[Nathans_Dad]

I need the advice of some of the dads on the board.

As some of you know, I coach little league baseball. Currently my son is 8 so we are still in coach pitch. The fact that he is 8 makes the rest of the story even more ridiculous.

So anyhow, there is a team in the league named the Dirtbags (apparently appropriately so). Before the spring season of 7 year old baseball the head coach of this team apparently sent his wife over to the house of my best player and she tried to talk his mother into switching over to their team. The mother (who likes the way I coach and run the team) said no. She told me about this during the season and I basically blew it off.

So we go through the spring season and do pretty well, ending up something like 8-5. I had two kids that were really good players which I picked up in the draft before the spring. I didn't know anything about these kids, just lucked out.

So fast forward to the end of the season. Each team names 3-4 kids to be "all stars". These kids are eligible to try out for two summer teams that are run by the league and play in summer tournaments around the D/FW area. My two super star kids make the #1 summer team. I notice that the assistant head coach is the guy who was the coach of the Dirtbags and I remember wondering if he was going to try and steal those kids too. You can probably see where this is going...

So last week I find out that one of my two superstar kids is, in fact, switching to the Dirtbags and the other one's parents are "thinking about it".

To sum it up, this guy has either stolen or tried to steal three kids off my team in the span of 6 months. Now, I am not saying I have any claim or rights to these kids. If they want to switch teams, that is their decision. I would have no issue if the kids had decided their best buddy was on the other team or even if the kid decided that they liked the other coach better. This is the coach chirping in the parent's ear all summer, sending his wife to their houses, etc. Plus, he is using his position as a coach on the all star summer team to try and stock up his own team for the season.

My question is this: Should I say anything to the commissioner of the league? Part of me thinks that this kind of stuff is absolutely what sours people on youth sports in general and someone should say something about it. Little league baseball is SUPPOSED to be about making friends, having fun, and learning something about baseball. This guy is acting like he is the GM of the friggin New York Yankees trying to win a world series.

The other part of me says that it isn't worth the effort. Alot of these guys (including this coach) are friends and have other sons who are older and play select baseball with each other. Chances are anything I say will fall on completely deaf ears. Add to this the fact that I am not planning on coaching (at least not head coaching) past the age of 8 and you can make a good argument to just move on with life.