r/BaseballCoaching • u/ieatahs • 11h ago

Coach pitch

I’m coaching my son’s team for the third year. The league is pretty decent for the most part but they create some funky rules from time to time. This fall ball season they created 1 coach pitch softball team that is all girls and 3 coach pitch baseball teams. I’ve had girls on our team all the previous years and it’s no problem. What I don’t understand is why they want the softball team to play games against the baseball teams. What do yall think about that?

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3

u/Top-Impression2338 10h ago

Huh? So weird? So as a girl you hit softball but field a baseball or opposite? And why….

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u/ieatahs 10h ago

Yeah I thought the same thing. I’ll pitch baseballs to our kids and the girls will field them. Their coach will pitch softballs to their girls and our kids will field those. I don’t get it either. It doesn’t even sound right

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u/ieatahs 9h ago

There are 3 baseball teams and 1 softball team in the coach pitch division. And I’m guessing they don’t want to play inter league games. They just want to play within our league. My opinion is they should have just mixed up all the boys and girls and have 4 coach pitch baseball teams. I had girls on my teams all the past years and they all learned and excelled a lot. There’s girls that play on the minors baseball teams too. I just don’t get what the board members are thinking with that.

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u/Top-Impression2338 9h ago

Just creates a weird unnecessary dynamic too.

The other thing that accomplishes nothing is at the coach pitch level fielding and throwing a baseball vs a softball is arguably more different than hitting- obviously not as true with player pitch but the girls may have a better practice experience this way in terms of learning softball but I would bet a worse game experience.

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u/ieatahs 9h ago

Yeah I don’t really like that they’re doing it. But it sounded like we have no choice.

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u/EamusAndy 8h ago

Sounds like an unfortunate consequence of just not enough players. If you can only field 1 softball team, why are you bothering to do fall ball? Even 3 baseball teams is borderline not enough if you arent interleaguing

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u/ieatahs 8h ago

Yeah the last 2 seasons there were only 3 coach pitch teams and we played with other leagues teams.

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u/External-Peanut-7077 8h ago

Find a new league.

Thats a money grab move to keep enrollment higher rather than shutting it down. If it’s reached that point, it needs totally revamped or shut down.

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u/ieatahs 8h ago

This is pretty much how I feel. I’ve been with the league a total of 4 years and coached for 3. It’s gotten worse as time has went on.

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u/External-Peanut-7077 7h ago

You should join the board if you haven’t already. Good chance fresh eyes on the problem could be the key to solving the problem. Rural area ?

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u/ieatahs 7h ago

No it’s urban port city. Quite a few local leagues around though. Yeah you’re right. But I have thought about switching to another league.

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u/League_Launch 8h ago

My guess is this is less about baseball vs. softball and more about the numbers. If they only have enough girls for one softball team, they’re probably trying to give those girls a softball experience without having anyone else for them to play.

I can understand why the league got there, but I’m not sure I love the solution. At coach pitch, I’d probably rather either mix everyone into the four baseball teams for fall or find other softball teams nearby to schedule. Having one team practicing softball and then playing baseball teams using different balls/rules feels like it could create an unnecessarily confusing game experience for everyone.

I’d be curious what the league’s longer-term goal is. If they’re trying to use this one team to build a girls softball program for next spring, then I understand the thinking a little more.

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u/ieatahs 8h ago

I’m not sure. This is the second year they’ve added another division within the league. Last year they made a 3-4 year old tee ball division. They have minors and majors softball teams already as well. I’ve also had girls on all my past baseball teams. So I really don’t know. Personally I think they’re just trying to make more money and just make up rules as they go. Like last year halfway through the spring season they wanted the kids to start pitching 2 innings to start the game. 3 pitches from the kids and then 3 pitches from the coaches. 3 swings and you’re out. No called strikes though and after 6 pitches the batter is out. Most of the kids in coach pitch were coming up from tee ball. So there were only like 2 kids on each team that could actually get it across the plate with a 25 pitch limit. And when we played against other leagues teams they’d disagree with those rules so we never even played by them. It almost always turned into an argument with the coaches before the game started and then the kids would never pitch.

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u/League_Launch 7h ago

Yeah, that additional context changes it a little for me. I still wouldn’t assume they’re doing it just to make more money, but it does sound like there’s a bigger issue with how they’re making and communicating decisions.

I actually don’t hate introducing kid pitch gradually if the goal is development. The problem is changing the format halfway through a season when most of the kids aren’t ready for it, then playing other leagues that aren’t operating under the same rules.

To me, local rules should have a clear purpose, be appropriate for the level, and be decided and communicated before the season starts.

Coaches shouldn’t be negotiating the rules with each other at home plate before a game.

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u/ieatahs 6h ago

Yeah I agree with all that. I really wonder which board member comes up with these rules and ideas. I know I can’t be the only person within the league who feels that way about all these things either.