To whom it may concern:
As a concerned grandmother of four boys, I have to speak out about an issue that is deeply affecting my boys, and all the boys attempting to play little league baseball at J.R. House Complex.
There are very limited sources of activities for our children in this community, and the baseball complex is about the only thing we as parents have to offer our children for extra curricular activity. Boys being boys, they love to play baseball. They put their hearts and souls into it, but the parents and coaches are turning the game into a political competition between themselves, and the fun of the game is being lost to these children.
The boys just want to go out there and interact with each other, and do what they love, and that’s play ball. The umpires, what very few we have, are being influenced by the coaches of certain teams, and if your child doesn’t luck out and picked by these particular coaches, they have to endure a season of getting beat in just about every game.
The draft is a joke, people have to be begged to coach these teams, and most of them won’t do it because of all the political aspects going on at the complex. So, therefore we have numerous children out there wanting to play ball, and not enough coaches to go around.
It is very sad to see this happening to the kids. This year, there are at least 13 children to a team in the 7- and 8-year-old pitching machine teams, because there are only three sets of coaches for these teams. Come on people, if you know at least a little bit about baseball, take a little bit of your time to offer to the kids, and let them play ball.
We parents have dues to pay in order for our kids to play ball, the ball park is making a tremendous amount of money each game, I know it can afford to get more officials out there to officiate these games, and the politics should be left to politicians. It is not appropriate to bring it into the ball field.
If you are reading this, and some or all of my words hit a nerve, you know who you are, leave the kids alone and let them enjoy the only thing we have to offer them in our community. Let them be ball players.
Concerned Grandmother
