u/vjarizpe

My son plays 11u LL here in Houston, Texas. The all star coaching staff has said for years there is a bias for our team. Our team is lower income by numbers but in a gentrifying part of Houston. It was heavily Latino and is now about 60/40 Latino. There are a good amount of new members that are white or white Latino (like me) and high income now.

We play travel ball too, so don’t play every spring but played this one.

I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. Umps calling strikes when our batters had to jump out of the way. Calling strikes at the ankles. Calling straight up the middle pitches as balls.

This happens. Usually it’s just an ump that calls bad calls for both teams. You tell the boys to adjust. Nope. Only for us. I promise I’m not a “mad dad” ranting. I’m flabbergasted by the bias.

Not even the opposing team knew what was going on. Umpires even questioned multiple time outs called by our catcher as to “why they were needed.”

We’ve only played this league for 6 years and I don’t have the historical understanding of what’s going on….. but it was incredible to actually see it happen.

And when the game was over, the coaches on our team weren’t surprised and told us, that’s how they are every year. All this time I thought they were just being whiny… nope.

We played 3 games. All 3 were officiated the same. Ump on 3rd base calls our runner safe, opposing team challenges and they overturn. Something f similar happened 4 times.

We never won an appeal. Not even when we caught a runner at the plate and catcher showed blue he held the ball. Called out. I was sitting right there. Beat him by a visible margin.

In all my years watching games, I’d never seen anything like this.

My son plays 11u LL here in Texas. The all star coaching staff has said for years there is a bias for our team. Our team is lower income by numbers but in a gentrifying part of Houston. It was heavily Latino and is now about 60/40 Latino.

We play travel ball too, so don’t play every spring but played this one.

I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. Umps calling strikes when our batters had to jump out of the way. Calling strikes at the ankles. Calling straight up the middle pitches as balls.

Not even the opposing team knew what was going on. Umpires even questioned multiple time outs called by our catcher as to “why they were needed.”

We’ve only played this league for 6 years and I don’t have the historical understanding of what’s going on….. but it was incredible to actually see it happen.

And when the game was over, the coaches on our team weren’t surprised and told us, that’s how they are every year.

Do better LL.

I know this isn’t a baseball-specific story, but I firmly believe this challenge helped my son understand practicing. We live in Texas, and he goes to public school so your children could have this too.

When my son was in third grade, I saw him on his iPad during dinner. That’s a no-no, so I told him to put it down. He told me he was working on a math challenge. Every correct answer was worth points and he, and 2 friends, were competing for the end of month prize.

I looked and they were all within 30 points of each other, and it was beginning of second week of the month.

I took my opportunity and asked if he wanted to win, and he said yes.

I told him, new rule, you can leave this app open after school and on weekends. If you see one of your friends’ score rising, that’s means they’re working on it. You immediately start working.

If they aren’t working on it, work for at least 30 min every few hours.

So he did. He’d say, “Sammy’s working… gonna work now.” Or I’d catch him working on his own.

By end of third week he came home and said his friends stopped racing him and were only racing each other. I checked the scores. They had about 950 points range and my son was well over 3,500 points.

So when it was over, and he won, I told him, this is how you win at life and keep your position in baseball. You work hard when others are working hard and if they are goofing off, you keep working.

If you do this enough, your competition will quit trying to beat you, and play for second place.

Ever since then, that’s how he treats practice and I never worry about him loosing a starting job.

Hope this helps anyone.

Hey guys,

Assuming you have the time to work out with your child over the week;or they have a person who they can work out with, this is my best advice when it comes to private lessons:

1. Record the main parts of the lesson. Get the coach saying the corrections to your child. Record the coach demonstrating the movement they want them to do.

2. At the end, record the coach telling your child what they want them to work on.

3. Go home and do the reps. Have the child watch the videos. Periodically, send the coach videos confirming they are doing it correctly.

4. This is the important part…… don’t go back to see the coach till they confirm they are completing the exercises correctly….. or if he cannot get them correct, go back for a refresher and repeat till they do.

This method has helped us not pay a coach to throw bp or do reps with our children, but have them go back for new skills… and not repeat the same ones week after week.

Hope this helps someone.