Baseball draft went fine. It’s nice catching up with exec staff and coaches. The issue has often been however, the frustration of being left with the short straw at the end of the night.
One of our newer coaches took that baton tonight and they spoke of such afterwards. “Good for them”, I thought. Some trades were made to try to balance the age and skill level of their team. This coach seemed to leave the park more satisfied that a gross imbalance had been rectified so I hope for the first time in my recent memory, it’s a tight battle all year between all four teams.
I’m nervous leading up to every draft night. Even more so after the past couple of seasons because you want to get it right – for the players to have a fun season. Although I always drive home at the beginning of every season, we are here to learn and have fun most of all, we all like to win sometimes and when one team never does, it is my opinion that youth sport has lost focus on its true mandate – fun and fair play. This isn’t travell ball; it’s not even fastball. It’s just a fun, co-ed, house league softball association.
I joined our league’s executive to make a difference. To help fix the imbalance of talent within teams. Now that I am an executive member I do see how hard getting the process right is, but those trades at the end of the night to me were a positive affirmation that we can no longer walk away knowing the fix might be on before the first pitch is even thrown.
A common belief in my opinion, goes much further than any set of rules ever will.
Let’s play ball!