As far as the mom goes I have a lot of questions. Is she doing this during practice? If this is a school team is there an athletic director? A few more specifics would be helpful because it seems she and her kid are crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed.
She is doing this during both practice and games. The kid:
- we had a scrimmage a few weeks ago and I called him out at 3rd. It was by a mile. He had a full-fledged tantrum in the field. I had him leave the game to cool down. Reported it to the head coach and varsity coach (they were there, but lots of things going on at once)
- game a few days ago he got a call at the plate he didn't like. He proceeded to yell about the umpire and sat there slamming his bat against the ground.
- he monopolizes every practice, jumps in line, skips warmups, etc.
My hope is that my method of just removing the problem isn't one that works and that folks have noticed the same things that I had. I've talked to the coaches about it, but anything more is going to be me getting "involved", and I'm already topped out as far as baseball goes.
A good example of the mom: for rec league we were in the finals last year. We knocked their team out the game prior (our stud pitcher threw a no hitter). She proceeded to shit on every player that took the field. These are 9 and 10 year olds that we are talking about. None of them are Mike Trout to start with. Nobody can fucking stand her, but it's the same enabling method (that I'm probably facilitating). Nobody wants to spend the weeks that it would take to do something about her. Another story - we have free use of the school's batting cages. Everyone who plays does. A few weeks ago I was in there pitching to a few of the kids, it was just a regular saturday so completely not-team related. She went on to invite her shitty kid to hit with us, he refused to get out of the cage after getting the 10-15 pitches everyone was getting, and when he had a meltdown his mom said it was because I was pitching in a way that he didn't like. I don't like my weekends to be shit so I just said ok, then you pitch to him then. She went in there and started throwing to just him, and both basically ignored us waiting in line to get back in. We stood there for a good 15 minutes waiting for them. (he threw a few tantrums on her too).
As far as the two coaches go I would call them aside individually and let them know you have seen the texts and that right now you are making the best decisions you can for the team but that things can change. Maybe even throw them a bone in a blowout if the the kids are working hard.
That's what we've done thus far. The issue (And not a huge one) is that it then becomes a discussion point. "so and so played first the other day and did better than XX". Well, no he didn't. It was garbage time, but I can't say that. SO now anytime we go back to the way that it should be, there is just more fodder that I need to explain. FWIW, the main issue is 1st. it's not a huge skill position and we generally use it to put our high baseball IQ / good hitters at. They all handle the position extremely well and are by any measure superior players (hitting/defense/baseball iq/attitude). This coaches kid is a quiet kid, not a bad kid. Can kind of hit. 5/10 defensively. Slow as molasses and a bad arm. His hitting is really what got him on the team, but anywhere but right and maybe left he's a massive liability.