How do you parent your young athlete?

I have kids who are involved in sports, and up until this year, things have gone so smoothly. This year, with the arrival of baseball season, all of a sudden I find myself with a tremendous number of conflicts: practices, games, even work…everything seems to be at the same time. As a father, I’ve always been the parent who tries to be at everything for my kids, and I can see clearly that it will be impossible this year. As an aside, I found out today that my ex-wife didn’t take my son to batting practice yesterday…for no particular reason.

I’m curious how other people have handled this, partly with regard to the scheduling, but more importantly from the aspect of parenting your kids. What do you tell your kids about the reality of the situation, how do you make them feel better that their parent won’t be there for them today? How do you teach them that their commitment to that team is important, even though it may appear that YOU don’t think so, today?