A Stranger made DS Very Happy

JayCT

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
875
It is nice to know that there are still people in this world that do things just to make a child happy.

DS8 is an avid baseball fan and player. He loves the game. He watches, reads and plays baseball all of the time. I am not sure how he got to be such a big fan of the sport because DW and I are not big sports enthusists. DS8 started playing Tee Ball two years ago, then played in the minor leagues in our town last spring. This summer he attended a 3 week clinic on baseball where he won three trophies for knowing baseball trivia questions. He loves to talk to anyone and everyone about the sport.

In June, DW and I signed him up for our towns fall baseball program. He looked forward to playing, especially since his best friend (who plays because DS8 plays) is playing and since he made a number of firends during the spring and summer programs. A couple of weeks ago, we received a letter from the league saying that DS8 was not eligible to play in the fall because he was not 9 years old by the July 31st cutoff date. He will be 9 in September. His other friends are eligible because their birthdays are before the cutoff date. I wrote a letter back explaining his passion for the sport (which the League Director should know since he knows who my son is from the summer program), his abilitities in playing and requesting the league waive the cutoff date. Last week we got a two page hand-written letter from the director that went on about his work in the Towns baseball program and how hard it is to meet everyones request. In others words the answer was NO.

DS8 was sooo disappointed. He really wanted to play this fall. I then went on-line (thank God for the internet) and checked for other towns that offer a fall baseball program. None of the towns immediately adjacent to ours offered a fall program but a couple of towns a little further away did. I called one of the coaches listed as a contact and he said he would check and see if it was possible or if anyone would object. Well last night he called and said it looks good. No one has objected. He said to show up for practice on Tuesday and unless someone raises an objection, DS8 can play on his team. DS8 was very very happy. We are looking forward to him playing even though it means a 1/2 hour or more drive to the games twice a week.

Like I said above, it is nice to know that there are people out there that put a child's happiness ahead of some league rules. Too bad none of them live in our town.
 
Jay - first of all, i'm glad to hear you're happy with the outcome of this problem.

However, please put yourself in the coaches shoes for a minute. Don't you think if they made an exception for your child, there would be 5 more 8 1/2 year olds in the wings who also wanted to play? I'm in no way trying to rain on your parade, and personally I think if they're in the same "grade" then the "age" shouldn't matter, however the picked that age as a cut-off and you should respect that.

Again, i'm very glad to hear that another league doesn't have the age requirement and allowed your son to Join...after all, the important thing here is that they get to play.
 
That's great that the other coach will be making your son's dreams of playing this year come true. It is sad that he can not play for your own town's team with his friends but I understand the coach's reasoning. Although it is hard for an 8 year old boy to understand, you could take this opportunity to teach faith in community leaders (even community youth sports) that some people really "do" play by the rules, and although sometimes that means we might get left out of something we really badly want, that in the end, truthful and honest leaders are often rare in this day and age and should be looked upon with admiration.

Again, so happy that your son will be able to play, and what a great dad for willing to go out of your way to make this happen for your son!! :wave2:
 
I am so happy for your son. It was wonderful of this man to be so willing to bend the rules just a little for such a wonderful cause. Kudos to you for willing to drive the 1/2 in support of your ds's passion. Sounds like he is a very lucky little boy all around!
 

I know that there are rules and that is why I did not make a big deal when we were turned down. I also did use it as a lesson to my son about following the rules. I did not tell him that we were checking into other towns and even after the call last night I told him that they could still not let him play if someone objects (this is a multi-town league).

My real problem is that I guess we are disappointed in our own community as a whole. We have been questioning our staying here for a number of reasons. We bought in this town because it is known as a "family-oriented" community with good schools. Yet something here seems to be missing. We noticed how snobby our town is and how many stupid things go on because people here have a lot of money and time on their hands. NIMBY (Not-in-my-Backyard) runs rampant in this town. We do not shop much in our town because the stores are mostly over-priced. We do not use the many fancy restaurants either.

After 10 years, we still do not know the neighbors on either side of us. I dread the day the boys break one of their windows with a baseball or football. And while we have met some very nice people in town and made friends, none live in our neighborhood. The elementry school has been very good so far, but we are really concerned about what will happen when our kids get to the large middle school (1200 kids) and high school (2400 kids) we have here. Will our kids be able to get on the high school team that they want to play on because the school is so large and the competition is too much? Will they be lost in such large schools? We are now really struggling with these issues. Anyway, thanks for all the responses.
 
I'm surprised that your son couldn't play up. Here, both the LL and Pony leagues will let you play up if your skill level is equal to the older players. They won't let you play down. That is where they strictly enforce the rules.

I don't see the problem with letting a child play on a league equal to their skill level.

I'm glad your son is going to play.

We just finished up All Stars for the summer. So with fall, spring and All Stars ball we are ready for a break. Fall ball tryouts are Saturday.:rolleyes:

My husband is excited that my 2 year old will get to play fall ball in 2 years.:eek: He can't wait.

Lori
 
I'm glad it worked out.


I also am surprised that your son wasn't allowed to play up, especially if his skills are good. My son has been on a couple teams that had a younger player with good skills on it. I also would think that fall baseball would draw good players b/c they have chosen to concentrate on baseball instead of playing soccer.
 
I can understand if your son was not able to play because he's too old, but I can't understand him being too young. I have a son who will be 11yo in September and it's something that we've always had to deal with. He started playing on a select 8/under team when he was 7 and is now on a 12U team and he turns 11 in September. I figure if he has the skills to "play up" and wants to then I'm going to allow and encourage it. He is very mature about the whole thing and his reasoning is that his baseball skills will improve more if he is playing with kids who have more advanced skills than the kids his own age. He is still in the top half skillwise on his team, BTW. He would prefer not to be the best on his team. If he plays high school baseball he will be playinbg with these older kids, anyway (he's young for his grade, so as a freshman would be playing with kids 1-2 years older on a JV team).

My son has always loved baseball and would sit through an entire game (minor league game at that age, major league a couple of years older) as a 2-3yo (we would be at the game because of his older brother). My youngest son is now 4 1/2 yo and is just starting to have the interest now that my middle son had at 2yo. Different strokes for different folks! :teeth:

T&B
 
I'm glad that your son was able to play. My little nephew is an avid baseball fan too. He is small for his age, so I think it may be hard for him to keep up with the other kids occasionally.

I think they should make exceptions...sometimes too.:sunny:
 












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