Children allow their emotions to surface and explode out. Children celebrate with enthusiastic awkwardness, best released when directed exactly what one can do and/or is expected.

So again, why do we cry out when those playing a kid’s game act like children?

The worst thing about it is these same athletes acting up are the ones we want to see. We’ve built publishing houses, printing presses and broadcast networks around athletes who exude their joy and emote their pain in playing a kid’s game.

The posters. The magazines. The replays. They show the stoic, the serious, the serene athlete. But they focus on those that will put on a show.

Because that’s what this is. A show. A performance for those watching, just like when any child calls to their parents to observe their latest masterpiece.

We’re all longing to be seen; to be appreciated and understood and championed and supported. Especially those that haven’t expressed those same emotions and actions to those that truly deserve it.

Because as children, we demand attention and usually get it, mostly out of fear for what we may do if not addressed. There’s a certain age where one no longer whines and cries when they don’t get their way.

In a kid’s game, you’re allowed to stretch that age out well past when it should be.

That’s why most anyone complaining to an official appears annoying and childlike…because it is. And it doesn’t get you anywhere.

And as a pitcher, it can be completely detrimental.