Every parent thinks their kid plays the most demanding position the least often. They are right about half the time. The other half, they are mistaken because they were watching their phone in the second inning.
A simple lineup spreadsheet, shared with parents before each game, ends 90% of these conversations.
Here is the version we landed on after one season of getting it wrong.
The structure
A Google Sheet with one tab per game. Columns:
| Inning | Pitcher | Catcher | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | Bench |
|---|
One row per inning. Six rows for a 6-inning game.
Fill in the names. Hit save. Share view-only with the parent email list 24 hours before the game.
That is the entire document.
How to fill it in fairly
The fairness rule we use: every kid plays at least one inning of infield and one inning of outfield in every game. Every kid sits the bench no more than one inning per game (in a roster of 11 to 13).
Track who pitches and catches across the season, not within a single game. Some kids will pitch four games in a row because they’re the strike-throwers. That’s fine, as long as every kid who wants to pitch gets some innings across the year.
Bench rotation is the most-watched column. Build the bench rotation first, then fill in positions around it. If two kids have to sit the second inning, make sure those same two kids don’t sit the third.
Why share it before the game
Three reasons.
One. Parents who know their kid is sitting the second inning can be there for the second inning instead of missing it because they were getting coffee.
Two. The parent who plans to leave at the bottom of the fourth knows whether their kid will be in the lineup at that point.
Three. The parent who is going to complain about the lineup will complain to you privately on Friday before the Saturday game. That is much better than complaining publicly during the game.
What not to do
Don’t promise positions during tryouts. Promises are debt. Roster decisions get re-evaluated every game.
Don’t let one parent’s preference dictate another kid’s playing time. The complainer’s kid is not the only kid on the team.
Don’t share the lineup in the parent group chat. It clogs the chat. Use email or a separate “lineup” doc that is a stable URL.
The template
We use a simple Google Sheet. Make a copy and fill in your roster.
→ Open the lineup spreadsheet template (Replace the URL above with your real shared template once you’ve made one.)
One last thing
The most important spreadsheet you will keep is the at-bats sheet. Every kid in the order, every game. Track who hits where in the order. By midseason, two or three of your kids will be in a slump and need to move down. Two or three will be hot and need to move up. Without a record, you can’t see it.
— Dan