side blog 1- the obliteration of the game

there are certain things that piss me off....this one that i'll discuss really kind of gets under my skin...
first of all i'd like to mention that i'm sick of getting two different stories from everything- the one that people tell me and then the one that is actually true....arg

anyways, this post concerns baseball...so i've gone to the last two of my brother's practices(actually the one today was a scrimmage, but that's beside the point)...and they have moved the bases, pitcher's mound, and fences back for 11-12 year olds....it might just be me, but how many kids that sign up to play in this age group really want to play cut throat baseball with leads, pickoff moves, and 70 feet to run to get to a base....ummmm about 15-20% of the kids and i bet that if they would have the chance to play the way the game is meant to be played they would realize....YOU ARE OBLITERATING THE GAME BY TAKING THE FUN AWAY FROM IT!!!!....arg arg....i'd just like to share my personal experiences with baseball and then maybe you can understand where i'm coming from...whenever i started out playing baseball at about 3 years old, i was a pretty good player....i developed into a very good pitcher by the time i was about 9....when i was 10 in a playoff game one time after my 3 innings of pitching our team was winning a playoff game 16-0 yet the next four kids managed to blow a 16 run lead....when i was 11 we played with the 60 foot bases, 46 foot mound, and stealing was allowed once the ball crossed the plate....it was a simple game, the way it should be for 11 and 12 year olds! anyways i played with a pretty decent team and we ended up winning the championship of all of baldwin(sbwaa, nb, b-w) and it was fun...the next year was even more fun...in my opinion i was the best pitcher in the league(every game i struck out at least 80% of the batters i faced) and we cruised to the championship....so im not here to say how sweet i am but to make a point...the game back then was F-U-N....then the fun suddenly stopped....the next two years with pony rules(similar to what they play now in 11-12) i had the worst time of my life...the last two years i would have quit baseball had it not been for the people(i left baldwin and played in squirrel hill) but nonetheless, i wasn't having much fun(except last year)...so it's simple...it's a proven fact that 70% of kids quit after they get to the 13-14 year old pony rules.....so do we have to ruin our national pastime even earlier for kids?

by the way, i may or may not play baseball this year....either way, i'm going to have F-U-N playing baseball if indeed i do...and if that means playing with the 15 and 16 year olds on a colt team, so be it....it'll be much more fun than playing with the cynical, egotistical bastards that reside in the upper echalante of the baseball world...

if i hurt your feelings, good....these are my thoughts, my opinions, and this is my blog, so if you don't like it, sweet....i encourage you to leave....

with much love,
mh