Our Fourth Commandment for a Christian Baseball parent is: Thou shall not belittle players, coaches, or umpires.
Often time in the heat of a game we do not realize what comes out of our mouths. I think it is great to cheer for our team and to be positive in what we say from the stands. It is never acceptable to cheer against another player in youth baseball. We often times forget that youth baseball is for FUN and to learn the game. It is not the seventh game of the World Series. These players are not professional players and we must be encouraging even to members of another team. We must ask ourselves how would Jesus act and what would Jesus say? He must always be our guide in daily living. Opposing players and even players on our own team should be encouraged. There is absolutely no place in baseball for belittling of players.

We also need to remember most coaches are volunteer coaches and even those who are paid in travel team opportunities, all still must be treated with respect. You may disagree with how the coach coaches or who plays when and yes you have the right to do so. As a Christian baseball parent we do not have the right to belittle a coach, ours or another one, with our actions and our speech!

Umpires have a thankless job. In professional baseball these men are on the road for the entire season moving from city to city. In amateur baseball, umpires all have another job and often times umpire out of a love of the game. I have never met an umpire (and I have met and worked with many) who wanted to not do their best to be impartial and fair. Again we may disagree with an umpire’s decision and yes the last time I looked umpires are human just like us who make mistakes even at the Major League level. As a follower of Christ, we must treat umpires with respect as we must any person in authority.

In the book of James chapter three we are instructed about just how difficult it is to get the tongue under control. Verses 9 and 10 remind us that we on the one hand praise God with our tongue and we curse men who are made in God’s likeness and James tells us ‘this should not be”. As a follower of Jesus Christ we must take these words to heart as we strive never to belittle players, coaches, or umpires. Christ would never do so and neither should we!!