Worst Parents In Sports History

When children show promise in sports at a young age, parents are supposed to nurture that talent, if possible. 

Part of that nurturing process means making sure children enjoy what they’re doing and don’t get pushed too far. The opposite approach can produce disturbing outcomes. 

The need for parents to live vicariously through their sports-playing kids is nothing new, and some of the best athletes of all time can come from some twisted backgrounds. 

Here’s a look at the worst parents who ended up with children as pro athletes.

Keith Hernandez, one of the greatest fielding first basemen in baseball history, grew up in a different era.

As a small child, he ran home and told his father, former minor league baseball player John Hernandez, that a local bully was chasing him and wanted to beat him up. “If you don’t fight, you can’t come back in this house,” John Hernandez said, slamming the door in his son’s face.

John Hernandez was relentless teaching his son the game — and knew his swing so well that he fixed slumps throughout Keith’s entire major league career. Each time he made sure to remind his All-Star son: “You could never do this without me.”

How great could Michelle Wie’s career have been if not for the mistakes made by her parents early on?

Wie turned pro by the age of 16, and with lucrative endorsement deals waiting, Wie’s parents — father, B.J. and mom, Bo — made the puzzling decision to have her play in men’s tournaments for the first several years of her career with disastrous results

Michelle Wie, to her credit, pulled it together once she got out on her own and won a major at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.

Gunner Kiel was almost the consensus No. 1 quarterback recruit in the nation for the class of 2012 and could’ve gone to school anywhere. So he tried.

First, he committed to in-state Indiana. Then he committed to LSU, which seemed like the perfect fit and a smart move. That’s when his mom, Aleta Kiel, decided to drop all pretext and make an emotional plea for her son —  to do what she wanted and play for Notre Dame. Which he did.

One year later he transferred to Cincinnati. Three years later, he wasn’t playing football anymore.

The importance of becoming an adult and maturing into your own person, separate from your parent’s influence, can’t be understated. Nobody remembered to tell this to Tony Rasmus, the father of former major league player Colby Rasmus.

Dad wrecked relationships with at least two teams, the Cardinals and the Blue Jays, because of his meddling, and took shots at legendary manager Tony La Russa and outfielder J.D. Drew along the way.

In summary, Tony Rasmus thought he knew baseball better than one of the greatest minds to ever coach the game.