softball tournament catch-up

sadly, the team decided not to go play in the ft lauderdale tournament this year for some reason and i almost went with another team but i do not want to add the temptation of changing teams to the frustration my team provides sometimes... the past weekend we played in our own orlando tournament and it was quite frustrating (probably why i did not mention it or give a day by day update) as the coaches were not there because they were playing with their team at another location so i was asked to coach and the laziness and one prima donna player got under my skin enough for me to blow up at all of them and sit the prima donna who is a good player, but distracts others...

after the second time he had to be called back to the field when he was up at bat, not only breaking the flow of our team but risking a penalty from the umpire as the umpire was asking for a batter and could have given us an out for delay of game, i blew up and benched him... everybody was telling me it's ok and i told the team fine, you coach, i'll sit... they decided to go with my decision... he decided between innings that it was time to argue with me instead of letting me coach, typical self-centered attitude... i told him to cheer the team on from the bench or leave, but we were not going to talk about it any more during the game... he sat and sulked on the bench the whole game and the team saw how he was not even interested in what we were doing, just in pouting... we won the game 14-0 without him...

i talked to him after the game and he was still in argument mode... i told him to shut up and listem or leave... it took three times saying that for him to listen and i explained how his pouting instead of cheering the team on was proof that he was not a team player and was only interested in himself... he tried to deny it and i told him he apparently did not understand what it meant to be a team player... he said "ok, you win" and i told him that's exactly my point, it's not a competition for who gets their way on the team or who gets the most attention on the team, it's playing together, supporting each other, paying attention to what is going on, not disappearing and flirting with people in the stands when you are supposed to be on the field playing... he said he understood, but i doubt it...

i let him play the next game... we lost in the last inning because he threw to second (he played third) while the tying run went home from third... if he threw home, the runner was out and there would be two outs with runners on first and second... the second baseman dropped the ball so there was one out with runners on first and second, tied game, last inning, winning run on second... and then two other sometimes alert and sometimes sleeping players watched a fly ball drop between them as they stood in their respective positions in left and left center... these two have done this many times before and it was a mistake to have them in those positions... i didn't notice the other coach put them there in the last inning... my bad, being that i was coaching too... but watching the same players make the same mistakes and really not caring about the fact that the teams loses because they continue making the same mistakes is quite frustrating...

so we were done and went home... and this is why i don't coach... i get pissed off at prima donnas and lazy players... if you just want to play who-cares=if-we-win recreational softball (as i do in other leagues), then stop entering tournaments expecting to win... and they do expect to win, especially the ones with bad habits and big egos... they just don't listen and they just don't correct their mistakes... they think they are too good to take direction... and that's the softball wrap up for this month...

some fun, some frustration, good exercise... and in the end, the exercise is important so i keep going back for more...

narf too :}