Here Are The Most Powerful Chapters From The "Youth Baseball Parents" E-book


YOUTH BASEBALL PARENTS

By:  Matt Mc Dermott

Copyright 2008 Bullpen Marketing LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
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Introduction

Welcome to Youth Baseball Parents, and thank you for buying this book.  We want you to discover solutions to the problems and challenges you face as a youth baseball or softball parent.  Whether you have kids in Tee-Ball, coach pitch, Little League (http://www.littleleague.org), or some other form of youth baseball and softball we want you to enjoy your experiences as youth baseball parents enjoyable.  If we can reduce or even eliminate some of the stereotypical hassle from your life, as well as give you advice on what professional baseball people offer to their closest friends and family members, then we will have done our job!

Nonetheless, there will be several situations which we did not address in this book.  The beauty of an electronic book is that we directly can send you updated chapters and bonus reports.  In addition, we can send short video clips, audio clips, and links to information which you, as a youth baseball parent, might find valuable.  Please keep the discussion interactive after you read this book, and let us know your remaining concerns.  We can be reached at:  info@YouthBaseballParents.com.

The Purpose Of This Book

Stan Hough and Matt Mc Dermott have over 30 combined years in professional baseball.  No matter where in North America where we were for baseball, we always could guarantee that fans, friends, booster club members, season ticket holders, and other supporters of our teams would always come up to us and tell us about the drama and problems which they (and their kids) face in the youth baseball and softball leagues.  You name the problem and we probably have heard about it!

Whether it is “traditional politics,” embezzlement, parents publicly belittling their kids after striking out in an important at-bat, or poor baseball instruction we get to hear the stories year after year.  So we decided to finally put our foot down and do something about it!

This book addresses your problems and gives solutions from the professional baseball perspective.  Will every solution work for your specific situation?  While we would love to think so, we realize that such hopes are unrealistic.  This book is designed to get you to think differently and work on solutions which are both effective and done with maturity.

Every year we shake our heads at how otherwise reasonable, upstanding adult members of their communities act in the most juvenile, petty manners… and it all revolves around pre-adolescent kids!  This, to virtually every member of professional baseball, is ridiculous! 

We believe that at the youth level - where there are no dollars, no scholarships, no TV coverage, and nothing of any significant worth to an independent party – that the parents, coaches, and officials should help the kids become better players, better students, and better participants in life. 

In our opinions, anything which runs counter to this goal is detrimental and only serves to boost the adults’ egos in a dangerous manner.  While we genuinely want your child to improve and enjoy playing baseball, we are both “old school” guys.  Whether you call us “throwbacks” or some other term, we respect guys coming into the minors who have respect for themselves, their teammates, and for the game of baseball itself. 

Professional baseball managers and general managers, especially at the lower levels, look at the mental makeup of a player as well as his physical gifts.  There are countless stories of guys who were good enough to play in the low levels of the minor leagues but did not play due to “intangible” reasons.  Some of these include criminal history, not a team player, being “too wild” to present to families, and alcohol & drug problems just to name a few.

What many parents don’t realize is that most of these players developed these poor characteristics due to improper beliefs and behaviors learned while growing up playing in youth baseball.  The roots of their problems started then, and those problems ultimately kept them away from playing professional baseball.

We want to do our part to “weed out” these problem roots early on.  If you follow the information in this book and give your child sound information which focuses on self-discipline and respect for the game you will have your child a tremendous service.  In addition, should he or she not turn out to be in contention for a minor league contract or college scholarship, you will have given your child tremendous flexibility and discipline to succeed in future endeavors.


Who We Are

Stan Hough was drafted in 1974 as a second-round pick by the New York Mets.  He played 9 years in the minors (with the Mets and Houston Astros organizations), played 3 more years as a player/coach in the minors, and was a full-time minor league coach for 7 years.  In addition, he was a minor league manager for 9 years, including managing the AAA Ottawa Lynx team in the Montreal Expos farm system.

Players with Major League experience whom Stan has coached or managed at one point in his career:

Matt Mc Dermott was involved entirely in the independent professional minor leagues for his career.  He served as a bullpen catcher and/or catcher for the Waterbury Spirit, Fort Worth Cats, Lewisville Lizards, and McKinney Blue Thunder.  He has served as a league official for the Continental Baseball League, and served as the Assistant General Manager for the McKinney Blue Thunder.  Other duties include public address announcer, statistician, color commentary on internet radio, team media relations director, community relations, director of sales, handling game day operations, and – his proudest moments – giving post-game lessons to kids after every home game when he was in uniform.

Matt played under managers Stan Hough and former Major Leaguers Tom Goodwin and Curtis Wilkerson.

How To Increase Your Kid’s Safety By Preventing Inadvertent Risk Concerns

In this era of open websites, MySpace pages, and other widely available information there comes a risk not seen before in youth sports.  Your kid’s safety, and the safety of all of the kids, is paramount.  In a moment we will give you some suggestions you can take in order to ensure the safety of your kid and for all the kids involved.

What first needs to be addressed, however, is the underlying psychological need most parents have to give their kids significance.  With our combined years in professional baseball, we have heard every parent come up to us and tell us how amazing their kid is, show us pictures, and even offer to show us video of a 10 year-old kid swinging the bat.  While we have to politely decline for obvious reasons, we continuously get parents coming up to us (and our colleagues) talking incessantly about their kids.

In private meetings, most guys involved in professional baseball shake our heads at the intensity of these parents, even though the vast difference in play between youth baseball and the professional level is comparing apples to oranges.  If we get intense praise about their kids’ accomplishments we can only imagine how these parents are when around other parents where their kids are actually better players than their peers!  We believe that if it were socially acceptable, some of these parents would be shouting their kids’ stats to the neighbors from the rooftops!

There are two potential problems with this passion for your kid’s playing skills:

It is this second concern which we will address now.

Safety Risks Of Promoting Your Kid To The World

One of the biggest risks of “hyping up” your kid to others is when you put his images online.  What many parents forget is that the internet is open to EVERYBODY on the planet, and this means some of the scariest people possible. 

Furthermore, some of these parents put OTHER kids in jeopardy accidentally.  For example, you may post a picture of your kid and one of his teammates after practice on a social networking site like MySpace.  Let’s say that the picture is of your kid and two of his teammates in front of a sign that says “Welcome to XYZ Fields.”  In addition, you put a caption underneath the photo which says “Little Johnny and his teammates after winning last week’s game.”

What happens here is that you risk putting one of your kid’s teammates in jeopardy in case some “predator” sees that photo online and decides to stake out XYZ Fields.  The picture of Little Johnny’s teammate may trigger something in the predator to act.  Even if there is law enforcement patrolling the games on foot and by vehicle there is still a risk.

Here are some things you can do to prevent unnecessary risks:



With all of this said, there are still ways to get publicity and significance for your kid without putting his safety in jeopardy.  We will cover these publicity techniques in the next chapter.

How To Give Your Youth Baseball Team The Publicity You Want Once The Safety Of The Kids Is Protected

In the previous chapter you read about safety concerns which may arise when parents inadvertently try to get their kids publicity.  While safety is, and should be, the number one concern for all youth baseball parents, it is natural to want to tell the world about your kid’s success!  All you have to do is look at the parents on national TV during the Little League World Series (http://www.littleleague.org) to determine this.

The question then becomes:  “How do I get my team the publicity they deserve while still maintaining their safety?”  This is a great question!

The first question you should ask yourself is to determine what are YOUR underlying emotions and intentions for getting publicity about your child and his or her team.

Underlying Emotions

Remember that publicity can serve to satisfy many underlying emotional benefits for the parents.  Some of these underlying emotions can be:


Once you identify YOUR underlying emotion then you can begin to go about getting publicity the right way, while still maintaining the safety of the kids on the team.


How To Identify Your REAL Underlying Emotions… Quickly!

You can use this simple technique to uncover your REAL underlying emotions very quickly.  Honestly answer three simple questions in order, and you will have a much deeper understanding of your real motivations. 

The Structure:


Example:

If you say, "I want to get publicity and recognition for my kid’s youth baseball team,” then ask yourself these questions to determine your real, underlying motivations:

 ** SIDE NOTE** A lot of people are motivated by what they "won't be" or "don't want to have."  This is a different type of motivation than what you DO WANT or what you WANT TO ACHIEVE.  This is a topic for a future bonus report
You may take a minute and answer: “If people know he is a good baseball player then I will be able to get respect in the league meetings.”

So the real underlying emotion, in this example, is for so that you can get respect in the league meetings.

We are not "judging" you based on your answer. You have to be honest with yourself so that you don’t have conflict between your underlying desires and your public actions.  Such internal conflict is usually the beginnings of the problems we, as professionals, see all the time when dealing with youth baseball. 

Be aware of your true intentions and change them if necessary, and then act accordingly.  Should your true intentions conflict with other parents or the league, then that is where you need to discuss them among the adults.  Arguing with other parents about what is happening should NOT be the first tactic you use, especially when you are not even aware of your own true intentions!

The best part about this three-question formula is that you can use it conversation with other parents to find out THEIR motivations!  Use this technique wisely, and it can help all of the parents and league officials reduce the “politics” and get on the “same page” a lot faster!


Publicity For Your Youth Baseball Team

Once you have identified your underlying emotion, and it is in the best interests of the kids (first and foremost) to get the publicity, then there are a few ways in which you can get the publicity while still maintaining safety.  Here are a few ways which work:

If you want to find out more about press releases and getting search engine rankings then go to either of the following links:

If at all possible, only publicly display pictures of the kids with at least one trusted adult in the same photo.  That could be a “team Mom”, coach, or another trusted adult.  Having adults in the photos reduces at least some of the safety risk and sends a message that the kids have supervision.  It also gives publicity to the adult(s) in the photos as well!

If you are in charge of your team’s publicity, also have a “Parents” page on the website where parents can see photos of themselves with other parents, the coaches, umpires, and league officials.  This will give the parents some degree of recognition and allow you to focus on giving kids the majority of the publicity.

What To Offer Potential Sponsors When Asking For Money To Sponsor Your Youth League Team… And How To Prevent “Favoritism” On The Team!

If there is one thing on which professional baseball players can agree, it is that we ALL hear stories from fans, booster club members, and friends about how “politics” plays a role in youth baseball.  From our perspective we shake our heads in disbelief at how “petty” such animosity can be. 

One common complaint that we hear is that a kid who is either the worst kid on the team or the biggest troublemaker gets to play every inning of every game because that kid’s parents bought all of the uniforms, paid for the travel costs, took care of the league fees, or otherwise assumed all of the fixed costs for the season.  In other words, the parents bought their kid the right to be the starting shortstop for the season.

When a parent is willing to make such a demand, and the coach accepts the money, then it quickly changes the underlying dynamics of what youth baseball should represent.  Other parents reluctantly go along with the situation as they figure, “Well at least I don’t have to shell out any of my hard-earned money.”

Of course, other kids on such a team are quick to pick up on this and learn quickly that “fairness” is a myth.  This scenario “jades” the kids quickly and sets off a whole bunch of unpleasant dinner conversations where you get asked questions about “why is life unfair?” or “how come YOU, Mommy and Daddy, didn’t pay for the uniforms and expenses this year?”

Talk to most people involved in professional baseball and they will tell you that we hear such stories starting with kids as young as six or seven years old!  This is ridiculous!

There is a way out of this “favoritism” where parents buy their kids the starting shortstop or pitcher role.  If you learn how to get independent sponsors to fund your costs then you will prevent much of the favoritism which occurs due to meeting the expenses.

How To Attract Sponsors

In a professional baseball front office, we always are looking for more sponsorship money to fund operations.  If we can achieve a full year’s budget with prepaid sponsorships, then season ticket sales, concessions, souvenirs, and parking will be where we make our profits.  Learn how to use what minor league baseball front offices do to entice sponsors to fund your expenses; and in the process, parents will save money AND you can prevent the favoritism discussed earlier.

Here are some ways to attract sponsors, especially if you live in an area which is having tough economic times, which are borrowed from the minor leagues:

Underlying Philosophies



Where To Find Prospective Sponsors

Many parents do one of two typical things regarding sponsorships for their kids’ youth baseball teams:

If you want to prevent the favoritism which comes from another parent “buying” his kid playing time and still offsetting your expenses, then consider the following:



Steps You Can Take

First, determine your exact budget (factoring a small increase for incidentals and unforeseen situations).  Let’s say that your youth baseball team, with 12 kids, needs $6000 (sometimes much more or much less) for the following:

At this rate, each child’s parents would have to pay $500 for the season, not including personal baseball equipment, private lessons, and other costs.  Obviously, most parents would like to have some of those costs offset; but they also want their kid’s team to be free from jealousy and favoritism as you read earlier.  Sponsors are a great way to meet both of those goals.

Second, know sponsors will respect someone who comes in and shows a budget to them and asks for specific help.  If a prospective sponsor gets three calls in a week from youth baseball teams, from which will he choose:
1.    Someone who says simply, “We need money for our youth baseball team.”
2.    Someone who says, “We need money for youth baseball uniforms.”
3.    Someone who says, “We need money for youth baseball uniforms, and we are willing to work with you to help you increase exposure in the community and bring in more dollars to your location.”

Unless the sponsor personally knows Person # 1 or Person # 2, chances are that he will listen to caller # 3 with the most attention!

What To Ask A Sponsor

If you are uncertain about what to say to a prospective sponsor, ask them one simple question:  “How can we help you increase your business this year?”  Then listen to what the prospective sponsor has to say. 

You may hear a wide range of responses such as:

Then discuss with the sponsors what you realistically can do to match up with the prospective sponsor’s goals.

Here are some things you might be able to offer:


In addition, borrow from the minor leagues and determine if you and the parents can add value to the sponsorship by doing any of the following:


Again, these ideas are just to get you started thinking in the right direction.  Remember that you want to deliver on what you promise so keep your offers:


Add Safeguards To Your Youth Baseball League In Order To Make Sure That The Money Goes To Its Intended Purposes!


This is just one example of embezzlement of funds allocated for youth baseball league administration.  Chances are that there are many more of these situations which have not made the press; and you want to make sure that your kids and fellow baseball parents do not have to go through this situation.

While you get more on this topic in the future with reports from qualified professionals, here are some things you can do in the short-term:


Again, embezzlement is a legally and financially sensitive matter, so you MUST get legal and law enforcement assistance should you suspect that it is occurring.  Nothing in this book constitutes legal or law enforcement advice, especially on criminal activities such as embezzlement.

In the meantime, here are some recommendations from the Small Business Administration to help you minimize the risk of embezzlement:  http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_pubs_cp_pdf_cp1.pdf
 
How To Evaluate Whether Or Not Your Child’s Baseball Lesson Instructor Is Worth The Money You Are Paying

As baseball professionals we have seen various teaching methods when instructors give private baseball lessons.  We may differ on our philosophies, but we usually respect the methods used by other instructors.  However, sometimes we see blatantly wrong information!  And the parents, who don’t know any better, are paying a premium for these lessons!

So how do you know if your kid’s baseball lesson instructor is worth the money?!?

In order to answer this pressing question, we devised a simple checklist for you.  It helps you ask the necessary questions so that your child gets the most information for your time and money:


An example of such communication could be:
Additionally:

While a quality and worthy instructor may not have all of these traits, aim for those instructors who have most of these characteristics.  If you find an instructor who has all of these traits then stick with him for a fixed period of time (for example, 4 weeks), and then reassess.

Many parents want to be perceived by other parents that they are associated with the “best” in an area.  To these parents, paying a high dollar amount for lessons with a former minor leaguer is worth the money to these parents for “ego” purposes; but it may not be what is best for their kids. 

Instead, redefine what being associated with the “best” means.  To us, the “best” means that the instructor gives your kid the proper instruction and attention, instills a sense of fun, and communicates with you and your kid in ways that make both of you enjoy taking lessons.

*** WARNING About Screaming/Overbearing Parents***

We have friends who have been in the minor leagues for years as well as the Major Leagues for years.  One thing that all of the good guys in professional baseball hate seeing is some overbearing parent who pays for lessons and is screaming at his kid the entire time.  We sometimes even use our professional status and come up to these screaming parents and ask them to walk away from their children.  We have them walk away from the lesson with us to discuss something, ANYTHING, just to get them to stop screaming at their kids!

What these screaming parents don’t realize is that they embarrass their kids, make the instructor feel uneasy, and it begins a downward spiral.  To compound the problem, the parents then blame the instructor saying that their kids didn’t improve; and sometimes these parents, since they are obviously vocal (!), spread word around town that the instructor is ineffective. 

Most of the time, however, the instructor is sound and caring.  With such overbearing parents, the poor kids never have much of a chance truly to succeed in the first place.  A kid who gets a college scholarship or even a minor league contract, despite a screaming parent, is rare and usually suffers some form of baseball “burnout” quickly thereafter.  All of the fun which baseball offers was denied the kid, and it stems from an overbearing parent.

If you are such a screaming parent, do yourself a favor.  Recognize that your screaming may be the best way that you can meet your “underlying intention” that you want your kid to get better.  You even may want him to do well so that years from now he gets a college scholarship and/or a minor league signing bonus so that you can relieve yourself of future financial burdens. 

Whatever the case, there are better ways of meeting the positive intention you have other than screaming at your kid during instructions and then blaming the instructor.  Use the checklist to determine if the instructor is worth your time and money.  Once you find such an instructor, give the instructor a fixed period of time (for example, 4 weeks) and then reassess the value of the instructor. 

In the meantime, let the instructor do his job of teaching baseball and building a sense of fun about the sport.  If the instructor is not doing his job, then you can move on to other instructors after those first few weeks.

If you honestly can’t help but scream at your kid during lessons, then go outside or even go back home for the hour.  Use the time to find alternate ways to help meet your underlying goals.  For example, if you desperately need your child to get a scholarship because there is no way you can pay for his future college career then spend that hour researching ways in which your child can qualify for scholarships or grants.

Do something, ANYTHING, which is more productive than becoming a detriment to your kid’s baseball career.  Not only will your son or daughter probably resent you and baseball, but the kid may never develop the necessary toughness to excel in other areas of life outside of baseball.

This may sound harsh, but it is better to read about it from guys who are professionals. We have seen the negative impact that screaming parents have on otherwise good kids all around the country; and we always walk away wondering how much better the kid could have been had it not been for the belittling parent(s).

How To Prepare Your Child For His or Her First Baseball Or Softball Road Trip Without Your Presence

If your child is going to travel to a tournament away from home without your attendance, then it may be his first road trip on his own.  There are several dynamics you probably will face with this first-time experience.  Here is just a small sample:


Again, this is just a small list of the possible outcomes!

The best way to counter most of these concerns is PREPARATION!

What You Can Do In Advance

Here are several things you can do in advance to minimize your fears about your child playing away from home for the first time:
These are just a few suggestions which can help you prepare your child for his first baseball road trip.  We will send out more tips and suggestions for you through the customers-only newsletters.

Quick Ways To Get More Enjoyment The Next Time You Take Your Family To A Professional Baseball Game

With the prices of live sporting events increasing, many families feel as if they don’t get their “money’s worth” when going to live baseball games.  They feel that their entertainment dollars can be spent in better places, but they still enjoy the atmosphere of live baseball.  If this describes you, then take heart!  You are going to learn some quick ways to get more entertainment and enjoyment for your money!

Contact The Team’s Community Relations Department

Get the phone number of your local professional baseball team (Major League, Minor League, or Independent Professional Baseball) and speak with the person in charge of community relations or customer service.  Ask that person for a schedule of events on upcoming home game days so that you can plan to show your family something interesting.

For example, there may be a monthly pre-game clinic on the field for all kids who show up early.  Maybe your local minor league team needs a bat boy/girl or ball boy/girl for the night because the scheduled kid got sick.  It might be the night where kids get to run the bases after the game. 

The team’s front office member may direct you to a link on the website.  If so, find out the information and then also look at upcoming promotions.  Are there any upcoming fireworks shows or post-game concerts?  Is there an upcoming family tailgate event before a game?  Since many professional baseball teams run fun promotions, consider attending one of these so that you can get the most for your money.


Go To Your Team’s Website

If you go to your local professional baseball team’s website then you can find several activities which will increase the amount of entertainment you get for your money!  The majority of Major League, Minor League, and Independent Professional teams usually have some form of:


In addition, some teams have forums or MySpace pages where you can post comments and get your questions answered.  This will make you a more educated fan and potentially impress the fans around you in the stands!

Some teams offer a stadium “guide” on their websites.  You can learn history, find out the fun events which are happening during games, and maybe even take tours before the game.

Some teams also post injury updates, press information, and other pre-game notes.  If you can’t find such information on your website then call up the front office and ask to speak with the appropriate person.  Get the information so that you can inform your kids what has happened and then watch the game like a professional does so that you can appreciate the nuances more than the average fan.


Batting Practice

If you have the time, go to a game early and enter once the gates open.  Chances are that you will be able to watch batting practice.  Not only will you be able to increase your odds of walking home with an official baseball (!), but you can get autographs and even talk with some of the players in designated areas.  This will offer your family a wonderful opportunity to ask questions about how to improve your kids’ levels of play, as well as the opportunity to ask about some of the subtleties which the average fan misses during a baseball game.


Get Involved With The On-Field Games

If you want to get the most for your money, call of the Director of Operations or Director of Marketing and ask that person how your kids can participate in one of the on-field games like the Dot Race, Dizzy Bat Race, or other such games.  If the person says that all of those activities are already reserved then ask to be on the “reserve list” when someone gets sick or is out of town.

This works better in the minor leagues, so consider starting there and give your kids a chance to be a part of the show.

CONCLUSION

Thank you for reading this book.  While this report may have seemed brief, know that this is just the beginning!

Your Next Steps

First Step – Go to the Youth Baseball Parents Resources page

If you need any baseball equipment, instruction information, or youth baseball DVD's then consider taking a look at the websites on the Resources page.  Your orders will help support this site and keep future free reports like these coming.

Second Step – Listen To The Youth Baseball Parents Audios

Now that you have finished this book, be sure to listen to the audio interviews with Stan Hough and former independent professional baseball general manager, Alan.  You can listen to them on your computer or MP3 player.

These audios are valuable because they address these other concerns which many youth baseball parents brought to our attentions:

You will get both audio interviews for the low price of just $9.  Additionally, you will get some extra bonus reports designed to help you - as a parent - get more enjoyment out of your time in youth baseball.

You even get an 8-week no-questions-asked refund policy backed by Clickbank, the 3rd party digital retailer who handles your order on secure servers.  Within minutes you will be able to download all of the information you need to get started right away.  

All you need after you order the materials is a PDF reader (like Adobe Reader) and a computer which plays MP3 files.  You also may download the audio interviews to your MP3 player if you wish.

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