I saw my first baseball game with my grandson playing yesterday, He's 13 years old and going to be in 9th grade next year (he turns 14 this summer). He lives in a small town about 15 minutes from me and that town of about 2,500 people had so many boys try out for baseball that they formed two teams. I'm not sure what level this is, but it's not high school ball, though there are high school kids on the teams, or Little League. It may be Legion ball or it may just be a summer league. This game was between the two town teams and they had a time limit on the game. They let all 10 kids on each team bat, but only had 9 in the field for each team and they had liberal substitution rules. In other words, it didn't strictly follow regular baseball rules.
So there was this grandpa in the stands who was shouting at the team my grandson was on. I guess you could say he was encouraging them, but he was more annoying than anything and didn't understand that they weren't following regular baseball rules. He would yell at the pitcher, "throw to that glove, follow through, burn it in there, etc., etc." But he was most annoying when they were batting. "Watch that ball all the way to your bat, make them pitch to you, watch the spin on the ball, if you see it you can hit it. When he throws you a strike, you hit it (yes, he actually said that)." I mean, this barrage of words was nonstop.
Then the opposing team's pudgy catcher got on first base with two outs and the coach wanted someone to run for him so he could put on his catcher's gear to start the next inning. He did this because it's a timed event and he didn't want the kid wasting time gearing up. Well, the next guy up hit a double, and the pinch runner scored on the play, where it was obvious the catcher wouldn't have been able to. This grandpa threw a fit over both the substitution and the subsequent score. He got so annoying that at one point, I turned around and said, "it's not like they're playing actual baseball. Each team is batting 10 players" (something he hadn't even realized). Then he starts yelling, "I thought I was watching real baseball. I guess I'm not. I paid my $3 to watch a baseball game." He made so much noise over it and several innings later, he was still at it and the coach, in between innings, came over to the backstop and told him to pipe down. What he did was completely legal by the rule book and offered to show it to him. That still wasn't good enough and he continued to gripe about it for the rest of the game, in between yelling instructions at the batters and the pitcher.
Keep in mind that when the pinch runner scored, it made the score 14-0. So it's not like it made a huge difference in the outcome of the game. It was just a ridiculous display. The final was 14-3 and my grandson scored one of the 3 runs. But this crotchety old man ruined the experience for me.
So there was this grandpa in the stands who was shouting at the team my grandson was on. I guess you could say he was encouraging them, but he was more annoying than anything and didn't understand that they weren't following regular baseball rules. He would yell at the pitcher, "throw to that glove, follow through, burn it in there, etc., etc." But he was most annoying when they were batting. "Watch that ball all the way to your bat, make them pitch to you, watch the spin on the ball, if you see it you can hit it. When he throws you a strike, you hit it (yes, he actually said that)." I mean, this barrage of words was nonstop.
Then the opposing team's pudgy catcher got on first base with two outs and the coach wanted someone to run for him so he could put on his catcher's gear to start the next inning. He did this because it's a timed event and he didn't want the kid wasting time gearing up. Well, the next guy up hit a double, and the pinch runner scored on the play, where it was obvious the catcher wouldn't have been able to. This grandpa threw a fit over both the substitution and the subsequent score. He got so annoying that at one point, I turned around and said, "it's not like they're playing actual baseball. Each team is batting 10 players" (something he hadn't even realized). Then he starts yelling, "I thought I was watching real baseball. I guess I'm not. I paid my $3 to watch a baseball game." He made so much noise over it and several innings later, he was still at it and the coach, in between innings, came over to the backstop and told him to pipe down. What he did was completely legal by the rule book and offered to show it to him. That still wasn't good enough and he continued to gripe about it for the rest of the game, in between yelling instructions at the batters and the pitcher.
Keep in mind that when the pinch runner scored, it made the score 14-0. So it's not like it made a huge difference in the outcome of the game. It was just a ridiculous display. The final was 14-3 and my grandson scored one of the 3 runs. But this crotchety old man ruined the experience for me.
