It truly is a sad state of affairs. I come from a long line of Little League coaches/umpires/district administrators etc.. My grandpa was one of the four founding members of my home town little league, was involved from the late 50's till the day he died 10 years ago. Heck the field is officially named after him. My dad just retired from running the entire district for almost 25 years after coaching.
I started coaching right after ending my baseball career ( 4 years NCAA) and not making it to the pros. I knew I had an almost zero chance of making it, I hit singles and doubles but wasn't speedy on the basepaths.
Anyway I am now coaching our third daughter in softball after spending last season in the stands as I watched in Horror as a mom and her two daughters absolutely butchered the job (coach pitch). They would fight with each other in the middle of the field and on more than one occasion one daughter would tell her mom to GFY and would walk off and leave the field. It was pretty bad. They fought with the other teams, umpires ( also volunteer) etc..
When I started coaching, my dad ( turned down a minor league contract in 1968), grandpa, my BIL ( who played semi pro), and I took a team with my then 6 year old nephew. My dad always had parents meetings and went over some basic rules. No parents in the dugout unless your child is hurt, every kid will play every position, every kid will lead off, hit clean up,etc.. and we were there to teach them not only basic skills, but also the rules of the game. He always ended with a little equation on a whiteboard. He would take the total number of kids in little league, then dial it down to how many play high school ball, then college, then any pro, then how many make it to the show. Then he would divide that total number of Major Leaguer's by the little leaguers and basically you have a .003% chance of making it or some other ridiculously small number. This was not to kill the childs dream but to put the parents in the right frame of mind. Let them have fun and learn the game.
We would still have parents come up after the meeting and demand that little Timmy play shortstop because he is going to be the best player.
We had so much fun and what really made me smile was the little things. I coached third base. Every time a kid made it to third the speech was the same depending on situation. " One out, bases loaded, ball on the ground you have to run home, ball in the air you stay here till I tell you to go" About halfway through the season I would stop halfway and the kids would start finishing the sentences for me and that was when you knew you were getting through.
To the OP I feel for you man. It is hard. Parents these days are not what they were even 15 years ago. I do not believe in everyone gets a trophy. I believe you run on and off the field and treat your equipment, team mates, all coaches, and umpires with respect. I am sure I will have run ins with parents this spring cause their 10 year old daughter is going D1 on scholarship and they need to pitch every game....
