78th Precinct Baseball -- care to share?

sterling2000

One of the wonderful things about spring/summer in the Big City is Little League Baseball in Prospect Park on glorious warm weekends.

That being said, it is too bad that it seems like with all things in NYC, an undercurrent of inside connections seems to permeate even something as seemingly wholesome as children's baseball.

Teams are supposedly put together at random each year with some consideration given to friends requesting to be on teams together (as confirmed by a rep from the 78th Precinct League this past weekend), yet some teams look strangely intact with each passing year. If the process does have a random element, then the teams of the 78th Precinct League are ripe for a graduate study in mathematical improbability. This winds up creating a group of tight insiders whilst all other players are jettisoned to the random ranks of players. Without consistency in the process and approach, this seems to be one more example of NYC increasingly being a place of the connected vs. everyone else.

Years ago, during an opening day of the season in the park, I heard a father/coach and a member of the 78th Precinct League discussing a less-than-skilled pitcher on one of the older teams who had cemented his pitching spot on a team through a sizable donation to the league made by the child's parents. Ghastly, to say the least.

Does anyone else have a similar story of frustration in seeing children with a love of the game ostracized through the mere fact of their parents lacking the proper inside connections in the controlling governance of the local baseball leagues?

stacey

I dont know much about the 78th Pct baseball but my husband is a coach for St. Francis Xavier league. He has been coaching for the last 4 years and I can say that many of the parents and kids feel comfortable with him and have developed a great relationship with him so much that they ask to have him as their child's coach when they put in their application to pay each year. 90% of my husband's team has been with him the whole time. For my husband, the only thing you have to do is call him and let him know you want your child on his team and he drafts them on draft day.

sharpie

I coached for 6 seasons with the 78th Precinct, my son played for two other seasons and my daughter for a couple of years too.

It's the same situation at the SFX parent mentioned. Kids like you, they want to play for you. Some don't like you, they don't want to play for you. I never had spectacular teams but I had nice kids who mostly got along. At the draft the kids with requests for coaches can automatically join the team but the coach has the right to refuse them. The lowest weighted average team picks first. Some teams are filled by the time of the draft some need to fill an entire team so those latter teams get most of the early picks.

System actually works pretty well. The really good players join traveling teams anyway.