I've been a Little League coach for the last 4 years. I've coached two championship teams for our local Little League. I've coached all stars. We've won an all star tournament. And I've also coached teams that came really close but couldn't finish. Winning is a lot of fun and what you shoot for, but sometimes getting really close is an amazing teacher and builder of character. I'm no great baseball coach though some of my teams have done well, but I love the kids and their families and caring about people sometimes takes you a lot further than skill and is more rewarding than winning.
Case in point. Watch David Belisle's post-elimination talk with his Little League World Series team from the New England region. You can coach good baseball as a jerk. I know guys who do that. But when a coach cares about kids, about families, it's something more.
