The Season Begins

We’re back for another season. I am hopeful that this season will be better than last year. I have a lot more confidence about coaching this year. Since basketball has ended I’ve invested a bunch of time, just like I did last year, into improving my coaching and I really hope it’s going to payoff.

Quick note: I need to still name this dynasty. Nothing as obvious as last year’s Little Little League seems to apply. Also, this year I’ll be using names, just as I did with basketball. You’ll see this is going to get tricky in a second, but initials still felt impersonal (and wouldn’t be of help) and coming up with pseudonyms makes it hard to capture the “feel” of their name and I’m likely to slip up anyway. So you get their real first names.
Pre-Season

Well the good news is that Libby is no longer the Park District coordinator. We now have Kevin instead. Already I am cautiously optimistic that things will be run better.

When the rosters come out, I cross check with the travel team. News is good. I find out we’ve got three travel kids from the 5th grade team. The 6th grade team’s roster isn’t online so I don’t know if we have any. But 3 kids from the 5th grade team is one more than we had last year so already we’re in better shape.

I’m a little jealous that we don’t have any of returning players (PW and JM’s little brother are both on the Braves). I don’t really recognize any of the players on the team, unlike last year where I need, indirectly, several of the people.

What I do find out? Every kid on our team has the same name. THE SAME NAME. We have Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy, Jared, Justin. To review 5 out of 12 have a name that starts with the letter J and three of them have the name Jeremy with two of them being Jeremy Ms. Let’s continue. We then have Matt and Matt. Austin and Alec (identical twins to boot). We do have a few original names that don’t repeat: Sean, Nick, and Cameron. But really my overwhelming impression of the team is that every has the same name.

Anyway, we have our coach’s meeting last Wednesday with our first practice schedule for last Saturday. At the coach’s meeting there is a long discussion about whether to allow 4 outfielders. Steve and I were both pretty vehemently opposed to this idea and it ultimately is defeated, but by a close vote after a lot of discussion. I’m actually opposed to it because it’s not real baseball and that’s a big reason Steve and I coach at this level. Obviously, the coaches in favor were arguing that it was less people sitting on the bench. I actually argued against it on the grounds that the weaker hitters would be denied base hits by this extra outfielder. Not sure I influenced anyone, but I do feel that to be a true statement.

At the meeting we get a list of our player’s contacts and our uniforms. One of the coaches who we were real friendly with last year commented we had a good team. Signs are looking good.
But then of course the great extended winter of ‘07 intervenes. We were supposed to have our first practice last Saturday. Canceled. A pretty big let down.

The First Practice
The weather forecast for yesterday didn’t look much more promising for a while, but then yesterday came and we were actually able to have practice. It was marvelous.

Our plan was to focus on hitting and that’s what we did. Our team was very late in arriving, which was annoying, but what are you going to do? The problem was Hebrew school, so that’ll be a pretty consistent thing with Tuesday practices I suppose.

While Steve and I had a pretty firm plan for yesterday’s practice we didn’t put times onto things and so that severely hampered our ability to run the best practice possible. Overall it was an OK practice, but I feel like I’ve got a better grasp on their personalities than baseball skills, especially compared to the post I did last year. Anyhow here’s a rundown of the team from what I know so far:

Matt A – Smallest kid on the team. Has a nickname, fortunately, so that solves one of our Matt problems. Not a particularly good hitter, but had pretty good fundamentals on the ground balls we saw.

Cameron – A travel player. I think he’ll be one of our pitchers. He had to leave early so I didn’t get a good feel for him at all.

Jeremy F – Wasn’t at practice

Justin – Looks to be our best hitter. During the BP part he absolutely ripped some balls. Another travel kid. He plays 1st and 2nd base on travel, which means he could likely play any position we’d need him to play. Gotta love that. Steve thinks he’s going to be one of our favorites as well based on personality. We’ll see.

Jared – Don’t really remember much about him as I’m having trouble picturing him right now. Sorry. If I could remember what he looked like I’d no doubt remember more about him.

Jeremy Ma – A travel player who I believe will be one of our pitchers. He swung at a lot of stuff he really shouldn’t have, but I’m hoping that will change when we put in a real pitcher who throws things other than lobs and whiffle balls.

Nick – Seems like a real nice kid, but mediocre baseball player. Had some fielding issues.

Jeremy Me – Has some hitches in his swinging mechanic but looks to have an OK eye for pitches.

Alec and Austin – Identical twins. And they wore the exact same thing to practice, which was also annoying. These are two goofballs, but I think in a good sense. They haven’t played baseball since 3rd grade (and are now in 6th) but are natural athletes playing elite tennis and travel basketball. Austin, in particular, seemed very welcoming of instruction. These two could be a real powder keg, as they were OBSESSED with winning but could also be a real boon. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Sean – Has never played real baseball before and shows it. Is a very proud young man. This will likely be our hardest coaching situation, given this combination but I think we’re up to the task.

Matt – Our tallest kid who is also very SLOW. He hits the ball a mile, when he hits it. Definitely a work in progress.

There’s going to be no practice today. Hopefully we’ll get in on Saturday, though the weather again looks none too promising. As Steve pointed out, it seems like our luck that just when we get a good team we’re cursed by the weather.