365 Days to Better Baseball - Scoring and Base Running

Friday Base Running Secrets "“What's the Score?

Next time I am at a youth baseball game, I want to hear?

I believe it is important to allow base runners to make their own decisions on the base paths, even young players. Of course, coaches must teach after the plays, so kids do not make the same mistakes, repeatedly.

Even at the young ages of baseball, I believe it is important for players to know the score, or at the least, know if they are winning or losing. Why? The score of the game determines how players run the bases daring, cautious, in between those. With that in mind, it is necessary that youth baseball coaches keep kids up to date on the score occasionally, which helps kids learn the finer strategies of the game.

For example and as implied, when teams are winning, players can run the bases more aggressively, thereby keeping the pressure on the defense and establishing the point that they are an aggressive running team, which may play into their favor in the future, also. On the other hand, when teams are losing, especially by more than a run or two, players must learn to be more cautious, learning that taking unnecessary chances of running into outs, are never good when trailing the game.

It's little things like that that make players smarter, help teams win games, and a sign of a good youth baseball coach.

So next time I am at a youth baseball game and I randomly ask a player, "What the score is?" I would love to hear, "We are down one, fifth inning," instead of, "I don't know."