Good sportsmanship....

I will be the first to admit that I don't know all the rules of softball, but I know a few things. I know that you can't steal a base on a dead ball, I know that if the ball hits the ground before it hits you, you don't get to take your base, and I know that both teams should be playing by the same rules. That's not how the game went last night, and it made it hard for the girls to have a good time. And the coaches, too. it's pretty bad when coaches (from the opposing team) are out for blood. Our girls were there to play a game and have fun. If we win that's great. The other coaches were there not only to win, but to win by any means necessary. And to them, that was okay. There were a couple of instances where there was a difference of opinion on the rules. I don't think a coach should be able to say "we don't play that way" (referring to the 10 runs in an inning rule). What do you mean, you don't play that way?! It's a league rule! Our assitant overheard her say to someone else "If they would have asked at the beginning of the game we would have played that way". WHAT? We don't have to ask. It's not make the rules as you go along. That's why there is a rule book! Oh, and how about stealing home? We have not played one game all season where that was okay, but last night, that's just what they did! And it was okay for them to steal bases on an overthrown ball at second, but not okay for us to steal bases when they overthrew a ball at first?!? WHAT?

I'm glad that the season is almost over because last night's game was pretty hard to watch. Lyric did make the first out of the game by catching a pop fly! That was totally great to see. She also was able to score a couple of runs. Two of our girls got hit with the ball while batting, and I think a third came close. It looked like the ball went right between her legs.
I'm not a sore loser, this is not about how we got cheated. I'm just saying give everybody the same rules to play by. That's all. That's not too much to ask, is it? At least I know that our team will have good sportsmanship skills. They will also have skills in general because they know how to play the game, not how to cheat and twist things to go their way.

And I need to give a shout out to Scott and Justin for being GREAT coaches! I think that they are doing a great job and I'm glad to have them coaching Lyric this year. I hope that they come back next year to coach again, because she is really loving the game. I have seen her skills improve somewhat over the past couple of months. And besides that, she just really likes the game!