Hater Of The Year: Little League Baseball Parent Buys A Flyover Banner To Rat On Parent Who Was Complaining About The Schedule
Axios -- A youth baseball game came to a halt in a small Philadelphia suburb last month when parents started pointing up at the sky.
- It wasn't a ball, or a bird, that caught their eye — but rather, a banner, towed by an airplane, calling out a parent by name.
…The flyover, at a May 18 Little League game, targeted a father who recently complained about league scheduling. Magid complained to officials about a decision to end the in-house season early for the second straight year so more advanced players could begin competing on summer travel teams. He felt it unfair to intramural players who wouldn't get to compete in a playoff to crown a champion.
If there's one lesson that all parents need to learn when it comes to youth sports, it's that everything works out better if you just stay out of it. Chances are that your little Timmy or Johnny aren't going to become the next Mike Trout. If they're actually that good, then you'll never have anything to worry about because all the coaches will realize it, too, and they'll get every advantage possible. But if they're not that good, then there's just never any reason to get involved. Nothing good ever comes out of getting involved.
So when this little league in Springfield Montco decided to end the season early so that the more "advanced" kids could play on their summer travel teams, then that's just the way it goes. I mean, sure, it would make a helluva lot more sense to just keep the season going and if the travel kids need to stop playing in-house, then they stop playing. It doesn't make a ton of sense to end the season for everyone just because some kids have a travel team to play on. But that's besides the point right now. Because the main takeaway here is that the moment you get involved in youth sports as a parent, you put yourself squarely in the crosshairs of all the other parents who have nothing better to do than to find someone to despise.
Now before I start totally victim blaming here, let me just say that it is ludicrous behavior to spend the $500-1000 it takes to hire a plane to fly a personalized banner over a little league baseball game. We can't go around acting like that's a normal and rational reaction. Epic, maybe. But certainly not normal.
But that's what you get when you're dealing with parents in youth sports. These are kids who have a mental meltdown if you don't take the crust off their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, yet these parents will treat these games like they're one game away from getting picked up by a pro scout. Parents are absolute lunatics when it comes to their kids playing sports. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you learn to just steer clear and keep your head down. I'm sure this guy was coming from a good place. I'm sure his heart was just set on making sure his kid was given the chance to play a full season and maybe get a little trophy at the end of it. But he didn't realize that youth sports parents are fucking psychos and will spend $1000 to have a flyover banner go over your little league game on a Saturday morning calling you out by name for complaining about the schedule. Now he knows.