No, this isn't a post about Valentine's Day :-)
But love is a really important emotion in baseball. Let me explain.
People often ask what I look for in a camp coach. First and foremost: genuine LOVE OF THE GAME!
These two guys, who lost their junior year season and half of the senior year season and have been helping me out at practices for months, show up to “work” early every single day to play a game of catch.
They’re not sitting in their cars playing on their phones waiting to “clock in.” They’re not sitting at home watching TV until the last possible minute and then sprinting over to the field so they’re not late.
They show up early to play catch. Why? Because they love it. No High School coach watching them. No Scouts evaluating them. No game to prepare for. Just a LOVE of playing catch.
When someone truly loves baseball, that love is contagious. And as someone whose sole mission in life is to make more kids love baseball, I have to have coaches on the field with me who love baseball as much as I do.
You can’t fool kids. They know what’s genuine and what isn’t, even if they can’t fully articulate it. They know if a coach has THEIR best interests at heart or not. They know what's real excitement and joy and love, and what isn't.
So parents: you want to help make sure your ballplayer has a great youth baseball experience? Make sure you get them around coaches who LOVE the game. Not coaches who love winning. Not coaches who love beating the coach on the other team because he doesn’t really like him. Not coaches trying to make a name for themselves.
Find coaches who LOVE the game. Simple as that.
Another question I get asked a lot is, "How can I help my kid make the High School team."
My answer isn't:
"Go find a super competitive club team to play on."
or
"Make sure you're playing tournaments 12 months a year."
or
"Quit all other sports to focus entirely on baseball."
Rather, my answer is, "Make sure your son is having so much fun that he wants to play again next year, because if we don't foster of a love of the game at a young age, he'll either quit before he gets to High School OR he will have played so much super intense baseball between the ages of 8-14 that the game isn't fun for him anymore when he's 15 and he won't have the desire to work as hard as he needs to compete at the next level."
My great friend Brian Emerson, who used to coach at camp as "The Professor" and has been a varsity Head Coach for the past 10+ years said something to me awhile back that I'll never forget. He said, something to the affect of: "Dan, you know what? When I told tryouts, I can tell the kids who are totally burned out on baseball before we get on the field. I can see it in their eyes. There's no spark, no excitement, no joy. It's the opposite, in fact. It looks like tryouts are a chore for them. And the kids who I can tell aren't in love with game anymore almost always play like it; unenthusiastic, lethargic...just going through the motions."
If your goal TODAY is for your kids to have the best possible Little League experience please encourage, celebrate, and foster the LOVE of the game.
And if your goal for the FUTURE is for them to play High School Baseball or beyond please encourage, celebrate, and foster the LOVE of the game.
Above all else. LOVE.