This week the Spring 2026 season wrapped up for my son’s coach pitch instructional baseball league. As someone who loves baseball, I again volunteered to be the head coach. It was a great season and a lot of fun! Besides having the opportunity to be on the field and coach my son, there was one moment I’ve been reflecting on that I wanted to share.
Season Of Injuries
The team had some bad luck this year with injuries. None were serious, but we used a pretty good number of ice packs. My son took a ball off the face playing catch at the first practice. Later in the season, another player fouled a pitch into his own face. And at the first preseason scrimmage someone took a ball to the mouth during warm-ups. Blood everywhere, tears, the whole experience. While I was proud that all of them stuck around and finished, the last one stuck with me.
After we took care of him and the bleeding had stopped, he went out to play the field. I had to start him in the outfield because he was understandably a bit shaken up and did not want to be close to the hitter. In the last inning I had him play pitcher, which in a coach pitch league means playing off to the side of the mound. I stayed with him the whole inning and worked on his confidence.
As it happened, a few slow ground balls went his way and helped him get over his fear of the ball. While we were talking in between pitches, I mentioned to him that every pitch he should be saying “I hope they hit it to me” in his head. We repeated it together a few different times, finished the game, and went home.
A few games later, out of the blue, he called to me. “Coach! I hope they hit it to me!” I had completely forgotten about it, so it made me smile. Even though I was the person who taught him that, it was a much-needed reminder that we need to show up with the right mindset and always do our best.
Coaching Good Humans
It’s easy to think coaching youth baseball is about teaching kids to hit and field. But moments like that one remind me it’s really about something bigger. Baseball is an incredibly difficult and cruel sport. If your batting average is above .300 (getting a hit in 3 out of 10 at bats), you’re a likely candidate for the Hall of Fame. Ted Williams retired with a .344 career batting average. He’s widely considered one of the best hitters to ever play the game, yet he failed to get a hit 65% of the time.
As parents, we want our kids to succeed in everything they do as often as possible. The sport of baseball is a huge test of that mindset. Youth sports are about more than competition and winning. In fact, that’s the smallest and least important part of it. It’s about learning how to win or lose, be a good teammate, work hard, show up, have the right attitude, and continue on even when you fail.
But the most important thing to keep in mind as a parent or coach is that it needs to be fun. Having four people telling you fifty different things all at once, or being told what you did wrong when you fail is not fun. Racing your friends, having ice cream after a game, and earning baseball cards is. One person I follow who loves to make the game fun is Coach Ballgame. He has a great video about how his father’s relaxed mentality, in contrast to a friend’s more intense dad, shaped his success as a high school baseball player.
“The process is the win, results will cripple you.” If kids know their parents and coaches will be proud of them as long as they try their best, they won’t be afraid to fail. The love for the game will come naturally with time.
Featured image credit: CC0 licensed photo by Jeffrey Paul from the WordPress Photo Directory.
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