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Youth Coaches. What's the funniest thing you have seen on the field?
I once saw a coach try to teach his team to bunt by straddling the plate.
During a 10-11 baseball game I was coaching third base when I noticed the other teams left fielder sitting on the ground. I notified the coach who called timeout and shouted to the player to stand up. The player looked at the coach and shouted back "F___ you". He was then taken out of the game. I asked the coach after the game if he spoke to the parent. He said yeah, the parent said "F___ you too!".
Comments
I wasn't a coach but when my middle son was playing T-ball we had this girl on the team and when the last inning of a game was over she comes running in from outfield with blood running down her chin. All the adults are freaking out because we thought she got hurt somehow but she runs up to her parents and proudly lets them know she pulled a tooth. I love T-ball.
Not from youth sports, but my dad pitched for many years in a men’s slow pitch softball 🥎 league that allowed Unlimited arc on pitches. If my dad got two strikes on someone, he would throw the next pitch backhanded about 30-35 feet up in the air.
Umpires sometimes would yell, “BALL! TOO High!” and my dad would chew them out for not knowing the local rules.
But the funniest thing I saw was one game after a batter reached first safely on an infield error, the umpire called timeout and then called the runner OUT because he was wearing metal spikes.
My dad walks over from the pitchers mound and says, somewhat argumentatively “What’s wrong with that?! Those are the same spikes like I’m wearing.”
Umpire - “Well then you’re out TOO!”
My dad - “I can’t be out - I’m PITCHING!!!”
Obligatory not a coach but I Umpired baseball and managed the basketball game clock and scoreboard for the local Rec Dept while in Highschool. I Umpired from coach pitch and up. At least once a year you would see kids running to third first or kids scoring baskets for the opposing teams. Its like herding cats. Had a kid in machine pitch that was afraid of the ball. The coach put him at catcher. He literally jumped out of the way of every pitch. Luckily I had the shield versus the catchers gear that day so it wasn't to bad but I flat out ordered the coach to put someone else in as catcher once the half inning was over. Also had a kid in player pitching (10 year olds I think) that when he got to two strikes he would wait to see if the catcher actually caught the ball and if he didn't he would then swing and take off to first. Tried it multiple times and it always ended the same way with us calling him back to the box. Don't know what he was thinking.
The funniest thing I ever saw as a coach was in a mixed soccer league. These were jr high age kids with boys and girls together. I had a couple of girls who were bigger, stronger and faster than most of the boys. Anyway, we were scrimmaging and one of the big girls got the ball. This chubby boy (your classic fat kid) playing defense started waiving his arms in the air and running at her trying cover her. She kicked the ball as hard as she could (and she could kick like a mule) and nailed the kid right in the stomach. He of course grabbed his stomach and turned around trying to catch his breath. That was funny enough. However, the ball bounced right back to the girl and she uncorked another blistering line-drive that hit the fat kid right in his butt as he was bent over recovering from the gut-shot. The ball shot straight up in the air and the kid went from being bent over forward to standing straight up with both hands grabbing his butt like he got spanked. This all happened wtihin about a 3 second period.
Well, it took about 20 minutes for us all to stop laughing. The fat kid was fine and after he got hit in the butt, he fell on the ground laughing.
I swear if I had that on video it would win every funny home video competition. Would make a great movie scene.
At 7u rec baseball tryouts one year, the players were supposed to take three swings, and on the third one, run to 2nd base. One kid, who had never played before, ran in a straight line from home plate to 2nd base (crossing the pitcher's mound).
All the coaches laughed when it happened, but I made a note in my eval sheet that the kid looked like a good athlete. I ended up drafting him in the 11th round, and he turned into an all-star. Fast forward about 10 years and today he's a major college prospect playing for an elite HS program in Florida.
7-8 baseball. Foul ball down the left field line almost all the way to the fence. The left fielder stares at it and doesn't go and pick it up. My catcher runs all the way out there and brings it back. I gave him the game ball
When I was younger playing rec ball the coach asked a player if he had his cup in the player looked confused and of course went and asked his mama and then came back with her drink from the concession stand and gave it to the coach
Must share this story from 2010: When we lived in Kazakhstan, my wife ran an after-school program in a rough neighborhood for at-risk kids. Every summer we held an English-language day camp. I usually ran the outdoor sports & games. The kids LOVED American football, whiffle ball and other games like "steal the bacon."
But the most amazing thing/feat I ever saw (maybe even more than any pro or college sport) was one day when I taught them how to play frisbee golf. We did the usual easy holes, hitting a wall or big tree as the target, so they could learn the idea. We lengthened the holes after that, to make it more of a challenge and learn English numbers by counting each throw.
When we were finishing up, I told them NOW it's time for a REALLY HARD golf hole! I went to the other side of the vacant lot, where there was a pine tree growing next to a tall stone wall. I put the plastic box we used to store our game equipment underneath the base of the tree, with only about a foot of space open above it between the dense lower branches and box top. The object was to throw the frisbee INTO the box, not just hit it. I estimated it would be a par 3 or par 4 hole, based on difficulty.
A tall, skinny girl named Zarina, who had been really mean when she first came to the center (so much that other kids didn't want to come if she was there), steps up and says, "Let me try!" She flings that thing in a wide, sideways sweeping arc completely across the field, perfectly judged, where it dove just under the branches and into the box for a HOLE IN ONE! I stood there dumbfounded, not believing my eyes.
Then this smart girl Anna that was really good at ping-pong says, "Now let me try." I hand her a different frisbee and she, unbelievably, repeats the feat with ANOTHER HOLE IN ONE! I was now completely dumbstruck.
The kids hand me a frisbee and say, "Let's see you do it.!" I looked at them and said, 'Honestly, I don't even think I can throw it that far!" I tried and got it about 75% across the field before it crashed into the dust.
If I had that on video, it would be featured on the old TV show "THAT'S INCREDIBLE!" Strange but true. I was there. I saw it.
The two girls who both got hole-in-ones have now graduated from college with degrees in Finance and Mathematics, which is even more amazing!
PS - here's one of my favorite photos from that era, playing American football and drawing up plays in the sand. This is actually the field where the frisbee golf hole-in-ones happened!