Keeping Your Substitutes Happy and Productive.

Seven steps that will make baseball a good experience for everyone

ONCE UPON A TIME not too long ago, "riding the pines" and "catching a few splinters" pretty much described the baseball players who spent most of their time sitting on the bench.

Unlike football and basketball, where a coach can spot-play several of his players for a few minutes, base-ball does not lend itself to free substitution, a restriction that can cause a lot of discontent among the subs. And discontent can soon turn into a "cancer" on the bench.

Since distracted substitute players are rarely mentally ready when called upon to play, the coach may be compelled to remove the cancers or the unhappy players may choose to drop out on their own. Neither of these situations is calculated to improve team morale or help build a successful program.

What can be done to ameliorate the problem? Following are seven steps that will help produce a good baseball experience for all of your players, regardless of how many you keep on the bench.

Pre-Season Coaches Meeting

At your first staff meeting, emphasize each player's importance[cdots] No one on the roster should be considered insignificant and no one should be allowed to sulk. Expect your coaches to study each player's personality and moods, make notes of their game faces and locker room behavior, identify their reactions to setbacks, and make it a point to correct bad attitudes.

Make sure your staff understands that the bench players have to be coached each inning, just the way the regulars are. This is imperative. You cannot ignore the kids on the bench. Ultimately, this neglect will cause a breakdown in team unity.

Pre-Season Parents' Meeting

This is a must in avoiding future conflicts. Explain that your primary objective is to see that every player has a good experience by season's end. Once this is said, you must tell the parents that many kids aren't going to play every inning of every game and that some of your decisions will be unpopular.

The best players are going to play most of the game, but you are going to work hard on developing positive attitudes among all of the players.

Ask the parents for their support. Ask them to help you discourage their kids from complaining about playing time. Encourage parents to keep a positive, open line of communication with you and your staff. Together, you can stop the behind-the-back negativism that can destroy the team camaraderie that is essential for winning baseball.

This meeting can aid tremendously in establishing your coaching philosophy and in recruiting parental allies, absolute necessities for a job in which you have to make the tough game-time decisions involving personnel.

Play Them or Cut Them

Ideally, the ball players with the most experience and proven talent should be your most productive performers. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Before finalizing the roster, talk to the seniors who are not going to start or play much. They will appreciate your honesty and, more often than not, will drop from the squad. Only the rare kid will be able to serve as a role model. Pitchers may be content with infrequent relief appearances. Usually, however, the seniors who are left on the bench for long periods of time will become attitude problems.

Senior starters are a different concern. They often have fragile egos. Unless you coach them on how to cope with the occasional times you will sit them down, they could cause conflicts with you and the rest of the team.

Seniors must be your leaders. They have to support your decisions and maintain their enthusiasm for the team, even when they're removed from games. Explain to them that this maturity is also important whenever they are being scouted or intend to play baseball at the college level.

Underclassmen

Any freshman or sophomore whom you deem good enough to make the varsity roster should play most of the innings. You don't want them sitting around or losing out on the valuable playing experience they could get on a sub-varsity team.

The exception may be non-starting juniors, who can be varsity, role, or part-time players. You don't want them playing JV ball, where the emphasis is on developing younger talent. You might want a junior pitcher to get in some work on the JV team; otherwise, you should play your good 11th grade position players on the varsity against tougher competition.

Role Players

All teams need role players. Pinch hitters, defensive replacements, pinch runners, and relief pitchers contribute much during the course of a season.

Discuss these roles with the players you intend to use. Coach them to be game-ready whenever they are suddenly called upon. Constantly stress their importance to the team, especially in front of your regular players. And when the role player strikes out, commits an error, gets caught stealing, or gives up a big hit, console him, encourage him, and then put him back on the field in a similar situation as soon as possible to demonstrate your confidence in him.

All baseball players must learn to deal with slumps and the best strategy is to give them as many opportunities for success as you can.

Never allow a role player who has failed in a crucial spot to come back to the bench and dwell on his failure.

Never ignore him or show disdain for his ability to perform in pressure situations. Baseball is often cruel to young players because failure happens more often than success's and so it is every coach's responsibility to rebuild character along with confidence.

Remember, these are kids on their field of dreams, not professionals who get paid whether they succeed or fail. You can be tougher on your starters, but the bench players are often called upon to be your' team's heroes. They will produce for you if you handle their psyches with care.

Coaching the Bench Players

Too many coaches get so involved with the action on the field, they pay little or no attention to their bench until it's time to make a substitution.

Bench players often disconnect from the game and even lose interest altogether.

Make a strong effort to talk baseball to your nonstarters during the game.

Sit between them when your team is on defense.

Teach them how to watch the game critically and encourage them to anticipate situational baseball. Even have them discuss strategies with you. With their minds on the game, they will be ready when called upon.

Make All Players Equal

Use the DH and re-entry whenever possible to get more kids into the game. If you don't have starting pitchers who can throw seven innings, consider using two or three pitchers for each game, especially early in the season when the weather may be cold and arm strength is not fully developed.

Building team unity and fairness is important, even in the management of equipment. Having underclassmen or the same players (often commanded by seniors) carry the bats, balls, bases, and helmets can cause serious conflicts, not to mention lost or forgotten equipment. Assign a captain and a small group of players to each type of equipment and have them rotate carrying responsibilities for each game. The captain should keep the assignment schedule and be responsible for the return of the equipment to its proper place.

The captain should also take a place in the rotation that carries the equipment to and from the field or bus to ensure fairness. Every player participates, though catchers can be responsible for only their own gear.

At the end of the season, whether or not your team wins more than it loses, the barometer that measures the overall quality of your program will be the comments each player makes to you when you collect his uniform. If your part-time players speak honest words of contentment, then you and your staff have established a baseball program in which everyone has contributed to its success.

This experience, in turn, will send your players into their futures with a lifetime of good memories from playing on your team.