Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
September 17, 2009, Washington Post

At All Levels, Playing Time Means a Lot

Jim Riggleman, the Washington Nationals manager, said recently that he plans to use his veteran players for the rest of the season instead of rookies such as shortstop Ian Desmond and outfielder Justin Maxwell, even though Washington has the worst record in baseball. Riggleman says this is fair to the players and to the Nats' opponents who are fighting to make the playoffs.

Riggleman's plan reminds me that playing time (who plays and for how many innings or minutes) is important at all levels of sports.

On kids' teams, I think all players should get about the same amount of playing time -- if they come to practice, work hard and obey the coaches and the team rules.

I know there are some tournament and travel kids' teams that are more like professional teams. The coaches play their best kids because they want to win, while some players get stuck on the bench. But that's not fair. It's hard to tell at 8 or 10 or 12 years old who is going to be the best player later on. Any kid who is part of a team should get a chance to play.

In high school, coaches should be able to pick the kids they think are the best and play them most of the time. By the time kids are 16 or 17, they are old enough to understand that some players are better than others. And sometimes it's important for kids to realize that they may not be good enough to play at a competitive high school level.

Still, lots of kids are disappointed when they make their school team but hardly play in games.

Coaches for high school junior varsity (JV) teams, the teams for mostly freshmen and sophomores, should divide the playing time more evenly. After all, the main purpose of a JV team is to develop players for the varsity team.

College and professional coaches should play the players who they think will give a team the best chance to win. Big-time college and professional sports teams are businesses. People's jobs depend on whether the team makes money by selling tickets to the games. Winning teams sell more tickets.

There are times, however, when even a pro team shouldn't play its best players. This season, it isn't important if the Nationals win 58 or 60 or 62 games. But it could be very important for the Nationals to find out whether Desmond is good enough to be their starting shortstop next season. So why not play a promising young infielder who hit .328 for the Nationals' two top minor league teams?

It's true at every level of sports: How do you know if a player can play if he or she doesn't get the playing time?

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is the author of such kids' books as "Touchdown Trouble" and "Soccer Team Upset."

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