Traditional baseball chatter has been banned by Little League in Greater Cincinnati. No more “batter, batter” or “swing” and certainly no more “Pitcher has a rubber arm”. League president Dave Epplen said, “Honest to gosh, I didn’t have any trouble doing this.” Epplen was concerned that kids that struck out might feel bad. Here’s a little tip for Epplen, kids that strike out do feel bad, kids who make errors feel bad and kids who lose games feel bad. It’s part of growing up! How sanitized do you want the kids lives to be? In my own Little League experience (as a parent), we had parents who wanted to ban All-Stars, or have the kids picked randomly and other parents who wanted to stop keeping score because they didn’t like the idea of kids “losing”. Much of life involved wining and losing, success and failure. Pretending it doesn’t exist just cripples these kids who at some point in their lives will find out that everything doesn’t – and shouldn’t – go their way.

Disclosure - as a pretty bad ballplayer as a kid, my biggest contribution to the team may have been creative banter.

However, my guess is that this is much more about the parents of the kids who strike out, not the kids. Playful banter is a part of Little League and for children, is a part of life. Winning – and losing – are important experiences and a key component of growing up. Let kids experience being kids, with all it’s ups and downs and they’ll be happier and better adjusted as adults. Play ball!