Williams: 3 enduring lessons Pete Rose taught youth baseball players, coaches, parents

Pete Rose was a fantastic teacher of the game, a fact lost long ago amid all the drama surrounding the man.

Rose, who died Monday , led by example with his all-out playing style, of course. But Charlie Hustle also had the ability to relate to players, young and old.

He appeared on an episode of “The Baseball Bunch,” a nationally syndicated Saturday morning kids show in the early 1980s focused on teaching baseball fundamentals. (As a child of the ’80s, it was must-see TV.) In the episode, Rose taught the basics of how to play first base and baserunning, including how to properly do his trademark head-first slide. Rose also gave some great playing advice during interviews throughout his career.

Let's celebrate Pete Rose, the teacher. Here are three lessons he taught, which can apply to youth players, coaches and parents (cobbled together from various TV interviews):

1. Never embarrass a kid

What Rose said : “We’re all going to make mistakes. Human errors. Physical errors. If you make mental errors as a kid, you just have to talk to them on the way home like I do my son – like my father did with me. He never embarrassed me in front of anyone. But if I did something that he didn’t think was the right way of doing it, he would explain it to me when it was fresh on my mind (after a game or practice).”

Breakdown : This might be the best advice for coaches and parents. As a youth baseball coach, it’s challenging not to want to correct a kid in the heat of the moment while he is still on the field. Unfortunately, I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way.

Correcting or yelling at a kid in the moment might work in football and basketball, because of the intensity, pace of the game and nature of how those team sports operate. There’s a lot of extra noise in a gym and on a football field to detract from a coach getting on a kid.

But not in baseball. For starters, baseball is the hardest sport to play. And you can hear everything on a baseball field, making a kid feel like all eyes are on him if he makes an error or isn’t pitching well.

Think about it. In football, if a kid makes a mistake, he can take out his aggression by hitting someone harder on the next play and blend right in with the other 21 players on the field. In basketball, if a kid is in a shooting slump, he can always focus on contributing by playing tougher defense and being a more aggressive rebounder.

But you don’t really have those kinds of outlets to help you overcome a mistake in baseball. After striking out in the first two at-bats, swinging harder probably isn’t the answer. After walking a guy, throwing harder likely isn’t going to make a kid suddenly throw strikes.

The mental part of the game is critical, and this is where individual correction quietly off to the side in the dugout between innings or after the game on the ride home is key to a young player’s development.

The car ride home can be tense sometimes. Whether my son and his team had a good or bad game, I always start the conversation by saying: “I enjoyed watching you and your team play today,” advice I got a few years ago from a podcast called “Elbow Up.” It takes the edge off and opens the door for discussing how to improve.

Rose's advice certainly can be applied to girls' sports, too.

2. Being aggressive has many advantages

What Rose said : "An aggressive player is a hard player to beat. Because they keep coming at you. They may steal a base. They may break up a double play." ...

"If you get a young kid who’s going to swing at a high pitch occasionally or a low pitch occasionally, very aggressive, let him do it. Don’t try to make him swing at strikes only. The important thing about being a hitter is being aggressive."

Breakdown : Couple different approaches to playing aggressive here.

The first quote is about putting pressure on the opponent through baserunning. In youth baseball, the more aggressive baserunning team often wins. Aggressively stealing bases can rattle young pitchers and quickly change the momentum of a game. Fielders can start throwing the ball all over the place trying to throw guys out, leading to easy runs.

The latter quote is about letting kids figure out what type of pitches they like to hit. Notice how he said "occasionally." There's a kid on my team who loves to hit high pitches. It's been a process to convince him to lay off pitches over his head, but to let him still swing at the chest- and shoulder-level pitches. He's developed into an excellent hitter because we've let him be aggressive and shown him how to be smart about it.

3. Approach practice like it's a big game

What Rose said : "I told my youngster, don’t ever do anything when you’re practicing that you wouldn’t do in the seventh game of the World Series. If you practice right, you’ve got a good chance of playing right. If you practice wrong, you gotta good chance of playing wrong."

Breakdown : I just told my 11-year-old team a similar message last Sunday. We played outstanding, our best performance of the fall season. It's probably no coincidence we did that after having our best practice of the season. The challenge is trying to get kids to play well in a game when they weren't sharp in the previous practice. It's going to happen, because, well, they're kids. Sometimes, we have to simply remind kids: Baseball is fun. Go have fun.

Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Williams: 3 enduring lessons Pete Rose taught youth baseball players, coaches, parents