Royals GM Dayton Moore, the father, has advice for parents of young athletes
Royals general manager Dayton Moore is continuously looking for ways to make his team better, so he likely keeps an eye on college players.
One in particular is his favorite and it has nothing to do with baseball. It’s his son, Robert, an infielder at the University of Arkansas.
Moore, who has coached his son in the past, was asked by Perfect Game TV what advice he would give parents of youth players. It’s a good message.
Here is what Moore said:
“I think what I’ve learned, and in a lot of cases I’ve learned the hard way, the only thing our children really want to hear us say is, I love watching you play, great job, nice try, I love watching you play, I love watching you do something you love to do. And so when I started taking more of that approach, what I found out was my son began to ask me questions. instead of me trying to give him answers before he asked. And so we began to develop this relationship centered around the game where he would ask the questions.
“And then when I was coaching him or throwing batting practice to him, I would ask him, ‘Do you want me to be dad or do you want me to be coach?’ Sometimes he’d say be coach, give me what you have. And I would. If he said be Dad, I wouldn’t say anything. I would just continue to throw batting practice, hit ground balls. I would encourage him the entire time. Nice job. Great job. Get the next one. Love watching you play. Hey son, you know what? This was fun for me today. I hope this was fun. This was so much fun for me today to be able to come out and throw you batting practice and hit you ground balls. It’s so much fun for me to take part in something that you love to do. Son, I just want to be a character in your story. This isn’t my story. My days are over as a player. This is you. I just want to be a character in it. I don’t want to have the lead role. I just want to be a character in your story, a character in your journey.”
Here is the entire clip, which was shared by former Angels, Brewers, Diamondbacks broadcaster Daron Sutton:
