AITA for walking off the field before a tournament after coaches son took another persons spot
I’m on a good TRAVEL baseball team (high school aged kids). Most of us are from the same town and have been playing together for many years, but every now and then we get a new kid. I’m the catcher, and my best friend, who I’ve been teammates with since tee ball, is the first basemen, let’s call him Tim. Tim is a very good first basemen (relevance will be shown later on). The coaches son, let’s call him Pete, is the third basemen. Pete was originally the short stop, but when one of the “new kids” joined the team, he was a VERY good shortstop.
coach moved Pete from SS to 3B, and he benched our third basemen, who was better then Pete. OG 3B got no playing time so he quit the team. We play in front of college scouts often so nobody wants to ride the bench.
Last weekend we had a small tournament. The day before, coach told us that we had a new player joining the team, starting tomorrow. New kid plays third base. Gameday, we’re wondering how this is going to work being that Pete plays third base. We wait for the lineups to be made, and when they are, we see the new kids playing third base, and Pete’s at FIRST BASE, Tim on bench.
Tim is vupset about this, and when I spoke to him all he said was “this is fcking bullsht”. Instead of benching his son, he benches the best first basemen in the area. I should note: coaches son Pete is not really a bad player. He’s a solid hitter, but in the field he is far inferior to the people that he’s replaced. Constant errors. Coach is just keeping him out there no matter what, even if it hurts the team.
If he cared about putting the best team out there, he would’ve put the new kid in and just benched his son. I took all my catcher gear off, packed up, and left the field without a word. I should also note: I never felt as though my position is at risk. Im close to a deal with a D1 school, I consider myself a very good catcher (not to be that guy). His son, who’s never caught before, would be lost if he tried to take my spot. Anyone who knows baseball would agree that catcher is the most nuanced position, and arguably the most difficult. Someone our age trying to play catcher at a competitive level would be absolutely lost, it’s just not a position that you can randomly take up. On the other hand, most shortstops with decent arms could probably switch to 3B, and most third basemen’s could probably switch to 1B.
So my reasoning for leaving was not because i thought I was next or anything like that, I simply just think we’re too old to STILL be playing “daddy ball.” Since, some teammates said I’m an a_hole for leaving, though we had a backup catcher who I was going to split the tournament with, so I didn’t screw the team. Backup catcher is the only one I feel bad for, because he most likely had to catch all 4 games if we made it to the end. So yes, I agree that I was sortve an a_hole to him because he must have been exhausted, but was i an a_hole to my coach & his son for walking off minutes before a game?
