Game Changer Mom and Team Stat Dad

Very few prime athletes can compare to my uncle Al who once scored 4 touchdowns in a single game at Polk High but we all have that team dad who knows his son has a .468 on base percentage or better yet understands how many quality at bats their son has over the next child.

Game Changer is good for 2 reasons..... The score and the pitch count. Everything else after that is eye wash. Yes I said it. Forget about it. One of my closest friends who works in the professional baseball world was onto this from when our sons were 8. He hated GC as he felt that it dictated too much of our kids team instead of merit. He used to feel like a kid who hit a flair over the pitcher's head for a single did not mean he was better then the kid who hit the line drive right at the second baseman.

As we got older GC (Game Changer) became the way of life. We all had it, hell we even recruited and researched other teams. Now with the live video feeds I will add that this feature is pretty awesome. I love being able to view the game when I am not there or grabbing highlights.

Understand that the phrase garbage in garbage out. This is not to discredit parents who truly understand the game or parents who are simply volunteering. If you feel your game changer is accurate that is great and hats off to you. If you, like me, feel like the other parents are lucky to get the right inning let alone the right score then I am with you. Yes I said it. About 3 years ago I stopped trying so hard on the GC stuff. It was my way of rebelling. 3 stories come to mind and these are all real. Not made up for the blog.

#1 My friend is doing the game changer and we are in a tight game. Our pitcher is absolutely shoving. We are either in a championship game or a semi. The game is 0-0 and a batter gets on. At some point that batter ends up at 3rd. During the at bat the ball hits the backstop and the runner scores putting us a run behind. A few seconds goes by and the father of the pitcher approaches and says to our GC mom "Hey you miss-scored that last pitch. " She does not understand and asks for clarification. He goes on to ask her to change the pitch from a wild pitch to a passed ball as he did not want his son to be attributed with the run. We were 12u.

#2 Little league playoffs and a similar situation but this time the ball hits the catcher's glove and bounces around the field to score a run. Only this time it's the catchers dad who comes over and politely ask that the scorekeeper to correct what was recorded as a passed ball. We all kind of look up in curiosity as we know that it hit the catcher's glove. We then hear the dad explain that the pitch was not thrown to its correct location and most likely was the wrong pitch causing our catcher to get mixed up. He felt that perhaps his son was set up for a curveball and instead a fastball was thrown.

#3 Is my most egregious story of all game changer stories and it goes like this. My wife is learning GC and handling it just fine. I am standing there just to make sure if she has any questions. We are at Savannah's 10u rec game against the cross town rivals. A ground ball was hit to our SS. She fumbles the ball then regains control and throws it over to first base. We had just moved up to Rocklin at the time so we did not know all the parents of the team yet. A father walks over and says "Hi are you doing the game changer?" I laughed inside as I knew what was coming. Angel says yes and he says hey listen I think that last play was a hit. Angel then looks at me as to wonder why I told her to mark it as an error. I then say Hi, nice to meet you. Are you the shortstops dad I don't think we have met.

HE GOES.......Oh no I am the father of the girl who was hitting and she is really fast, I think she would have beat that out anyways......... It took everything in my body not to tell this dad from the other team who was watching our game changer feed to GTFOH. I politely reminded the dad from the Roseville Red Dragons to kindly go back over to his side of the field and never come back again.

When Savannah's playing I do not mind keeping score. I tend to be very generous when it comes to hits and I try to be partial when it comes to errors on defense. I understand what it is like to be the father of a pitcher and it annoys me to no end when a ball that should be caught and recorded as an out is not and then attributed to my Child's averages. As I entered into High School as a parent I learned that Max Preps is supposed to be the end all be all but I have my doubts. I saw a player who shall remain anonymous score 65+ stolen bases in her season. She was perfect and never caught. She only had like 20 hits or something so apparently a wild pitch nor a passed ball was ever accounted for. Hard to believe that catchers of that quality would also never be allowed to throw her out.

At the end of the day if your kid is good you will know it and no GC app will change that. If we are being honest all we really care about is our Child's accomplishments being memorialized so we can politely brag on Facebook. If you are a GC parent then make sure you give love equally and or you're a hard ass equally. Everyone is watching. Too bad for my uncle Al that none of his 4 td's were caught on film otherwise he would not have had to remind us every couple episodes lol.