Interesting larry Bird trash talk article.

[Physedteacher25]

That's awesome, I love that story.

[gopherfan]

Kids are weaker now then before. I live in MN, and if it's too cold, they call off school. They did this last year when is was -2. You have to be kidding me. It used to be that kids helped out with chores on the farm, or around the house at least. They were more diverse. Now it is all specialization. Not many multi-sport athletes anymore. The basketball coach doesn't want you to play football because you might get injured. Pitch counts in baseball....IN THE MAJORS. I'm a Twins fan, and I don't remember the last time we had a pitcher throw more than 110 pitches. And they usually get pulled at 100. Not keeping score at games? Do you think that kids don't know if they were crushed? They might not remember the exact score, but they know if they were close or not.
I refer to most of this as the pussifying of America.

I need to stop now. My head is going to explode.

[steve B]

Someone I know had a kid in tee ball a few years ago when they stopped keeping score. They also had everyone bat at least once every inning. They were believers in the whole not keeping score thing until after a particularly bad game. They were doing the post game- on the way to the ice cream place - pep talk about how the team played pretty well. Their kid finally said "Dad we were terrible. It was 63-5. " And yet somehow the kids had all had fun. So at least the coaches got something right.

Not being particularly good at sports I've somehow developed what seems to be an odd attitude. For me it's all about the competing, I don't overdo it in something like a softball pickup game, but if someone can hit they get tougher pitches and stuff like that. (Never try to sneak a borderline pitch especially a low one past a cricket player. The two I played with/against were by far the best bad ball hitters I've ever seen) One acquaintance who had competed in wrestling and weightlifting at a pretty high level was amazed when I said I'd love to see a few pitches from a major leaguer or try to run against an NFL player - Like on the Pros vs Joes show. He wouldn't want to at all because he'd be embarrassed, I figure I'd be outclassed by nearly anyone and it would be fun to see what it was like against someone really good. I did eventually play softball on a team with an Olympic athlete and a guy who played college baseball until the coach insisted he choose between engineering and baseball. The immense gulf of a gap in raw talent is really hard to explain. Like watching someone with a blown out rotator cuff make a throw that I'd need a pitching machine for. About 150ft, maybe more pretty much on a flat line and right on for accuracy.

I think if more parents and even coaches could see that there'd be a lot more realistic estimates of little Johnnys chances at making the pros. And a lot more actually having fun playing sports.