We live in little, rural Montana, and my buddy started the baseball program here years ago. He and his family are rabid NY Yankees fans and they just live for it. He had 3 boys, so he started the program so they could play. When we moved here 10 years ago, 2 of my boys started playing too and I helped him coach. He had a great way of managing so that everyone got playing time, even those that sucked. Yet, he was always able to pull out a win when needed. It just drove me crazy at times that he would do some of the things he did, but somehow it worked out for him.

He did let the parents know that the younger kids wouldn't get quite as much time as the older kids (the age was from 9-13). Each of those older kids started at age 9 and had to work their way to the first string. Mostly that worked out. We also had sometimes 19 kids on the team and had to get all of them playing time during a game. I had to coach one day when my buddy couldn't make it, and I told him I would never do it again. Nothing but complaints.

The other thing that he got grief for was playing his and my kids the most. They were far and away the best players, and so they started at the most important positions (pitcher, catcher, ss, first, etc.) They also batted high in the order. That inevitably evolved into "the Mormons are playing the other Mormons the most". You can't respond with "no, your kids totally sucks", so you just put your kid on the bench and let the weak kids go up and flail. There is really no way to make everyone happy. People are completely myopic when it comes to their own kids.