Chatter or no chatter

[illwauk]

I played, coached, and umpired in the same league for almost twenty years, and while there was chatter and praise going on, it usually stopped when the pitcher went into his windup. Anything else, and the coaches and parents would usually request (and by request, it was usually in whining form) that it would stop.

Honestly, I think there is a line. I'm all for praise chatter, but I don't think that all of the negative chatter is bad. Taunting and personal attacks shouldn't be allowed, definitely, and I've seen kids warned and thrown out for that. I also don't like the mollycoddling of ten and eleven year old kids -- they need to develop a little bit a skin for these things. When I played, I had kids try to distract me all the time and take advantage of the fact that I wasn't a good player. I was able to block it out.

Bottom line... It's a part of the game. Restrict it if you must, but don't ban it.

Pretty much. Nothing anyone can say will convince me that "hey batter batter" is anything but harmless. Part of playing the game is learning to focus and how to tune out distractions.

But personal attacks are never cool. And it's pretty damn sad when it's necessary to even have rules regarding them for Little League. Thank the obnoxious loser parents for sucking even more fun out of what's supposed to be a game.