Showing up the opposition

By Ed Piper

I don't agree with other writers' condemnation of first-year Padres manager Jayce Tingler for initially being apologetic about Fernando Tatis Jr. swinging away on a 3-0 count Mon., Aug. 17, the Padres holding a seven-run lead over the Rangers, and Tatis ending up hitting a grand slam.

That led to Rangers pitcher Ian Gilbaut throwing behind Manny Machado when he came to bat in the next inning in retaliation, and both Gilbaut and Texas manager Chris Woodward being suspended.

Let me be clear: I am not advocating or defending throwing at opposing hitters because a team feels shown up.

My take on this is that at the high school and youth baseball level--these kids are not pros--the influence of the pros is very pronounced, leading to things like high school baseball teams piling on runs against defenseless opponents who are far over-matched, and the victors proclaiming, "Well, we have to keep a fine edge or we'll lose it," "We didn't do it to humiliate the other team, we just wanted to give every player on our team an opportunity," and similar justifications.

It's the younger players my focus is on.

If, as U-T columnist Tom Krasovic (August 19) declares, "That unwritten rule should be tossed in the trash," and his colleague, Bryce Miller, insists, "Tingler gets it right after his initial bobble" (after initially apologized), then the whole idea of sportsmanship and respecting your opponent on the younger (and non-professional) levels becomes eroded that much further.

When I was a student athlete, there were whispers about the youth and prep coaches who didn't respect these unwritten rules, and were known to pile on the score even after their team had amassed large leads.

The same during my 16 years covering San Diego high school sports: There are a few bad apples, who hide behind the facade, "But I run a high-expectations program, I'm going to push my kids," who are the ones in the county known for their unsportsmanlike philosophies.

This is a bigger thing than making sure you win, as Padres defenders have argued, Padres relievers representing a leaky sieve and giving leads away during the losing streak that preceded Tatis' grand slam (resulting in an 11-run lead). "We have to score as many runs as we can, because we don't have any guarantees our bullpen will hold even a large lead."

But that's at the pro level. During an abbreviated 60-game Major League season, I get it, every game is like playing in the last two months of the season--because every game is being played in the last two months in 2020 (with the truncated schedule). The Padres are fighting to be one of two National League Western Division teams that automatically qualify for the postseason, or one of two top percentage leaders outside of those six to move on.

My mind goes back to Mission Bay's Dillon Baxter, who absolutely buried the Viking football team many years ago, with his hand in six (maybe seven?) touchdowns in an absolute blowout on the old grass Tom Edwards Stadium surface.

I can understand the motivation. Baxter is compiling a record to attract top college recruiters, which he successfully did in garnering an athletic scholarship to play football at USC. (He later was cut from the program for associating with a pro agent, and other rule violations--his decision-making at the time hadn't matured.)

But in the sandlot, you still encounter the maniac coach, in almost every case male in my experience, some of them living through their kids, others focused on being a "successful coach" in a "top-flight" program, who piles up the score against helpless opponents. Such coaches never got the wider perspective of the youth/high school coach as mentor of formative youth, who is building well-rounded young people for futures in all fields (99 percent of those fields not being professional athletic fields of competition).

Let me put it to rest: As a teacher, grandparent, reporter covering high school sports, my central focus is on how our CIF sports contribute to or detract from providing student-athletes (they are enrolled in school) with positive opportunities for healthy competition, yes, but also growth for future lives in caring professions, academia, business, you name it. Let's model, mold, and nurture them toward having a heart, a heart for work and sacrificial teamwork with classmates, but also a heart for the players in the other dugout. Especially on those afternoons when everybody knows one team way outclasses the other in talent, and massacring the inferior team by posting humiliating numbers up on the scoreboard to shame the opponent isn't honor. It's honor-less.

Let's keep a wider perspective of how our activities for youth mold better human beings (or fail to do so). And that includes the pros, who when we're kids we naturally look up to and emulate in everything from length of baseball pants, to mannerisms at the plate, to how we view our opponent on the other side of the field.