Hearing about the recent Little League scandal, I went back to my days in Little League. I made me question when did this win at all costs approach start?  

The sad, ugly truth is that it’s always been there. We ignore that until we get to this point. I remember what happened my second year of Little League. I was on a team that was almost half boys-half girls. This was in the days before softball. If you remember those days, the girls on your team were mostly an automatic out. There were some good female players, but for the most part, they weren’t very good. 

Well, we surprisingly made it to the playoffs. Shockingly, we made it to the 3rd place game. The coaches wanted to win. They wanted the players to get that trophy (this was in the days before the participation trophy). Then something truly awful happened. The coaches didn’t tell the worst players, including the girls, about the time and location of the 3rd place game. 

We won resoundingly. However, what sticks with me most was not the victory, but how upset my teammates were at missing out on the game. Some skipped the year end awards celebration. Others cried when they were given their trophies. At what cost did we get those trophies?  

It should be said out coach was a good man. He was a very involved dad. He was a Little a League coach, a scout master, and a volunteer fireman.  All season he never got down on anyone for making a mistake. He gave everyone time each game to play their favorite IF position. He allowed the less talented players to have some time batting at the top of the lineup. He made the best players play the OF. All of this doesn’t change the fact that he made a mistake. A bad mistake. However, I refuse to let that mistake define him.  

I’m not going to pass judgment on one Little League coach for one ugly moment. I don’t know him as a person. I suspect he thought he was helping his team. I know good men and good coaches can make mistakes. It doesn’t change his egregious error in judgment. 

This is why when my son is old enough I want to coach his baseball team. First and foremost, I’ll coach them to win the right way. You win by always playing hard and always wanting to beat the best. You win by giving everyone on your team a chance to succeed. If you do your best, everyone hustles and plays the right way, and everyone improves, you’re a winner.

You’re a winner even if you lose the game. However, if they lose, I don’t think the players should deserve a trophy just for showing up. 

My son loves Sesame Street. He knows all the characters by name. I justify it to myself because he’s learning his letters and he is able to count to three. I’m learning that he’s everywhere. 

My YouTube account is full of Sesame Street clips along with my subscription to the Sesame Street channel. My Netflix only suggests Sesame Street episodes now. It’s Sesame Street everything. 

I had one respite away from Sesame Street . . . Mets games. Not anymore. As my son is dozing off watching the Mets game with me, the inning ends, and it cuts to commercial. Sure enough, it’s a Sesame Place commercial. The sleepy little boy (my wife says he’s still a baby), jumps up and screams “ELMO!  COOKIE! GROVER!”  Yup, he’s not falling asleep. 

I never thought I would ask for more Cialis and beer ads during games. Speaking of which, why is it beer ads are the only ones you can’t skip on YouTube?  And by the way, kudos for them and YouTube for playing before Sesame Street clips. 

Anyway, I digress. For you parents out there, you’re not escaping Elmo, especially now that Elmo is moving to HBO. Why Sesame Street and not Fraggle Rock, the first ever series on HBO, I’ll never know. Maybe it’s because Elmo is getting edgier (0:37 mark):

All kidding aside, I wish the Mets could incorporate Elmo and Sesame Street to a team promotion. I’m sure my son and every kid out there would love a Mets Elmo hat or t-shirt or bobblehead. Let’s make it happen. 

Today is National Lefthanders’ Day. The day made me think of my son and his baseball future. 

If you’re a baseball fan, and you have a son, you want him to be left-handed because seemingly there are more chances for left handed pitchers. Left handed pitchers throw the ball with more spin. They seem to have longer careers. Mets fans need look no further than John Franco and Jesse Orosco. 

Plus left-handed batters are described as having beautiful swings. There is Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Ted Williams. For Mets fans, we think of Darryl Strawberry and John Olreud. Oh yeah, the greatest baseball player of all time was left handed. 

Now, I know children will not truly have a hand preference until they are about four. Right now, there are some things he does right handed and some things he does left handed. However, it doesn’t stop me from dreaming or playing baseball with my son. When we play baseball, I have him switch hit. 

I may want him to throw the ball left-handed, and I may occasionally put it in his left hand, but he really throws with both hands. I joke with my wife that ultimately it doesn’t matter because he’ll throw lefty when he’s older. You may not know this, but Billy Wagner is naturally right-handed. He began playing lefty when he broke his right arm. It reminds me of when I broke my right thumb playing baseball around the same age. 

I went to a yard sale and got a left handed glove large enough to fit over my splint.  I would practice throwing lefty and catching with my new mitt until I got caught.  I would sneak out of the house and ride my bike to my Little League games (my splint hidden in my bat bag). My mom would arrive in just enough time for my name to be scratched from the lineup.  I never got the opportunity to be like Billy Wagner. Something tells me my wife won’t let that happen either. 

Anyway, that is how much I loved baseball (and still do). You couldn’t keep me off the field without a fight. I already see glimpses of that with my son.  He loves baseball. He was watching the game last night telling me when the players hit the ball. He knows a double and a homerun.

I’m glad he loves the sport. Lefty or not, I’ll be there playing with him, and hopefully, one day I’ll be there when he suits up for his first game in the majors. If he doesn’t, I’ll still love him and be proud of him . . . it’ll just mean I’ll have to buy my own tickets. 

One of the funniest and most absurd episodes of The Office was “Diversity Day.”  In this episode, Michael Scott tries to prove he’s not a racist by holding his own diversity seminar entitled “Diversity Tomorrow.”  The highlight of the episode is when Michael encourages/forces the employees to celebrate the melting pot of America by acting as the stereotypical versions of a particular race and guessing what race that particular person is. 

The reason why this episode was great, other than the genius of that show, was showing how even the most innocent of us carries or knows of biases. I don’t think it’s always purposeful, intentional, or with malice. Sometimes, it’s something we have been told is always true and had no reason to deny.

That’s why today’s Fangraphs’ post “Examining Latino Hitters’ Plate Discipline” is so thoughtful and provocative. We’re all familiar with the phrase, “you never walk off the island.”  It’s meaning is fairly innocuous. It just means in order to get noticed by scouts, you need to hit the ball. A scout will be more impressed with power and plate coverage than the ability to draw a walk. 

However, the correlation is that Latino baseball players don’t draw walks. You can get them out with pitches outside the zone because they’ll swing at everything. Its not just that they need to hit to get noticed, it’s also that they’re undisciplined, at least at the plate. It’s like a perceived flaw with a whole group of people. It just seems true, doesn’t it?  

Well, it turns out that Latino players do “‘indeed swing their way off the island.'”  However, it’s not true that they are less disciplined as American players. Latino players strike out less frequently and walk just as frequently as American players. Frankly, I was somewhat surprised by the result. I don’t have the time on my hands that Fangraphs does, so I limited my sample size to one player: Vladimir Guerrero. 

In my opinion, he is the stereotype that fits the bill. He was an incredible baseball player. Everyone thought he was a wild swinger. His plate coverage reputation was Ruthian in scope. This video perfectly represents what we believe about Guerrero (and to a lesser extent Latino ballplayers):

It’s absurd, isn’t it?  In one sense, it shows his greatness. In other, it highlights the undisciplined stereotype. But was Guerrero really undisciplined?  The answer is a resounding NO.  Guerrero had a career .379 OBP. That’s better than renown American players like: Derek Jeter, Pete Rose, Willie McCovey, Paul Molitor, and Craig Biggio (to name a few). 

So like Michael Scott, Vladimir Guerrero shows that there may be some truths to reputations others have, it does not make them inferior. 

This is important to me as a “Mets Daddy.”  My grandfather had a saying, my father always repeated, which goes something like “every generation should do better than the one before.”  It’s why my grandfather was a construction worker, who insisted his son go to college. It’s why a DAV insisted his children go to graduate school. 

In my opinion, it means more than that. We also need to be smarter and more enlightened than the prior generation. Please note, this is not saying my father and grandfather were racists. They were far from it. Rather, this is merely an acknowledgement that each generation views race differently.

I think now we need to be open and honest as to what makes us different and unique. A child growing up in the Dominican Republic will have a different life and baseball experience than my son.  By extension, I want him to be open and honest enough that there are differences between different people. I want him to be able to realize that while Latino players hit their way off the island, it doesn’t mean there’s something inherently wrong with Latino players. 

I’m not going to be a phony and say I want his group of friends to resemble the United Nations. I’m saying I want him to have no issue or problem befriending anyone of any race or culture. I’d like for him to celebrate the similarities, like baseball, rather than treating people differently due to their different background. 

I acknowledge that starts with me. In a small way Fangraphs helped with that. So to that, I say, “thank you.”