After playing nine games in a tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., recently, Mike Scheuerman?s Emmorton team played its third game of the Cal Ripken World Series Tuesday.
How do you approach the fine line between teaching kids how to play and how to win?
I think my goal is to start my best players, play all my players and make sure that everyone has time in the game. Try to get everyone an at-bat, and make them feel valuable, whether it’s a starting shortstop, or even a pinch runner. What they remember when it?s over is generally the wins and the losses.
How do you explain Barry Bonds’ situation?
We try to steer them away from that, for sure. We don’t want them swinging for the fences. We try to manufacture runs. How many kids actually hit a home run? It doesn’t happen often at all. Realistically, there might be one or two boys in this whole tournament that make it to the majors. I’m sure some of them will make it to college. What we’re trying to do is take them step by step by step. Next year is a huge step, because we need to get these kids into high school.
How important is this level of baseball?
Maybe 5, 10 percent of the boys make it this far. There are kids still starting to play the game at [12 years old]. And conversely, there are kids, because of the pressure of this level, that stop playing in a year or two. That is sickening to me, to feel that we?ve burned them out. If they get to high school and don’t want to play anymore, that’s the last thing I want to hear.
