This type of play at home plate ended the promising career of Catcher Ray Fosse by the unecessary and overzealous tackle by Pete Rose which separated Ray’s shoulder. Carlton Fisk having had his knee blown out by doing the correct fundamental block of home plate actually switched to a more in front of home plate postion and used a sweep tag motion later in his career to avoid putting his knee at risk. I have seen runners in Little League fail to slide at home even though they are supposed to-so safety is always a top concern. As a Sox fan I have to point out that catchers can be too aggressive as well, case in point- Michael Barrett’s sucker punch of A.J. Piersynski.

Many times at the little league level parents fail to outfit children with broken-in gloves, no fault of their own as the glove manufacturing companies make gloves that are nearly impossible to break in and are too heavy, thereby causing many “drops” in the first place. You have a protected hand from the pitcher’s fastball but sacrifice closing the pocket and keeping the ball safe inside due to its size, a trade-off that I will take any day especially for the young catcher.

I hope no coach really “yells” at any player for a physical miscue or even a mental one at that age level- I know I cringed when a parent of one my son’s teammates yelled at the top of his lungs for my son to get the ball in from right field on a base hit to right field…apparently he held onto the ball a little bit longer than the parent liked? I bit my toungue…

It is disapointing that kids now a days cannot go to the park and play by themselves where they can be free to have fun, success and even make mistakes so they can learn on their own and not have to always rely on coaches or parents for every little “nuance”. But that’s a sign of the times that G.K. Chesterton and others would point out as a condition of our world and even right here in Naperville…