weaker players

Question
I have coached a baseball team for 8 years now and would like to have your opinion on the weaker players, we live in a community that most parents can not afford to have their children play on a traveling team's town leagues make us split up the kids that do travel, so we draft every year,I sometimes feel that if the players had the desire to play they would make an effort to get better, I give them and their parents drills to work on at home to make their child better, is it fair to the team if they do not make an effort to get better to play them in every game or do you make a reachable goal for them to achieve and reward them with playing time and if they do not reach a fair goal, then what? Thank you  

Answer
Hey Dennis,

I kind of know what you want me to say, but I probably won't be saying it.
First of all, I don't even have a son, so I did not get involved in coaching or be a commissioner, so that my kid would get a fair deal.  I got involved because I loved the game and thought I was knowledgeable enough to teach,
and organized enough, to make  the game enjoyable for my players on my team and in my league.

In a perfect world you are right on, but this is far from a perfect world we live in.  Since you coach, I am quite sure that you are probably very involved with your child. You probably take him to a field or yard and hit him ground ball, fly balls, etc.... But many parents couldn't care less about baseball.  Thank God THEY are not on your team.  But the kid IS on your team and wants to get better in most cases.  You, as coach, are a replacement for that parent that doesn't care, or just doesn't have the time, which you obviously do.

I do understand where you are coming from, however, but if winning would take a back seat to all the kids having fun, then this wouldn't even be an issue.  If the weak player shows up for most practices and has a good attitude, this should account for something.

How many players are on your team? Twelve is an ideal number, and fourteen is too many.  With twelve players, having everyone play at least three innings wouldn't be hard.  You would only have to make three position changes.  Then you can reward the weak links more playing time, but you can't take all their time away completely.  If that's the way you feel, then you may be better suited for the travel program.  If you have fourteen players, then this becomes a much harder situation.

In my league, each team had no more than 13 players and ALL the players were put in the batting order 1 thru 13.  No one sat out from the batting order. Also, each player played the field for three innings each game whenever the
manager decided to put him out on the field.  This worked quite well through out the league all the way till high school age.
Maybe when you are out practicing with your son, you can invite a few of these players to practice with you.  See if they show.

So the bottom line is that you are coaching in a "In-House" program, and your job is to TEACH skills and sportsmanship.  It can become very frustrating at times, I know this, bu it doesn't change the fact that ALL players need to play to get better.  Their parents have paid money up front and put their little angels in YOUR hands for a couple of hours per week. You chose this position.  It was not forced on you.  Look at this as a privilege, cause it is.  If you were a parent of one of these weaker players, and could not get out to the field and practice with your boy, what would you hope for, in an instructor for your child? Be that person..

Let me know how it goes, and don't ever hesitate to write me again.
Dennis