In the News
Players learn lessons on baseball diamond
Mark Rosman

  This was a challenging year for the Angels of the Freehold Township Little League Minor League division, but I believe it was a rewarding season for the 11- and 12-year-old baseball players.

Of course, success in sports is measured by wins and losses. I believe it is pro football coach Bill Parcells who is known for his statement that you are exactly as good or as bad as your win-loss record says you are.

A 16-0 football team is great, an 8-8 football team is average and a 2-10 football team is bad. There's no good way to sugarcoat that last one.

When children are young and playing sports, there are ways to direct the post-game conversation away from wins and losses. Youngsters who are 7, 8 and 9 years old are easily distracted by the promise of pizza or ice cream. They forget about the wins and losses faster than some parents (me) are able to do.

However, I noticed that at the age of 10, and definitely by the age of 11, my son began to realize that the wins and losses did matter. Now that he is 12, it bothered him when his baseball team opened this season with a streak of lopsided losses, and he expressed that frustration to me.

I told him to keep practicing. I watched the coaches continue to offer encouragement to all of the players during practices and games. As the adults in charge of a group of boys, they maintained a positive attitude even as the losses piled up.

Finally, the tide turned and the Angels won two games during the last half of the regular season. The kids were so amazed at what had occurred that when they took a lead during one game, you could hear their voices in the dugout saying, "Oh my God, we're leading."

That direct assessment delivered from the mouth of a child who was calling it as he saw it brought smiles to the faces of the adults who heard it.

It cracked me up.

As the season went on, I watched as the players' hitting and fielding skills improved. Being on the field twice a week and playing games seemed to make all the difference from what I had seen during the first practice and the first few games when bad weather kept the team from getting into a groove.

At least one league observer seemed relieved when I told him that the Angels had finally won a game after six or seven lopsided losses in a row. His reaction seemed to confirm an odd feeling I had been carrying for several weeks that something had gone awry in the selection of the teams this year. How does a team get outscored by 100 runs in 12 games? It was the widest margin by a mile in the eight-team league.

The Angels' season ended with a 7-3 loss in a playoff game on June 14, but the boys played hard and played well against a team that had gone 7-5 in the regular season. The coaches' message to the team at the end of the game was the same one they had delivered consistently during the season - hard work had led to improvement, and more hard work would make them better players in the future.

I want my son to play on championship teams - what parent doesn't? - but I think lessons in sportsmanship, friendship and effort were learned this spring, albeit the hard way, that he and the other Angels will carry with them for years. While those benefits alone do not make up for all of the losses the team absorbed, it reinforces the point that we enroll our children in youth sports for more than just the final standings.

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the News Transcript.