Are adults teaching little-leaguers to play ball…or beg?

Today as I drove home from church I noticed some parents and little-league baseball players dressed in their uniforms begging for cash at the I-30/Ridge Rd. intersection in front of Chili’s. This is the first time in the five years we’ve lived here that I’ve seen such a site. In Plano, where we used to live, it was a common occurrence, which I grew to hate!

My question is…are these coaches and parents teaching these young sluggers players to play baseball…. or to beg? In my opinion, it’s the latter. And that’s not good!

In Dallas, it’s illegal for people to beg on street corners. For one reason, it’s really dangerous – running between cars so an occasion driver can drop a little money in a bucket. For another, it’s really annoying to drivers and riders. Since far more people in Dallas felt those two reasons were sufficient, they outlawed street-corner fund-raising.

Well, perhaps it happens so rarely here that lawmakers haven’t ruled on it. But regardless, I have to ask can’t the parents of these little-leaguers, “Can’t you find a better, more industrious way to raise the cash? How about car washes, pizza sales, candy sales or perhaps dog-walking to earn it? How about encouraging these young ball players to become creative entrepreneurs who find a need and fill it – just like business owners do in the real adult world in which these little-leaguers will soon have to learn to compete?

I just don’t think we should be teaching kids that begging is alright to do. That’s more of a trick which dogs perform to get a bone.

What do you think?