Dear Dr. Laura,
Following on the gentleman who coaches (or coached) the T-ball team, I'd like to give you my experience managing a minor league team.
It was '69 and I was a high school senior. For some reason, I decided to get into Little League and I ended up with a team of kids 8-13 who were too young or not good enough for the regular league.
One day when coaching third base, a father in the stands complained about how we three high school kids were not doing a good job, etc. The whole nine yards. I slowly backed up until I got to the fence then turned and said, "Look - I called every father TWICE to come help us just one night a week. No one 'had time' to come out. So, we three high schoolers are doing the best we can do. We're not great, but we are trying and doing a pretty good job anyway. If you want to complain about how we're doing…" at this point I took off my cap, "…here's my cap. YOU come out and work with your kids rather than three strangers. Otherwise, I don't want to hear a word from ANY of you."
Never did from that time on.
The conversation was paraphrased but the basic idea is there. This was 1969. Doesn't seem like things have changed, does it?
Sincerely,
Bob
