As a coach, my goal is to help young players learn the skills and the character attributes that baseball teaches. Baseball, our nearly perfect metaphor for life, is all about competition. There is no reason to play it unless we intend to compete. Competition per se is not bad for people. It is good for people.
Kids compete instinctively.
Leave a bunch of them unsupervised and they will invent some game, some sort of competition. This week, my son's middle-school team was playing its arch rival in the final home game. It was a seesaw battle, and both teams were playing exceptionally well. A tie game rapidly degerated into a rout. Afterward, the entire team was furious, including the 7th graders who had come off the bench.