Non-football related stuff that really makes your day

[Tony G]

Put it on your favorite lion number, 77

[FVD]

Obviously, you don't play blackjack.

[Tony G]

???

[FVD]

77 isn't on a roulette wheel.

[Tony G]

OK, shows how many times I've played. 25 isn't an option in blackjack either though. I've found if I'm going to get rid of money there are far more fun or pleasurable ways to do it.

[FVD]

25 is an option in blackjack, just not a profitable one, unless you can get the dealer to attain it.

[Nick Pappageorgio]

I really didn't know where to post these two stories......but since they both ended up fine I decided to post them here. Here are two moments from sports fatherhood from my weekend:

First friday night.....baseball tryouts. Liam has played two seasons of baseball, one T-ball and one coach pitch. Liam is pretty decent and, more importantly, he enjoys playing the game with the other kids. During a game last season we were approached by parent who told us that our son would probably do well with a step up in competition and good coaching. The league was closer to home and only mildly more expensive. The parent explained that there were "try outs" but only to sort the players so teams could not be stacked. Sounded perfect.....at least for the mild step up we were looking for.

So Liam and I get there friday......immediately I realized that this was not what had been described to me. Holy stage parent!!! This was approximately 250 kids trying out for 130 positions. They stuck a number on him like he was to auctioned off...... A row of coaches with clipboards on the 1st base line. Parents were all called in and advised that children would go in groups of 5. Coaches would be drafting in two days.... children who didn't make the cut would be refunded the league fee and sent to a different league.

7-8-9 year-olds with hitting coaches for god's sake.....most of them rocking $200-300 pro-style gloves. Parents pacing and giving last minute instructions.....my last minute advice "go have fun". Liam's question "what's that?"....referring to the blue contraption firing baseballs at the kids.....just then I realize holy shit....he's never seen a pitching machine before. Liam's using the $35 glove I bought like a year ago. I felt like a bad parent......I mean, I want to push my kid to alway try and get better at stuff, but this felt like I was dooming him to failure and sending him into a trial he was woefully unprepared for. These kids looked like they were all on HGH.

Happy ending (kind of).....got the email that said he was drafted today. Not sure how I feel about how competitive this is. Maybe I'm being naieve.

[CGVT]

Little league sports are nuts, aren't they? It is the same here. Don't forget about the 7 and 8 year olds that are on "travel" teams, parents pissed off at coaches and yelling at their kids when they make an error and then the kids looking over at the parents with worried looks when they make a mistake, coaches playing their own kids(every coach's kid is a SS, pitcher and #3 hitter) and neglecting those that really need the work, etc etc. I hate little league baseball and around here football is even worse.

[Tony G]

Then there are the whackos that get pissed if you don't acknowledge their nieces accomplishments.

[-Deborah-]

Oh FFS, is this going to be in EVERY thread, Tony?

[Tony G]

I hope not

[froot loops]

I'm trying to put off the travel softball and basketball for my daughter as long as I can. I coached her CYO basketball team, it just ended Saturday, they had AAU tryouts Sunday. But I prefer the dance competitions, you can pick and choose the competitions. But the dance is so much more expensive than the sports, but with the travel sports it really ties up the weekend.

[Nick Pappageorgio]

Second sports story from the weekend....

I coach Liam's flag football team....it's supposed to be a seriously non-competative league (as non-competative as a competative sport can be anyway). Playing time is slotted with pre-mapped worksheets. Carries top out at 4 unless you get everyone 4 (which is basically not possible) no one can have anymore. I can manipulate when I get certain players on the field....but everyone gets exactly the same playing time. These are the league rules.

As a coaching experience goes it's pretty easy. Parents have been great telling me they want to follow me because.....and this seemed crazy to me....they tell me that I'm the first coach they've ever had that treats everyone the same. They all tell me that in prior teams that the coaches spend all their time with the 2-3 good kids on the team and make the lesser kids do different things. I make everyone do the same thing and rotate.

Anyway.....I'm blessed to have 3 good kids on my team and probably the fastest two kids in the league. So as a result we're undefeated.

Last Saturday we only have to win and we're in the championship. The team we were playing has 1 loss and needed to beat us by a certain number of points to beat us to the championship.

So.....I catch the opposing coach cheating in the second quarter. Cheating.....in a 7 year-old flag football league. At first....I go over and speak with him. He tells me "oh sorry...honest mistake, we'll fix the roster thing at halftime". So I'm affable, figuring it's just 7 year old kids, no reason to get in a twist. But then....he not only continues to do it but it get way worse. The guy basically turned in a bogas roster sheet and thinks he can just play his best two kids the entire game. He still only led by 4 at half.

My other coach is pissed (he's the loud one) when he realizes that they didn't even list their stud player on the roster sheet. So I go get the head of the league.....who stops the game and demands the roster sheet be fixed.

I gotta say.....I normally don't give a shit. Win/lose...who cares? THEY'RE SEVEN YEARS OLD. I routinely yell at my kids for even asking about the scoreboard. But I gotta be honest.....never wanted to win so bad in my life. My parents were laughing at me after the game....said they'd never seen me like that in the field. I was basically telling my kids who was getting the ball before the play (I mean the douchebag coach only had two plays that worked....so I knew what he was doing). Normally I would never do this....I let my kids play D, they run the play but I don't cherry pick. But man was I pissed.

Cheating to win a 7 year old flag football game? Prick.

We won....championship is next weekend.

[Nick Pappageorgio]

Crazy thing about youth sports.....these parents all think their kids are the next mike trout.

I just want my kid to play sports in HS and not have too much free time on his hands. Sports are like anything else these days. Realistically, a kid starts kindergarten not knowing how to read and they're already behind. Same with sports now....when I was a kid, we could play for fun as kids and not be serious or learn specific mechanics until later. Now.....a kid waits until jr high to get going and they're so far behind they may never catch up.

Damn shame.

[CGVT]

Ha! Nice, NP.

We are really happy that our 10 year old got on a team with the coach that we wanted. He gets down on a knee and talks to the kids, doesn't yell at the kids and teaches fundamentals. His kid is a good kid and the assistant coaches are good guys with good kids. We had put that we wanted to have Jack on this guys team when we registered but you never know how it is going to shake out.

They do the try out thing here too, except that at this level they all get put on a team. All of the coaches grade the kids as they take a few swings, field some ground balls and run the bases. The scale is 1-5 and there is some complicated way of drafting based on what the carries (coaches' kids) score out at. They actually had to have a separate tryout for the coaches' kids with people other than the coaches scoring the kids so that they couldn't sandbag. I don't doubt that some of the coaches told their kids to play bad so that they didn't score very high.