As we finished up the day early in Modesto with the temp around 109 degrees I was excited to get home to our pool. Why wouldn't I be? I watched my kid sit for an umpire delay and wait in a dug out full of dust and grief. The game played out pretty much as expected. A few timely hits and a few heat soaked mental errors. We lost in extra innings again. It was 109 degrees.
Leading up to the week Angel and I discussed if we would even play with temps soaring to the stated temp. We wondered why expose the girls to it and for what? A local tournament t-shirt? Was that why? Did it matter if it was a large national event? Even then it felt a little abusive. Regardless , we paid our money and even had to get a hotel room because as luck would have it, our last game was most likely to end somewhere short of midnight with a return time of before 7 am. That was not enough time to sleep let alone commute the near 2 hours home and back.
Who is to blame? Well, you are looking at him. It's me, it's you, it's us. We have lost our minds in youth sports. We hide behind the false notion that we are making our kids tough and that kids before them did it and so will kids after. In the words of my parents, "If your friend jumped off the bridge, would you?" Hell no. Yet here I am still sitting in Modesto, paying for a hotel and then paying to get into a facility I am beginning to loathe. I do not hate the workers, the umpires or even the city. I hate what it stands for. I hate that we as parents don't have a collective union to say enough is enough.
If we truly are trying to make our children better athletes and better humans I can think of some other things they can do aside from sitting in that kind of weather waiting for the next game. What about as a team if we all got together and skipped the dirt. Maybe volunteer somewhere with less fortunate folks or get this....take a weekend off. I know that sounds crazy and I will get roasted but at some point this all feels like we are doing this stuff for fear of missing out. Even pro league players get all star break off, I think our 14 year olds will be just fine. Let alone the 10u group that was there.
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