White was your best pitcher? His own Dad said you must be " Throwing in the towel". Suppose I brought White in instead of [your son] in the championship game? I'm perplexed at why you didn't use the top player in the league more effectively ??? FYI; My grandfather is a THREE time World Series champion with the Saint Louis Cardinals. Earl Smith; Google him. No way Davis can get enough RBI to justify his errors . And Young never made one play except for a one hopper that barely got there. Davis, Young, and your son missed more routine outs than my son did combined all year. Did you see something that deceived you into thinking he was second or third tier player. Fatal error on you my friend. In 5 years in this league my son has won 2 championships, 2 runner ups , and one third ( first year) . You threw it away and I would really like to know why?
I don't know why I'm sharing any of this, but it's been driving me nuts the past 2 days. About 36 hours after receiving the text, I finally responded to the guy today with the following:
Thanks for sharing. Hope you and your family have a great summer.