Basketball and Blog Update

I have now finished posting all of last season's entries from baseball, just in time for this season's start (hopefully on Saturday).

Anyhow last night we had the coach's meeting for baseball and I ran into Luke's father. Turns out that Luke is having an awful AAU experience and when baseball starts Luke is going to be pulled from the team (amazing since Luke doesn't even play travel baseball, just rec league).

That was interesting. MORE interesting was the fact that David had already quit the team. Seems as though perhaps I'll have a shot of getting David next year after all. I don't want to get my hopes up, but my hopes are up :).

Self Criticism

So I’ve given a wrap-up for the players, for the league, and now it’s time to turn inward. I am going to mostly talk about me here and pretty much ignore Steve. This isn’t to demean his contributions, or to suggest he was perfect or awful, but mostly because I feel like I am in no position to evaluate my co-coach. So if I use I or me, I’m talking exclusively about me, and if I use we or our, I’m talking about the collective effort of me and Steve.

Looking back on the season, I’m not really sure what to think. I admit that I feel a certain amount of insecurity about my baseball coaching skills. And so the fact that we lost so much? That didn’t help.

There are certain aspects of my performance that I’m very pleased about. I’ve played on winning teams, but I’ve played on more losing teams then winning teams. And I’ve seen a team give up and stop caring. And I’ve seen teams that continued to fight all the way despite losing. So I’m proud of the way our team played this season. Considering that this was a bunch of 9-12 year olds they very clearly could have given up and packed it in. Now, I won’t lie. After that Red Sox playoff game I know several players did pack it in. And there were bits of defeatism at other points in the season. However, with the time off by the time Sunday came around they were ready to fight again. And I know Steve and I deserve credit for that.

Further, I know that we made a difference, at least for a time, in the lives of several of our players: Avi, Bobby, and Trey. Before this week I wouldn’t have put Trey on that list, but he happened to be riding his bike by my house as I was reading and so he stopped and talked. And in his own way, simply because this kid will never be a fountain of emotions, it was clear that Trey had a lot of respect for me. So that was cool. Avi and Bobby I’ve talked about before. You hear a common refrain in teaching how they hope to really just impact one kid and that’s good enough. Well that’s never been good enough for me. However, I do give us credit for the way we handled the social aspect of the team.

But then again, what we did is my minimum expectation. I don’t know how to write this without sounding like a braggart, but it’s important in understanding where I’m coming from here. I have been told by many people who have years of experience in the area that I have a “gift” for dealing with kids. I think I often get more credit then I deserve, but it does mean that I have a certain expectation for my performance in this area. So, I would say that I all I did was meet those expectations.

Also in the plus column is our devotion to fairness. We are scrupulous about following the rules and even go above and beyond them during the regular season, for the most part. This sort of dovetails with the point above, but I feel good about how we conducted ourselves. Even in games with unexpected no shows, I worked hard to follow the rules, and our unofficial rules, to the letter and always succeeded. This is very important to me and so again I have a very high minimum expectation and I feel like that was met, though not really exceeded.

On the field managing, I feel once again got stronger as the season went on. I haven’t grown as much here as I’d like, simply because I’ve had no one to push me here or to learn from, as this simply isn’t one of Steve’s strengths. I still have a bit to go to reach the level of where I want to be, but give me a passing grade for the area. I’m continuing to make progress, simply not at the rate at which I’d like.

But that brings me to the area of player development. And this is where I just don’t know what to say. I simply don’t have the experience or background to say how good of a job I did. And so looking at the results it would suggest that I did none too hot. Of course, the team was bad to start with, so maybe Steve and I just got bum luck this year. All I have to compare is our team last year and our team this year. And looking at the base talent of the two years we’re not even in the same ballpark. The team I had last year was more gifted then this year’s team. But that still doesn’t let me off the hook. And that’s because we didn’t have a player “breakout” this year. Last year there were a couple who made significant and noticeable strides in all parts of play. And we simply didn’t have that this year. And so I can’t help but think that perhaps the extra coach last year was the difference. I mean I know this guy was a great hitting coach and so perhaps holding myself to that standard isn’t fair. But it’s the only comparison I have to make.

The two areas where we really focused our energies this year were fielding and pitching. In fielding, there is no doubt that we got significantly better as the season went on. However, all teams get better. So, did we make more progress then the average team? I just don’t know. I do know that we didn’t do enough with hitting this year. I have some ideas of things we can do better next year. For instance, we should be doing soft toss before every game. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the game for which we did soft toss beforehand was also the game we played the best.

As for pitching? Well, I think I did an OK job here. Was I great? No. But I don’t think I gave “bad” coaching to any of our players though again I wonder how much help I really was. But, “first do no harm” is a pretty good philosophy for a coach in a house league environment and on that level I guess I was fine as a pitching coach.

What this all means is that I am going to continue to seek ways to improve myself. I did a lot of self study and work to be a better coach this year then last year and I will continue to try and find opportunities to improve myself. I just found a website which offers online courses in coaching youth baseball and I plan on completing that. I don’t know how worthwhile it’ll be, but they also certify coaches for high school coaching (though not online) so I figure it’ll be worth the time and money. If I find other ways to improve my skills I’ll do it as well and hopefully it’ll be enough.

All of this introspection does obscure something important. I do this to have fun. And while all the losing was VERY rough on me, I did have fun. The kids I was working with mostly had fun as well. And so on those levels? This season was an unqualified success. Except for all the qualifications listed above.

And with that I wrap-up my year of baseball.

The Letter

So when we last left the narrative I am slinking away from the field, feeling, well, defeated. We have given out the awards, which I know were meaningful for the team, something I’m not sure I was fully able to convey here.

The good news is that Steve has committed to doing this again next year. And so I start thinking about next year. So on Monday morning, first thing I do is send off an email to Libby.

In this email I do two things. First, I suggest a schedule of practices and games that is somewhat between last season’s all games and this season’s 2 and 1. The schedule I suggest is:
Week 1 - Practices (Like this year)
Weeks 2-5 Two games and one practice (Like this year)
Weeks 6-9 Switch to practicing once every other week (Creating two extra games)
Week 10 - Games
Week 11 - Playoffs
The idea being that additionally in Weeks 10 or 11 there could be a rain makeup day as well.

This schedule would actually create 3 extra games as it would eliminate a second practice that came in Week 2. Further the idea of doing a rain make up day in Week 10 or 11, and if there are no rainouts using that as a practice day instead, seems like something that would be nice. We had more rainouts this year then last, but it seems like acknowledging that games will be canceled in the schedule seems like a wise move.

Now while that’s the bulk of the email, the second line (after thanking her for her work) read “As an FYI, I am planning on sending letters to the Park District Commissioners, which while touching on a couple of other areas, is focused on the idea of keeping kids from the same grade together for the two years they are in Triple A, Majors, or Pony"

Now, I’m not sure if I had mentioned this before, or not, but Libby has an “auto response” which sends you an email saying that she got your email and will get back to you with-in 24 hours. If you recall she basically ignored several emails from Steve and I so that was a complete joke. However, out of courtesy, I did wait 24 hours before sending off my letter to the Park District Commissioners, with a CC to the Executive Director of the Park District. That email reads as follows:

Dear Commissioner (Insert Commissioner’s name here),

My name is Barkeep49 and I am would like to take this opportunity to give you some feedback on the Boys Majors (5th and 6th grade) baseball program. For the last two seasons I have coached, along with my friend Steve XXXX, a team in the league. While we are far too young to have any children play we do it because we enjoy working with youth and think baseball is fun.

The idea that playing sports should be fun is a philosophy that is certainly embraced by the Park District staff. This combined with the idea that each player should have the opportunity to grow their skills, forms the backbone of the Majors’ philosophy, in accordance with the Park District’s overall goals. The staff have done an excellent job of setting up a league which promotes these ideas. Perhaps the staff’s strongest moment came when they discovered that several coaches were not following rules regarding playing time. They took immediate and swift action to address the problem.

Unfortunately, other communication was not always so swift. From our own experience, and from talking to others, Steve and I know that emails were often ignored. At one point we even requested a meeting with a Park District staff member and gave several times which would work. This email was one of several that were ignored.

One area where feedback has not been ignored, however, is in the attempt to put together fair teams. This has proven to be a problem, we know, not just in Majors but in Triple A and Pony as well. I have seen this first hand, with our team last year having a third of the players on the team play travel baseball and our team this year which did not have nearly the same strength in our best players. In several nearby suburbs the Park Districts and Athletic Associations have found a solution to this problem which also fits in perfectly with the Park District’s philosophy.

The idea is that players of the same grade move up together as a team with-in a league. So, for instance, the players we have who are 5th graders this year would be the 6th graders on our team next year. They would be joined by kids who are 4th graders this year and who would come from many different Triple A teams. This provides numerous benefits with only a few drawbacks. First, it rewards coaches who invest time in developing all players’ skills. For instance, this year we had a player who wanted desperately to play catcher, but whose skills were lacking. Throughout the season Steve and I worked with this young man so that by the end of the season he was able to be a productive catcher for us. I know that next year, when he is in 6th grade, he will be a regular catcher for whatever team he is on. While I can’t wait to see how he catches next year when we play his team, I have to admit that it is frustrating to know that some other team is going to benefit from the hard work we have done this year.

Furthermore, time is wasted every year getting to know our players. While under the plan you would still have to get to know half a team (or slightly more if some players didn’t return to the league) this is far more manageable then trying to learn the skills and talents of a full roster. Just as important as our getting to know the players, is the players getting to know each other. This speaks to one of the drawbacks of this system. Players would not meet as many kids as before. While having the opportunity to meet different kids is important, more important is the relationship that the players form once they’ve met. It can take a full season for a squad to come together as a team, even when teamwork and team comrade is a major focus. Therefore, by the time they come together, and start to form meaningful relationships, the season is over and they might not see some of these peers again until high school. It seems like it would be far more rewarding to know that the peers you have met and grown to like are going to be your teammates again come next spring. Also by having half of your squad return, it encourages leadership. The 6th graders already know what the expectations of the coaches are and can help set the right tone for the younger players.

The other major potential criticism of this system is that some players would still have 2 coaches as the coaches move up in leagues with their children. Even this is not as bad as it first seems, as there are quite a few siblings who are 2 years apart (on our team alone there were 4 different kids who had a sibling two grades younger than them). With many coaches coaching in multiple leagues this means that as one child graduates to the next league, the coach could simply stay with the same team as a younger child would join it. Furthermore, even if a player had two different coaches, they are no worse off then they are today, while still experiencing many of the same positive social and leadership aspects that this program would offer.

I thank you for your time and consideration by reading this letter and also thank you for the jobs you do in helping Highland Park have such an excellent recreation program.

Sincerely,
Barkeep49

Now if you remember, this email came about because of a conversation I had with Kevin, a park district employee. He had told me about the idea of keeping kids on the same team, I liked it, and he told me it was the Park District Commissioners who vetoed the idea. I didn’t really know what to expect after sending this letter. I am very familiar with how a local school district operates, and letters such as mine are generally sent to the circular file.

I sent this letter at around 7:30 AM, before I left for work. By 12 o’clock I had received 3 replies. By 4:30, 4 of the 5 Commissioners, plus the Executive Director, had sent me replied. What was interesting was that the Commissioners focused on. In a 900+ word letter I spent 56 words on lack of response from Libby which so irked me and Steve. But yet that was the point that all of the board members latched onto in their responses. It was very interesting.

Of the responses, I liked the Executive Director’s the best as he was the only one to address the letter in a holistic sense. He promised that he would get back to me soon with a longer reply and that the email would be passed on to the staff.

Overall I am quite pleased with the response I’m getting. And then I get the phone call. I’m driving in my car so I don’t see the caller id before picking it up and so I am a little surprised when I hear the voice of Libby’s boss, Michael. The email has been forwarded to him and he would like to have a meeting along with “Dave”. I have no clue who “Dave” is so I ask Michael and he asks someone what Dave’s title is before telling me that he doesn’t know Dave’s title but Dave is his boss. OOOOOOOOK then.

So thinking this over, I ponder what this meeting is going to be. I feel confident heading into it, but have no clue what they’re going after. Someone suggests that perhaps they’re building up a case against Libby to try and fire her. That thought makes me uncomfortable. Someone else suggests that they’re going to be very annoyed with me. I partially think this too, and so I print out all the correspondence Steve and I had with Libby this year and focus on what I feel the strongest points of the proposed system of keeping teams together are.

The day of the meeting comes. I go to the Park District Head Quarters not really knowing what to expect. When I get to the center no one really knows where Dave is, and since Michael’s office is in a different building, it’s very unclear where the meeting is. So I sort of loiter around in the sports wing hoping it’s the right place to be. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal as I would just whip out my phone and play some Tetris, but my phone’s battery is nearly dead and I don’t want to risk it dying on me. A few minutes after the time we were supposed to meet, Michael comes out and escorts me into a conference room.

It’s the moment of truth. Dave, will be joining us shortly, but Michael kicks off the meeting without him. I can see in front of him a little sheet with Pro and Con written and things written beneath it. Sure enough he kicks off the meeting discussing the idea of keeping kids on the same team. I can tell right off the bat that he’s not going for it. Now mind you, this means I was a bit misled as I was informed by Kevin that the staff was behind it but it was the commissioners who put the kibosh on it.

Now either Michael is worn down or he’s not my greatest fan. I’m choosing option B. However, a few minutes into the meeting, Dave comes in and the whole tenor changes. When it was just Michael and I it was polite but there wasn’t any real excitement. Dave makes it clear right off the bat that he was just blown away by the fact that Steve and I volunteer our time. While Michael was just talking about the idea because he had to, Dave was more interested in discussing the idea. And in the end their opinion didn’t change.

Their essential argument was this: it would cause nearly as many problems as it would create. What I failed to take into account in my initial email was pushy parents. Basically their argument was that if a team was bad in the first year, they would demand to have their child moved in the second year. And if they didn’t like the coach they would demand to be moved in the second year. This being the city that it is, the Park District would basically have to accede to the request, as well. They also said, at first, that it wouldn’t make for “fairer” teams in terms of talent allocation, but I think I won them over on that point.


While most of the meeting was spent on the idea of keeping the players on the same team, we did touch the area of communication. Basically Michael said that he wished he had been made aware of the issue. In retrospect I wish we had done this and conceded that this was a fair point and agreed to do this in the future. The reason we didn’t is the comments we’ve heard about Michael not really caring about the things that go on. However, that’s not really an excuse and was a definite mistake on our part. However, this was not a huge focus of the meeting, which is just as well. What was a big focus was the main thrust of my letter, and Dave’s love fest for me and Steve.

So in the end, the meeting didn’t accomplish what I had hoped. Sure they claim that they would discuss it again in the spring, but I don’t really think that they’ll do anything. But I’m very happy with it anyway. Very happy. First, regardless of how they put together the teams for next year, I have a feeling that Steve and I will not have a crappy team. Frankly, though, that’s the least of it. My biggest problem this season was feeling marginalized. Perhaps, this wasn’t entirely fair as Libby was more dropping the ball universally. But from the start of the season when up until 10 days before the first practice, Steve and I weren’t even sure if we were going to have a team to a coach, to the way Libby ignored us all season, to the fact that we couldn’t get the same weather updates and mailings, was all very frustrating. And I think that this whole affair will ensure that Steve and I won’t be casually pushed aside. Short of some kind of major safety issue, I also can’t see the need to ever contact the board again, which is a good thing.

And so thus ended the little post season excitement (a better word then drama). In my wrap up post I am going to take a sort of look at the season as a whole and judging my own performance. Thanks for the patience you’ve had, both in general, and for reading through this post.

End of Season Awards

When I last left you we had just shook the hands of the Braves at whose hands our season had ended. I am quite upset, and Steve is just stunned, as we get the team to get their stuff and go to a place near the diamond so we can do our end of season stuff.

Steve and I each make speeches. I know I babbled some with the kids, something I don’t do often owing to the fact that I’m a teacher and so have lots of practice at being concise at making my point. The basic theme of my talk was just how proud I was of the team, and proud was a word I think I must have used a bazillion times during the speech. But, despite everything, it was how I felt.

We then handed out awards. This seems like as good of a place as any to do a wrap up of the team. For comparison’s sake I’m going to post what we said in presenting the award, what my final private take was (which sometimes matches up) and what I said at the start of the season by way of comparison (which I’m only looking at AFTER I give my Eval). Steve and I alternated awards. You’ll see that I remember more of what I said then what he said.

Jodi Jackie Robinson Award (Me)
Presentation There is one player on our team who exhibited all of the characteristics of this person. They showed great poise. They played second base and broke down barriers. To Jodi we give the Jackie Robinson Award

My Eval Jodi never made the full transition from softball to baseball. She is a gamer, that’s for sure. But the hitting, despite a good start, never really came through for her. I know Dad put a lot of pressure on her, which is too bad as well. I know she’s having a good travel season from seeing mom at the library, which I’m happy to hear.

She’s clearly talented, but without ever being at a practice it will limit her opportunities on this team.


Brendan The Down and Dirty Award (Steve)
Presentation I said that if a player that if a player isn’t messy at the end of a game they haven’t played baseball. This guy really showed the meaning of that and came a long way this season. To Brendan we give the Down and Dirty Award

My Eval This kid is a great kid and a great guy to have on the team, as he’s a team player. I really do think the progress he’s made this year at catcher will help him tremendously next year. His batting was still clearly in need of improvement though as his pitch selection, more then mechanics, was poor.

Brendan – Will be our #2 catcher behind Jesse and shows promise as a catcher. There is a big drop off in talent we perceive between Everett and Brandan. He does not have very good plate discipline/eye but he can make contact with balls outside the strike zone, which in this league can often turn into errors.

Fuller Scott Rolen Award
Presentation It isn’t every year that you find someone so perfectly suited for a position. We were lucky to have that this year. We knew that when this guy was playing we were in good hands and so to Fuller goes the Scott Rolen Award

My Eval You’ll never have a good team without kids like Fuller. He wasn’t the best player, but he could come through in the clutch in both the field and at bat. Flyballs were definitely not his strong suit, but he could catch and throw nicely and had several good at bats, though he never did make it as a catcher for us.

We’re in the dregs of the lineup here. Continues to want to catch, despite not really having very good skill so he’ll get a couple chances early on, but for Saturday’s game is scheduled to catch the 6th inning so he’ll likely not see action.

Avi Greg Maddox Award

Presentation This guy might not have had overpowering stuff but he could get it over the plate consistently and get outs. To Avi we give the Greg Maddox award

My Eval It will be interesting to see how/if he pitches next year. Statistically, he comes off better then perhaps he deserves because fortunately he normally faced the ends of lineups. By the end of the season he was a definite part of the team (even if he wouldn’t win any popularity awards) which was great to see happen. The kid is a bit of a head case which effects his playing.

This is the biggest question mark. If he had been around, as a Hebrew kid he’s only been to 1 of 3 practices, he could have earned a higher spot. He’s going to be pitching the second inning so he’ll have an early shot to impress us.

Kelvin Ichiro Award

Presentation Just like his namesake he might not hit home runs, but he certainly got on base a lot with some great speed. To Kelvin we give the Ichiro Award

My Eval I still don’t know how he got on base as much as he did. This kid saw perhaps the greatest improvement in his hitting mechanics on our team and they were still terrible. But he ran hard every play. Was a real struggle on where to place in the field as he lacked good skills in throwing, catching, or fielding groundballs or flyballs. I chuckle that he got so much time at firstbase considering he can’t catch the ball, but instead I was deceived because he never really missed a throw either, instead he’d get his glove on it and not really catch it. Gotta love the hustle though.

Poor kid has no hand eye coordination I think as his mechanics have improved a lot already and he still can’t hit anything thrown to him. It’s a shame we didn’t get to bunting.

Jim Love of the Game Award (Steve just in case you forgot)

Presentation Baseball is a fun game and this kid was always enjoyed playing baseball. To Jim we give the Love of the Game Award

My Eval His bat came alive towards the end of the season, which was good to see. He certainly was a gamer, though his emotions could get the better of him. I hope the poor kid grows some as he will likely continue to suffer with what he (and his parents) perceive his skill to be and what the skill actually is, especially in terms of pitching.

Frankly this is a bit of a risk as he’s really not all that great of a hitter. Steve and I feel, however, that he will be patient at the plate. And so he will get on base because even our travel pitcher, Trey, had a hell of a time pitching low enough to him. He’s got pretty good speed for his size and so we feel he’ll do a nice job of setting the table. At worse, he’s simply become thought of as the bottom of lineup instead of the top. I mentioned before that he said he pitched last year. Today he looked much better and of the pitchers we looked at today was BY far the most consistent at getting the ball over the plate. I feel he’ll be a strong role pitcher for us: someone who won’t be one of our go to pitchers, especially with the relaxing of the pitching rules, but someone who will see an inning every 2 or 3 games. Come play-off time having someone who can take innings is huge so, this is great.

Ethan Most Improved Award

Presentation I don’t remember what Steve said but it focused on his improved fielding

My Eval His batting never came alive, despite seeing flashes of great potential. If we would have had another month, he easily could have been an all star, as I am sure his batting would finally have started to click again, just as his fielding did. Heck with more time he could have even been a usable pitcher, who knows. Frankly, more could have been done, but soccer was his priority so considering the situation we had, I feel pretty good about what we accomplished.

Couldn’t hit Trey even when he was lobbing them in. Needs work in a million areas. I can’t decide if keeping his eye on the ball, or “dancing feet” (he’ll literally spin himself around, despite wearing cleats) is the bigger problem. Dancing feet is the more important one though so it’s where we’ll start. Also has huge focus issues in the field. He literally took off his glove during the “game”. This will not be good. Not good at all. I wish we could make him last, but sadly that honor, based on skill, goes to:

Bobby Team Spirit Award

Presentation Steve and I always stress how important the idea of a team is and there was always one guy who could be counted on to be out there encouraging his team mates. A guy who would start a cheer on the bench. Or who would say his now famous words “C’mon, why isn’t anyone talking to the pitcher?” To Bobby we give the Team Spirit Award

My Eval Bobby turned into an above average player for us. I was very pleased at where his pitching ended up, after a lot of hard work. He was a guy we could plug comfortably into any position and he would do a good job. Perhaps our best player mentally as I can’t think of him ever making more then an insignificant lapse in the field, at bat, or on the basepaths. As I said before he told us it was his best season, so I’m happy to have been a part of it.

Bobby – Had an extended chance to pitch today and could not locate the strike zone with a live batter in there, though he did fare better against righties then lefties, so he’ll be getting an inning Saturday. He muffed an infield groundball and an outfield ground ball. Not good.

Everett Mark Burhle Award

PresentationEvery team needs to have a jokester and Everett certainly was ours. To Everett we give the Mark Burhle Award I piped in here and said “And he was a darn good pitcher too

My Eval This kid will be one of the stars of the league next year. He did a lot of innings for us behind the plate as well. After a great start his hitting went into a bit of a slump. His pitching was great stuff even if the numbers didn’t always show it. His decision making in the field could be suspect which is the only weakness in this five tool player.

Continues to be our best hitter. Hopefully Trey and Jim will setup some good situations for him.

Percy Cal Ripken Award

Presentation There was only one player who was there for every minute of every game and every practice. This was a player who did everything we asked of him without complaint. Even when feel sick and injured, he gutted through to play for us in the first game of the playoffs. To Percy we give the Cal Ripken Award.

My Eval We loved Percy. Another gamer. I wish we had known how good of a catcher he was earlier on. This is another kid who should do very well for any team he’s on next year.

I’ve been underwhelmed with this supposed travel kid. He’ll keep getting opportunities for the moment but I feel very good about the decision to put him here in the batting order.

This was the 6th position in the lineup


Jesse Carelton Fisk Award

Presentation Something about how he was a great hitter and a terrific catcher.

My Eval What a kid. A great hitter. One of the best catchers in the league. Not a whole lot to say, but he was one of our favorites this year.

Our #1 catcher. Really gets the leadership aspect. He kept saying to the team to encourage the pitcher today. It was great. He and Trey clearly have clicked already as a battery which is great considering he is the only one I am sure can catch him

Trey Roger Clemens Award

Presentation Statistically this was our best pitcher we’ve had in the two years we’ve done this. This was someone who was averaging 2 strike outs an inning. Here’s someone who I was glad was on our team. To Trey we give the Roger Clemens Award

My Eval I wish he hadn’t gotten into such a batting slump. His father is an interesting character. I’m glad we didn’t play on that Saturday as I now have a very good final memory of him rather then a bitter one. Hopefully one day he won’t put so much pressure on himself, but there’s no doubt that this kid can play.

Trey will be our starting pitcher and our workhorse. He can really fire the ball in. He also has a very nasty rising fastball that he over used today in our game. High strikes simply are not consistently called in the league, so I will be encouraging him to use it as more of a “strikeout pitch” as kids will swing at it. As a batter he’s certainly one of our best, but does not overly impress me.

After the awards ceremony the parents presented Steve and I with a gift card to Lettuce Entertain You restaurants, a group of restaurants that all different but nicer, and a Starbucks card. It was really nice of them. And with that people went on their way. We got several more thank yous, but the season was over.

So I think there are two more posts left to write about, with the next one being some post season drama.

Playoffs vs Braves

Unlike the last update I am writing this with the benefit of the scorebook in front of me, so I have more firm and detailed information, besides my own memory.

Steve and I arrived to the field early. We thought the coaches of the Braves were good guys and so we were happy to be playing them. Our team was all reasonably prompt in arriving, except for Brendan. With the rescheduling, we had received confirmation that everyone was going to be there except for Kelvin, so Steve and I made a lineup that had no Kelvin. With Brendan not arriving, it meant some changes, as Brendan could play Centerfield, something Kelvin isn’t as well suited for considering his lack of throwing power. So that is my curveball. Overall, the team is relaxed, which is good.

We win the coin toss and get ready to go out in the field. We send Trey to the mound first, deciding that we don’t want to mess around. The pitching lineup caused a lot of consternation for Steve and I. This was furthered by the fact that Percy has truly come into his own as a catcher. However, we’ve learned that most fifth graders have problems pitching after they’ve caught so we want to avoid that situation. This sort of means that we want Percy to pitch the third. Then the last choice becomes about how to use Everett and Avi. In the end, we decide to use Avi in the sixth, despite his being a complete nutcase, and Everett in the 4th and 5th.

Trey, after throwing a couple of pitches, reports a problem: he’s throwing uphill. With all of the rain from the previous day and a little overnight, the pitching rubber is so far back that it is a problem. The coaches from the other team, who again are very friendly, the ump, and Steve and I, have a discussion about whether to leave it, as it penalizes both teams equally, or move it forward. Steve and I advocate moving it forward so we decide to dig out the rubber and move it forward two feet, as there is no park district employee anywhere in sight to help us. Trey reports this is a lot better.

Things don’t get off to a good start though, when there is an error on the first play by whoever is playing short (I don’t have the fielding chart due to the Brendan situation) leading to a runner on second. Trey is not overpowering this inning. The next batter goes deep in the count before he hits one pack to Trey who, in a move that made me laugh, looks at the runner at second, who has started running immediately, and then throws it to first anyway. It’s good to see that he’s learned the mechanic of looking at the runner, even if he doesn’t then follow through on it. On the next play it is a legitimate sacrifice fly to someone in right, scoring the first run. The next batter walks, a rarity for Trey and showing how off he is, before the next batter strikes out to end the inning.

We have Jim bunt and while he lays down a fairly good bunt, it’s not good enough and he gets thrown out. Bobby walks to give us a base runner. Jesse continues his recent difficulties as he strikes out. These difficulties have coincided with his having private batting instruction. Everett then singles Bobby over to third, but Trey grounds back to the pitcher to end the inning. 1-0 Braves. And right as the first inning is about to end who shows up but Brendan? This completely throws off my whole chart and it takes nearly 2 full innings for me to replan things. How aggravating.

Trey comes out looking a little better, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s facing the bottom of the lineup, and gets the first guy to ground out to him, followed by a strike out. TG allows yet another walk, truly remarkable considering that including the two in this game he only allowed 7 all season. He does strike out their last batter to retire the side allowing only 1 run on a day where he doesn’t have his best stuff.

Their ace, back for another inning, strikes out the first two batters, Percy and Ethan. Fuller then gets hit by a pitch and steals second during Kelvin’s at bat. Kelvin does one of his weakly hit balls for a hit, advancing Fuller to third. Alas, Avi hits one back to the pitcher to end the inning. Still 1-0 Braves

Up comes Percy to face the top of the lineup. And it looks like things might be rough again when after 8 pitches and a full count the first batter gets a single. The next batter gets out, which is good. However, it’s then walk, walk, to load the bases. However, our newly found outfield ace, Ethan, make the catch on a well hit ball to the outfield. With two outs, perhaps things won’t be so bad after all, I allowed myself to think. But no. Next batter doubles, driving in 2. Percy hunkers down, however, and looks good striking out the next batter.

I don’t have much hope, despite the new pitcher, when Brendan comes up. But he hits a single. Jodi then gets hit by a pitch (atta girl!) and things are looking good. Jim hits a ground ball to the first basemen, which advances the runners. Bobby then walks to load the bases. Perfect! With the heart of the order up, Jesse hits a single and drives in one run. Everett then hits a grounder to first, driving in another, and Trey continues his slump grounding out to the pitcher, yet again. However, we score two making it a 3-2 game.

Everett comes to the mound and first pitch allows a single. The next two batters fly out, however, the runner has stolen third. The second fly out presented some consternation as Ethan was in center and Avi in right. It’s hit to right-center and is clearly Avi’s ball, but Ethan is on the ground “backing him up” but nearly causing a collision. Fortunately, Avi comes up with it and collision is averted. The run does score, however. On the next play it is again hit to Avi, but he can’t come up with it this time and the runner gets to second. Everett manages to strike out the next batter, however, before any more damage is done. Once again our hitting can’t get anything going as Ethan represents our only base runner, with yet another hit by pitch. 4-2 Braves

Things don’t start well in the top of the inning when Everett allows a leadoff double to their #3 hitter. On a 1-2 count, just like the rest of the season, the next batter bloops a ball into short left center. The centerfielder makes a great throw into the plate to get the runner from second for the out. Steve and I both didn’t see who made the play and thought that it was Bobby, playing SS, but no it turned out to actually be Jodi, coming through with a good fielding play just like I knew she could. Everett strikes out the next batter for the second out. The inning ends when Ethan makes yet ANOTHER good catch in the outfield for out number 3.

The next inning features the team’s second best pitcher, who pitched the last inning as well, and he shows why he’s good (even though it was Avi, Brendan, and Jodi) when he strikes out the side.

So we’re heading into the sixth down by two with our mental case coming to the mound. Fortunately, it’s towards the bottom of the order. And he pitches what is by far his best inning of the year, allowing just one hit, but having seemingly ever ball be in the strike zone, with pretty good velocity for him. After the game, he was truly proud of how he pitched, and he should be. So, in the clutch, Avi came through for us.

And now we are down by 2. The favor that their pitcher did by striking out the side, means we have the top of our order up. And there is excitement in the air when Jim hits a well hit ball into right for a single. He then steals second. This is followed by Bobby laying down a great bunt down the first base line. It caught everyone by surprise and ended up being a single. I truly hope he was bunting for a single there, as I was coaching third and had most definitely NOT given him the bunt sign of any sort, as we needed two runs. Anyhow, he easily takes second when they do not contest the base, with Jim at third. This brings Jesse up to the plate. And Jesse strikes out, again. But that’s ok. Everett is up. He hits a routine ball to second base, which scores Jim and advances Bobby, but now means there are two outs with Trey up at bat.

With our season on the line, we have our best batter (theoretically) at the plate. In fact things have been like a movie all game: the kid making some incredible plays in the outfield, the kid having his best pitching performance of the season, and now this. As Trey comes out to the plate, knowing the situation, I call him over. I tell him the following: “No matter what happens now, I am so glad that you were on our team and will be proud of you. So go up there and smile.” He gave a simple nod and steps into the batters box. On the second pitch, he connects with a weakly hit ball towards the first base side, Bobby is running for all his worth, and I watch as he slides into home. I then shift my focus over to the play at first. It’s going to be close as the first basemen has mishandled the ball. He finally gains control of it and runs towards first. The play is very close, but Trey clearly beats the first basement to the bag, but did the first basemen tag him? And the ump makes the call “OUT” and just like that the game is over. Several on our side thought that the game is over because we had won, but I know the truth. The other team celebrates for a moment and then we shake hands. I am near tears at this point myself, considering how much I wanted it for the team, and how well they played. Seeing Trey bawling, actually helps me keep it together, and I put my arm around his shoulder and try and comfort him. And like that, our season is over.

Coming tomorrow: team awards, end of year reflection, and the post season drama.

Playoffs vs Red Sox

Again sorry for the delay. This is the first of several end of season/after season posts. I hope to do the rest tomorrow, though it might not formally conclude until Monday. I am doing this all from memory, so I don’t have tons of specifics, but you should get a pretty good feel for what happened.

Steve and I had announced the day before that Percy would be our pitcher. This was after he had a terrible showing, as we wanted to express our support for him. After thinking it over, we decided that since games go 6 innings in the playoffs that we would go Percy, Avi, Everett, Everett, Trey Trey. The idea being get our weaker pitchers out of the way early and close out strong. When we played the BoSox the previous week, having Trey available at the end of the game was crucial towards producing our tie (and moral victory).

So it’s a Wednesday night and we are expecting the full team. Steve and I arrive to the field early, though not excruciatingly early. The team starts to arrive, but very very slowly. Enough that I start to get worried. I get more worried when somebody tells me Percy had injured his foot at school. However, I know they’re super responsible about calling so they would call.

Fortunately, the game before us runs late as we only have 9 players show up right at game time. Kelvin, after being bitched out a couple of times about not calling us if he was going to be late, does call and say he’s going to be late. Percy shows up and we are told he was doing dry heaves in the car on the way over. So injured and sick. What a combo. I believe, but am not sure, that all our players do end up showing up. Ethan might not have.

Anyway, we give an extended pregame speech. About playing hard. Doing the little things. Relaxing out there and playing as well as we know that they can. I feel good as we go out there. We lose the flip so we’re up to bat first. And their pitcher, the kid who we had coached last year , basically blows right by us. We might have had a hit, but we get nothing going.

So Percy is sent up to the mound. And, well, it’s painful. He has no control just like he hadn’t the night before. He throws walks. He gets hit. He gets hit some more. And he throws some more pitches which are balls. After his third walk I go up there and basically say “I don’t care how you throw it, just throw it over the plate.” No dice. He walks the next batter and we’re forced to auto yank him. In comes Bobby. He starts off poorly, but in the end gets us out of the inning, though after allowing three walks himself. After the third walk I went back to the mound and gave him a similar speech to Percy, and said that I know if he takes something off of it he can get the ball over. So he did, and got us out of the inning. It was bad, because as I was walking away the other coach thought that was 4 walks and we had to switch again. But fortunately that was not the case and so the inning ends and we’re down 5 or 6 to nothing.

Next inning we once again fail to get any offense going. Up comes Avi, and they just rock him. We let up 7 runs and only get out of the inning because of the cap on how many runs a team can score in an inning.

Through-out the game, it should be noted, our defense didn’t help things out. It wasn’t exactly that they were playing poorly, it’s just that that they weren’t playing well. So with the pitchers pitching so poorly, having a mediocre didn’t really help.

Third inning new pitcher, new hope. Except that this guy is clearly their ace. Completely overpowering. In his two innings of pitching we had exactly two players make contact with the ball. Like even for foul balls. It was not good. So we don’t score in either of this innings.

But at least we have some hope when Everett comes in to pitch. At least our bad pitchers are over with. Except that Everett isn’t throwing well. Fortunately they only manage a couple of runs before Everett pulls it together and gets us out of the inning. As mentioned earlier, our second inning against their ace isn’t better then the first. The good thing is that we get to the top of the order for the new pitcher in the 5th. Everett pitches very well in the bottom of the 4th and doesn’t let up any more runs.

The bad thing is that when we enter the 5th is that we need to score runs. The game is currently 13-0. Which means that if we don’t score 6 or 7 runs the game is over as we would be mathematically incapable of catching up in the 6th. We get a little bit of a rally going, but can only scare up 2 runs and so the game is over: 13-2. We were crushed.

Our team spirit was pretty good throughout the game, which was good. But our batting was not. Our pitching was not. Nor was our fielding anything to write home about. There were not really any positives I could take out of the game.

The situation only gets worse. We already knew that Ethan wasn’t going to be there on Saturday. Then I learn that Fuller is not going to be there on Saturday. As we’re leaving the field Trey and his father come up to me. Trey had asked before the game started about when he was pitching. We explained we wanted to save him for the end since it was a six inning game and that he should pitch. I honestly didn’t anticipate being so far behind that we wouldn’t play either the 5th or the 6th. Trey mopes away. Trey’s father then lets me know that Trey has front row tickets to the Cubs/Sox game on Saturday and since we lost that he will likely not be at the game. He says he will call me on Friday to confirm one way or the other, but that we should plan on not having Trey.

And so my despair only deepens. The next day I get a call from Jim’s mother who is very concerned that we won’t have enough players for Saturday’s game. By our count we’re sitting exactly at 9. Anyhow she is very sweet and offers to have some of JS’s friends come if need be. It was very nice. She ended up talking to both Steve and I, and while I forget the details of it, she talked to Steve after she talked to me and Steve completely rocked the conversation. On Friday I get the phone call confirming that there will be no Trey.

Saturday morning I wake up ridiculously early, despite the fact that I had been up pretty late the night before with friends. I am NOT looking forward to this game. We are going to play the Angels, who if you recall beat us pretty soundly earlier in the season. And we’re going to do it without our star pitcher. But the good news is that when I wake up it’s raining oh so lightly. I like rain. As a pick me upper, I make one of the Cinnabuns I had in the freezer and it works some to cheer me up, not to mention letting me have enough calories and fat for the rest of the day. At 7:15 I call the weather hotline and get an update that the games are postponed, but picture day is on. A real decision will be made at 9 o’clock regarding the games.

At 9 o’clock the games are canceled. I am secretly very happy. Steve and I can’t decode the message to figure out if they’re going to reschedule the games and squash them into Sunday or just cancel the playoffs. I head over to his house well before picture time anyway so we can make up team awards. It is his birthday and so I give him his present, a copy of Moneyball. At this point Steve’s mother insists on making him pancakes, just like she used to do when Steve and I had sleepovers. We go and make the awards and then I get to have my second breakfast of the morning. We eat, print out the awards, and head over to the rec center to have our team picture.

At the rec center it’s an absolute mess. There are no Park District employees anywhere. There are teams everywhere. It’s nuts. We have about half the team show up for the photo. We hear that our game has been rescheduled to the next day. This gives Steve mixed emotions. He’s glad we get to play again, but not as glad that it will limit his ability to go to bars that night for his birthday. As we are walking out to the parking lot and talking about the team, Steve tells me that wants to do it again next year. This is a big relief. I honestly thought he had tuned out the team, with us doing so bad, and was sick of the commute down to the suburbs form the city three times a week. Anyhow, it’s a big relief to know that I will be able to do this again next spring with Steve.

Bobby had suggested that we go out to breakfast and so 5 players plus me and Steve head over to breakfast. It was a great breakfast. Avi makes me sad as he proves again how distrustful he is of everyone when he orders the French Toast, I tell him it’s good, and he doesn’t believe that I’ve ever had it before. Steve backs me up and he believes it, but it makes me sort of sad to see him go through life thinking so suspiciously of others. During breakfast, Bobby confides in us that we’re his favorite coaches ever since we’re the first coaches who haven’t just stuck him in the outfield all the time. Knowing what Bobby’s athletic ability was when I was student teaching at his school, I can understand how that was true that his previous coaches had done that, but it was still a great thing to hear.

Steve and I head back to his house and find out that when they rescheduled the games, they redid the brackets. Instead of playing the Angels, we’re playing the Braves We’re very excited about that. We make some phone calls and then head down into the city to hang out at his apartment for a while.

After a depressing week with baseball, knowing that we’re going to have Trey and we’re going to be playing a team that is very beatable, gives me a lot of hope.

Game Report

Yesterday was our last regular season game. Despite the fact that entering the bottom of the 4th, and last, inning we were down by only 3 it was never really a close game. Of course the bottom of the 4th made the score slightly more lopsided. Which is fine, since we wanted it to be more relaxed and for some players to get a chance to do things they hadn’t gotten a chance to do before. Anyhow, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

Percy’s Catching: Evidently he had asked to catch a couple of times. Did Steve or I ever really hear that? Not so much. Quite honestly he is a better catcher then Brendan. I feel upset with myself for not having found this out earlier. It is also things like this which make me want to be able to keep all my 5th graders next year. Percy is now very likely to see some real duty behind the plate in the playoffs.

Ethan’s Flyball Catching: Ethan caught not just one or two but THREE flyballs in the outfield. He did drop the first one hit to him, but after that he was flawless. It was good stuff. I just wished Dad hadn’t been such a complete ass in helping him there.

Bobby’s Pitching: I worked with him before the game and had him throw about 20 pitches. We worked out a couple of kinks in his mechanics and he also toned down his velocity. These things together worked well as in the game he was able to get through an inning. Granted he threw a lot of pitches, in doing it, but as an emergency option in the playoffs he would be just fine.

Avi’s pitching: Pitching 1 and a third innings he did quite well. He was able to settle himself down after a few bad pitches. He saw a lot of batters but the end results were fine.

Extra base hits: Jim, Jesse, and Everett all hit legitimate extra base hits. I thought Everett had a legitimate shot at our first team homer, but he had to settle for a standup triple. Extra base hits have been something which have mostly eluded us and is a big reason we haven’t ever scored more then 3 runs in an inning.

The Bad

Brendan’s catching: He caught Percy and clearly struggled catching a pitcher with more velocity. With Percy emerging as a viable catching candidate I think Brandan will see limited duty behind the plate in the playoffs and be strictly limited to catching Avi and possibly Bobby if we ever use him for a full scheduled inning.

Trey’s hitting: Trey is 2 for his last 11 over the last 4 games.

Avi’s fielding: He looked absolutely lost at 3rd base. He was out of position. He wasn’t concentrating on the game. I talked to him after the game, and as always it is a balancing act with him. He was ready to despair as I talked about things he needed to do better, until I explained that I was telling him since he was going to play 3rd base again and so that tonight was a learning experience. He clearly felt much better then.

The Ugly

Percy’s pitching: Now in fairness the ump wasn’t being so consistent with his strike zone. We also had used him as a catcher before pitching him, a no-no. I wonder at this point how we did catching last year since I know our two primary catchers last year were also two of our primary pitchers and so clearly they had to have done some catching before pitching. Dunno. Anyway we had to pull Percy when he started off by walking three, settled down, and then walked a fourth player 3 or 4 batters later. With the league agreeing to remove pitching limits for the playoffs we called Trey in to finish it up. I told him, with a smile, he had 4 pitches to get the 3rd out. He took 6.

Jim’s pitching: We threw him in the first. He was terrible. He got his chances and so I don’t feel bad.

The 3rd inning: We load the bases with no outs for the top of our order and get exactly 1 run. Very frustrating.


Today

We announced, as a sign of confidence, that Percy would be our starting pitcher. I think we’re ready for the playoffs and am excited to win tonight.

Marlins vs Yankees and Marlins vs. Red Sox

Tuesday
The forecast for the day is gloomy, but Tuesday morning as I sit at my desk at a library things are looking gorgeous outside. Monday night I had sent Steve the email I posted here. Steve agreed with the revised lineup and pitchers. However, after some more thinking I had thought perhaps we should throw our unreliable pitcher, being Bobby or Jim, in the first in the hope we would then still have time to recover if they got shelled. This causes a flurry of emails back and forth between me and Steve. We end up actually doing four lineups, one with Bobby and Jim throwing in the first and one with them throwing in the fourth. It should be noted that with Brendan catching we can actually do a pretty terrific infield. We decide we’ll throw them both a little beforehand and see who looks sharper and that’s the way we’ll go. I keep pushing for Steve to try and get his younger brother to come as he’s the high school pitcher, but that’s a definite unknown.

As I leave school at just after 3 I listen to a voice mail from Steve. Bobby has called him and he was home sick during the day. So at least that solves our dilemma of who to pitch between Bobby and Jim. As I am driving to the youth center the clouds are quite ominous. In fact when I arrive around 3:30 it is thundering and lightening but only rains for a minute. I expect the game to be called. When I call at 3:45 the game is still on. Same thing at 4:00. And 4:30. And 5:30, when I leave it is sunny once again. So it looks like we’ll play some baseball. Unfortunately, it will be a game without Steve. He calls me at about 4 saying he has some stomach bug. It’s definitely going to be weird coaching a game without him. I also worry that there isn’t really a stomach bug and he simply doesn’t want to drive down for a game that could very easily be canceled. As I have said once or twice before Steve doesn’t seem as committed as last season.

And so I head out to the field, after a stop at home to change, extra early hoping to catch an early game. Which I do. Only problem is that I then realize I’m at the WRONG field. So I drive to the correct field. Jesse is already there and Ethan arrives at about the same time I do. As we walk over to the field, the field is clearly unplayable. Where there should be a batter’s box there is instead a HUGE puddle. A phone call has been made to get somebody to bring some dirt over. Just as I arrive, at 7:15 for our game, there is a flash of lightening. Which means we’ll have to wait 30 minutes to play our game, anyway. The players slowly trickle in. I have Jim and Jesse throw behind the dugout a little. Jesse comes over and tells me how great Jim looks. I swear that no pitcher has ever looked poor throwing to Jesse when there is no coach looking if you were to ask Jesse. I take a look at Jim and he looks OK. He looks like he’s going to get the ball TO the plate, though it won’t necessarily be a strike. But even that is an improvement. Our 7:45 game time rolls around and nothing. The Park District guy shows up right at 7:45. Eventually the ump and the other manager, at my suggestion, agree to start the game on the other field and to move back, as the field with the puddle has the lights. We end up starting at about 7:55, so only 10 minutes late. With no Bobby, Kelvin is our first batter. He draws a walk. Jesse strikes out, but Kelvin has stolen second and third. With Kelvin on third Trey is up at bat. And that’s when the Park District guy comes over and says there was lightening. The other coach asks if I really want to wait the 30 minutes, as we are now playing at a field without lights and the other field might, or might not, be ready to play on. I say that I absolutely want to play. So we start to wait. After about 5 minutes of waiting it is decided that conditions simply won’t let us play and so everyone is sent home.

I remind everyone at this time that we don’t have practice on Wednesday, but are going to do a light practice on Saturday before the game. Steve and I both feared that the Tuesday game would get canceled and we’d miss the game on Wednesday when we’d be at our brother’s graduation. Fortunately, by the time the other team’s coach suggests this the players from our team have mostly left and so it’s agreed we won’t make up the game. Unfortunately, after I reminded people about our game on Saturday Trey goes up to his dad and says “Did you realize we had a game on Saturday?” Trey’s dad asks me several times if that game was on the schedule or was a makeup and I tell him it was on the schedule. Trey’s dad tells me that Trey won’t be there. I do apply a bit of a guilt trip as Steve and I had planned on really going all out against the Red Sox, considering they were our first round opponent. As I leave the field I call Steve to tell him that we will be without Trey for our game on Saturday.

Friday I work am at work at the Youth Center and Joey, who has hit several home runs and is on the Red Sox, is in again. And he keeps trash talking our team, continuing off of something he already started on Tuesday. He keeps trying to get me to admit my team is bad. Keeps bragging about how good his team is. Frankly the whole thing gets annoying, but I never waver in saying that I think we have a good team and that it’ll be a good game.

Saturday Before the Game
Steve and I make plans to get together, have breakfast and then to head over to the field. We put together a lineup without Trey. He is the only one we remember won’t be there, however I later remember that Kelvin had told me he wouldn’t be at the game. While doing the lineup we bemoan the lack of Trey.

We then go out and have a nice breakfast, in my case, or lunch, in Steve’s case, at a deli. As we are finishing up our meal and getting ready to head over to the field Steve gets a phone call. He goes “Uh-oh”. He quickly establishes that it’s Trey on the phone. I think to myself “How can anything with Trey be MORE of an uh-oh”. And then Steve says “Well that’s great. How about the practice beforehand?” And that’s when I practically leap out of the booth. A moment later Steve hangs up. We are going to have Trey for both the practice, which we didn’t really care about, and the game. The whole thing with him missing was so mysterious I am dying to know what it was. A court date? A urologist’s exam? What? Steve and I decide that this warrants redoing the lineup.

In the car ride back from the deli we debate how much we want to use Trey. 2 innings? 1? With the playoffs coming up we don’t want to wear out his arm before the “real” games even start. In the end we decide that we will pitch, Everett, Percy, and Trey with the “split” innings approach to try and limit their pitches. We are now expecting all 12 players to be there.

We get to the field nice and early and basically lay in the grass watching one of the games and sunning before our players get there. When our players do arrive we go through a very light practice that consists of Steve hitting them ground balls while I hit them flyballs, using a tennis racket and tennis balls, and then switching. We then pitch them some soft toss, and they all look good. We end with “footbaseball”. During practice Brendan’s family calls and says he won’t be there. Also absent from the practice are Ethan and Kelvin.

Game time approaches and we are at exactly 9 players. Which means I will be figuring out positions as the game begins. I bring the team over beforehand and give them a speech which goes like this. “We are playing the team we play in the first round of the playoffs. And they aren’t giving you any respect. They really think we’re a bad team and that they can just roll right over us. And I know they’re wrong. We had a nice light practice before hand, but it’s game time now and we have to go out and play 100%. So we’re going to go out there and play hard and prove that that we’re the better team by winning today.” The team checks to make sure I was being serious about them trash talking us, and not just making it up, and I assure them that I am being serious. Both of the kids I know on the team, Joey and Garett, have both said something or made faces so while it was a slight exaggeration to say the team was doing it, it was certainly not an outright lie. The team is pretty motivated as we get ready for our first at bats.

The Game
So the game gets underway. With Trey being there after all he is our leadoff batter. And our star player starts things off by flying out to center-right. The play was a routine play and it was fielded routinely which will be something typical throughout the game. Fuller then hits a rocket, unfortunately it is right at their nearly 6 foot tall second basemen, Joey, who makes a leaping catch. It was a very well hit ball, but perhaps an even better defensive play. Jim walks, but Avi grounds out to the pitcher to end the inning. 0-0

Everett takes the mound against a favorite player of ours from last year, Garrett. We tell Jesse, who is behind the plate, to give a high strike zone and sure enough on the second pitch, after a first pitch strike, Garrett bites and grounds it back to the mound. Next batter rockets it on the ground to shortstop, but Bobby fields it like a pro and we get the next out. Everett then hits the next batter. The following batter gets a single. Up comes Joey, their star slugger. We tell Jesse to setup inside and on the first pitch Joey hits a pitch that would have been a ball right at Jodi in left. She gets her glove on it, but the ball is hit so hard that it pops right out, which wasn’t really her fault. She gets the ball back in quickly, but unfortunately they score a run. Everett then gets the next batter to ground back out to him and so we end the first down 1-0.

Percy leads off our next inning with a walk. Everett follows this up with a single which gets Percy to third. First pitch Everett steals second base so now we have runners at second and third. Jodi draws a walk. Bobby singles into right field only because they had their right fielder playing ridiculously shallow. If he had been playing at a normal depth it’s likely an easy out as the ball went over his head and died. Anyhow Bobby drives in Percy. Jesse strikes out. Trey then hits a single driving in Everett. Fuller steps up and hits a ball to the first baseman who throws it home to get Jodi out at the plate. What is of note is that they are already contesting the run by bringing the infield in, something I think is a strategic mistake in this league, though we never do take advantage of the fact during the game. With two outs Jim is up. He hits a ball to the second baseman which he loses track of. Bobby scores easily. By the time Trey gets to me, and he is sprinting I will add, the second baseman still doesn’t have the ball. With 2 outs and Avi about to be up I decide to send Trey. I figure three things can go right for us: 1. He beats the throw 2. He wouldn’t have beaten the throw but it will go wild or 3. He doesn’t beat the throw but they can’t get the tag on him. Well just after I send Trey the second basemen finally locates the ball and gets it and throws it home, on a perfect throw. The catcher has plenty of time to get setup. TG slides in, pretty clearly under the throw, but is called out anyway. He thought he was safe. I thought he was safe. The parents sitting in the stands thought he was safe. Oh well. Good guys go up 3-1.

Everett is on the mound for another inning. The first two batters pop out, first to Jodi at second and then to Trey at short. Next batter lines a double. He steals third, but we get Garrett to ground out, again, to our pitcher to end the inning. This is the first time where Everett’s good pitching was rewarded in that he allowed only 1 run in two very solid innings of pitching, with only 25 total pitches thrown. Anyhow still 3-1 Marlins. Avi starts of the inning by hitting it hard at the first basemen who makes an error. Unfortunately, Avi did not hurry out of the box and so the right fielder throws him out by a step. If he hadn’t thought he was out when he hit the ball he’d have been safe. This is reinforced when Percy hits almost the exact same ball and is safe by a couple of steps. Percy steals second and third. However, he’s stranded there when Everett hits one back to the pitcher and they look him back. Jodi comes up with two outs and draws a walk. I send her on the second pitch. But it’s all for naught as Bovvy strikes out.
Percy is our new pitcher and does not start off so well, walking the first player. Everett is now catching for us and they decide to run on him with that player stealing second on the first batter, who strikes out. The next batter also strikes out however the runner steals third after Everett makes a bad throw. Normally our left fielder would have been right there to backup, but as the batter was a lefty he was shifted way over. So anyhow they score a run without having hit the ball. The second batter strikes out. Which is just as well that the bases are empty because up steps JR, their slugger. We are playing at the only field with a fence and we have our outfield practically playing on the fence, which proves to be the correct play when he hits a ball that nearly goes over but instead is a very long single. Now this guy is not a fast guy but they STILL managed to have him steal second and third before Percy strikes out the next batter. 3-2 Marlins after 3.

Now it should be said that this game is moving. We are about half way through the game and we are half way through the time limit. This means our plan to only play for 5 innings isn’t going to fly. Our pitching schedule has Trey throwing next inning and Avi closing out the game with the last two. Alternatively, we could have Percy throw 2 and have Avi and Trey each throw one. We decide to see how long this next half inning takes before making a decision. Jesse leads off with a walk. Trey hits a ball to second base which gets Jesse out on a fielders choice. Trey manages to steal second and third. Fuller pops up to second base. I give Trey the green light to try and steal home, as I have more faith in Jim leading off an inning then driving in a run. And sure enough Jim hits the ball to second base. Something has happened to Jesse which diverts Steve’s attention and so I have to make a split second decision on what to do and decide to put Avi up there as we’re still doing well on time. Unfortunately, I don’t have positions for this which proves to be a problem as I have Everett catch again, not really thinking about how Trey should have caught this inning as Trey clearly cannot catch for himself and we didn’t really want to catch Everett for three innings. I realize my mistake too late to change it.

Anyhow Avi takes the mound. Avi starts off with 4 balls, though the batter swings at one in the dirt so it’s 3 and 1. We tell him to take a moment and concentrate, which makes a big difference for him. He takes his time and induces a grounder back to the pitcher for the first out. He then asks if it was a good pitch, which Steve and I assure him it was. Next play is a ball to Trey who is at third base. Trey who when I told him he was playing third rolled his eyes. Anyway TG comes up with it and fires it over to first to Jesse who completely misplays it. So now we have a runner on. Who then proceeds to steal second. He advances to third when the next batter hits a single. We give up the steal and now have runners at second and third. I tell Trey to hold the runner at third on and sure enough we catch him walking back to the bag. Everett makes the throw and we have a run down. A rundown which we execute perfectly, though the runner from second does advance to third. Two outs. Garrett comes up and knocks in a single to score the run. He then proceeds to steal second and third, on consecutive pitches though the call at third could have gone either way. Next batter hits a single to score Garrett. Avi then strikes out the batter to end the inning. 4-3 BoSox.

Avi starts us off with a single. He steals second. Percy then walks. Everett then hits a ground rule double, under the fence, which is a shame as Percy would have scored easily. Jodi strikes out. Bobby then pops it up and the first basemen makes the play though Percy is able to score on a tag up and Everett advances to third. Jesse then knocks Everett home. Jesse is able to steal second before Trey strikes out. We do get three runs though putting us up 6-4.

Trey comes up to pitch. As he’s doing so, JM is very upset about something which Steve is handling. I later learn that Joey made a threatening comment to him. This appears to be in retaliation for a play made where Jesse missed a throw by Everett and so Joey ended up getting hit in the head. We are not sure, as the inning starts, if it is Joey or a different tall kid who made the comment. Trey does not start off well walking the first batter on four pitches. They are able to once again take advantage of Everett getting the runner to third. Joey steps up to bat. On the second or third pitch, Trey makes a bad pitch which bounces in the ground in front of Joey. Joey then takes a step out towards the mound and makes a threatening comment to Trey. The umpire warns him at that moment. Frankly, I think Joey believed all his trash talk and thought we were a bad team that they could roll over and has been surprised that we have held him to singles, not homers, and that in fact his team is losing. The next pitch is a play back to the pitcher. Trey looks at the runner, and the runner is clearly going home. So what does Trey do? Throws to first for the easy out, conceding the run. Given the situation I am OK with it, but I hope Trey realized that the point of looking at the runner is to make sure he doesn’t score, either by throwing it home or keeping him on third. Anyway we record the first out. ON the next play Trey does indeed hit the batter, who promptly steals second. After going down 3-0 on the next batter TG fights his way back and records the strikeout. The inning ends on a grounder to short. They score 1 and it’s now 6-5.

I point out to the team that if we score 7 runs, the max, then we don’t have to play the field as we win. Unfortunately, Fuller starts it off by striking out. This means 3 of our 4 kids with lowest strike out percentages, Jesse, Trey, & Fuller (with the absent Kelvin being the fourth) have struck out. Jim then gets on first after hustling out a play where it once again bloops over the right fielders head. On the second pitch he takes off and steals second. Avi then hits it back to the pitcher advancing Jim. Unfortunately, Percy strikes out to end the inning and our insurance run stranded at third.

The bottom of the inning starts with a single. Bobby almost makes an incredible play, catching the ball on a hard hit line drive, but instead it just gets knocked down and unfortunately the other kid wins the foot race to the bag. Before there can be any steals Garrett hits a ball right at Everett, who is at short. Everett should have plenty of time to pick up the ball and so I yell for him to get the out at second, as I would like to get the lead runner out. Unfortunately, Everett just can’t pick up the ball and both batters are safe. They steal third base, with Jesse throwing in plenty of time to get the runner, unfortunately the throw is just enough off the bag that we can’t get the tag in time. At this point Steve and I pull the infield in. And here’s where Trey proves why he’s a great pitcher. On 7 pitches he strikes out the next two batters. This then brings Joey up to bat. With two outs we now just need to get the out and so we set the infield and outfield deep. Trey seems to have Joey’s number as he hits a not particularly hard grounder to Everett, who muffs the ball again. This scores the tying run. At the time I was just furious with him. However, in retrospect I am not nearly as upset. The kid had pitched for two innings and caught for three. He’s going to be dead tired. If I hadn’t been creating lineups on the fly we almost for sure do not put him at short there. Of course, if I hadn’t been creating lineups on the fly he’d have only caught for two innings. Anyway, Everett has not made one clutch play for us, either at bat or in the field, especially in the field, which is frustrating. We try and do a trick play to get the runner on third to go with a throw to the shortstop when Joey attempts to steal second, but it’s no dice. But we needn’t have worried as Trey takes three pitches to end the game with another strikeout. And we end up with a very hard fought tie.

Looking Forward

Steve and I are VERY upbeat after the game. The team is clearly exhausted but we tell them that we played excellent baseball. Were it not for either of Everett’s errors, or for the bum call in the second on the play at the plate, we win this game.

Looking at the scorebook I worry, however, that the game on Wednesday is not going to go nearly as well. If I had to pick three kids to miss the combination of Brendan, Ethan, and Kelvin would be pretty high up there as Brendan and Ethan aren’t great hitters and Kelvin is not a very good fielder. Furthermore, not having to sit any kids was a major plus for us. I also think they were missing none of their bad kids and a couple of their good kids based on where good hitters were in their lineup in relation to others. So we’ll see. This tie, all things considered, was as good as a win for us psychologically. Once again the other team was mopey and we were upbeat at the end of the game, so that part is good.

I think the parents would be hard pressed at this point to criticize us, as we have the team peaking at the right point in the season, just like we said we would. The game was a very well played game of baseball. The good news is that they made about 1 stupid play and we made 3. So even that augers well in our favor as I am not convinced that they are fundamentally a better team then we are. We also have the advantage of knowing they are going to run hard against us, so it’ll be something we focus on Tuesday.

Speaking of Tuesday, we want to save Trey, Everett, and to a lesser extent, Percy’s arm. Jim and Bobby have both been told they’re pitching. Basically we’re going to talk about having fun with our last game. The less pitching we have our pitchers do here the more we can save them for the playoffs. Hopefully the other team will have the same philosophy.

Marlins vs Cardinals

So Steve was very late in getting me the scorebook and so I am even later in my update.

Pre-Game
So we haven’t had a game since May 10, and it’s now May 23rd, meaning it’s been almost two weeks. When we last left you we had notched our first victory of the year in a lightening shortened game. We had a practice on the 16th but we haven’t seen some kids since the 10th, or before, so Steve and I are very nervous about people showing up.

We anticipate no Fuller, due to Hebrew school, but otherwise think we’ll have a full squad. Of course I know there’s the possibility that Fuller will be there because Hebrew School might be over. So what we do is put together a full lineup for 11 players, without Fuller, and do a lineup with just pitchers, catchers, and subs for all 12 players. We also have several blank sheets so we’re ready for any eventuality.

This is a game against the Cardinals, a team considered to be in the bottom three teams in the league with us. Steve and I want to use the rainouts to get a little momentum going and so we decide to throw Trey for the first two, Avi for the third, have Avi and Percy split the fourth, with Percy pitching in the 5th and Everett closing it out. We also decide it’s time to give Brendan some time behind the plate so he will catch Avi, our slowest throwing pitcher, in the third.

We have a harried dinner and get to the field about 55 minutes before the first pitch. And who should be there awaiting us but Trey. Seems his brother had soccer practice at the same park so his mom just dropped them both off at the same time. This ruins our ability to do the “pick who gets there first” contest. Which is a shame because I am TOTALLY kicking Steve’s ass. There’s only one time I’ve had a bad pick and in that case Steve’s was even worse. Steve has only won one time we’ve done this and it’s a shame we didn’t put any kind of wager down on it. Anyhow we throw and talk with Trey for a bit. It’s time well spent.

Jim is one of the first players to show up. Later on I hear him make a disparaging comment about the team. I pull him away from the other player he was near and talk about how if you expect bad things to happen it’s more likely to happen. He tells me about his bad day. So I say, “Let’s put that behind us. What’s something good that’s going to happen on the field today?” I expect him to say something like “We’re going to win” but instead he says “I’m going to leadoff with a bunt and they’re going to make an error so I’m going to be at second base”. This catches me off guard but I say, “OK then I want to see you go up there and do it.”

By the time their coach arrives we have 6 players and we have 9 players before they have 4. He asks if he can use one of our players as an outfielder, and I of course agree. Turns out he also called up the younger sibling of one of his players. And this kid is SHORT. I mean even Jim is taller then this kid.

The complete lack of arrival of his team lets us sneak onto the field so I grab Bobby and we do some pitching from the mound. And he looks just HORRENDOUS. Can’t get ANYTHING over. The umpire is there and we BOTH try giving him some tips. And progress is made. Instead of throwing the ball extremely high or extremely low and off the plate he just throws it extremely high over the plate. Frankly, I’m at my wits end as to what I can do to help him. I’m hoping Steve’s brother, Scott, will be able to make it either tomorrow or Saturday to work with Bobby and perhaps catch something I’m missing.

So as I am working with Bobby I see that the whole team has shown up. It’s amazing. Terrific. And all that. And so I grab the right lineup master and go to work. I am SO glad we had this possibility covered as the lineups pretty much fill themselves in. Also helpful? Having Brendan catching. Hopefully it’ll work out, I think.

The Game
We’re the home team. Trey goes up, strikes out the first player, walks the second player, who gets to third on steals eventually, but then strikes out players 3 and 4 and we’re out of the first inning.

Jim attempts to do the bunt he told me about. He does so and lays down the most perfect bunt. Right down the line. The pitcher is absolutely caught off guard and there isn’t even a play at the base. So far, so good. Trey falls into his typical trap and gets too excited against a bad pitcher and hits ends up hitting a ball back to the pitcher, advancing the runner. Everett then pops up to the shortstop who makes the play look routine. Brendan, not surprisingly, strikes out to retire the side. 0-0

Trey strikes out the first batter. The second batter gets hit by a pitch. Trey walks the next batter. This is followed up by Jesse bare handing a wild pitch and nailing a guy attempting to steal third by about 40 miles, with Fuller once again making the play perfectly. It was a well executed fielding play, especially by Jesse. And it’s a good thing as that batter rips a double scoring a run. Trey then strikes out a player to end the inning. 1-0 Cards.

And in the bottom of the inning, we jump all over the bad pitcher. Percy hits a singe and steals second. Jesse walks. Percy steals third and is driven home by Bobby on a single. Fuller walks. Avi hits a single scoring Jesse. I tell Bobby that he is to try and steal home, if at all possible. He does an excellent job of trying to draw a throw from the catcher, as the third basemen is completely not holding him, but despite a valiant effort, scores only when Kelvin walks, after Ethan strikes out (including having fouled off a ball extremely hard which just barely goes foul). After Kelvin walks they pull the pitcher. I tell Fuller that if he gets a chance to score he should take it. On the second pitch the new pitcher fails to cover home plate for the second time and Fuller takes advantage of it. Unfortunately we can’t get anything else going as this new pitcher is a great pitcher and easily strikes out Jodi and Jim. All together it’s a great 4 run inning. 4-1 Marlins.

Avi starts off promisingly enough by striking out a very good hitter, which I’m not quite sure how he did, as he was not throwing strikes and got the hitter to swing on a strike three that was in the dirt. Avi continues to look poor and after a 6 pitch at bat, gets doubled off of. I don’t quite remember how the inning went down, but Avi just looks horrible. He’s not getting anything across the plate and when he does they’re ripping it. Steve and I debate pulling him but decide it would be more damaging to his psyche to do that then to let him get hammered so we leave him up there. This is the inning where Ethan is playing second base and not doing it the way his father likes. At one point he fails to go out for a relay throw, which would have been terrible had Percy not been aware and gone over from Center to do it. In the end we get lucky as Percy makes a great play in short center and then runs in to step on second for a double play to limit the damage to three runs, when Avi would have had no chance of otherwise escaping the inning without at least 1 or 2 more runs scoring. 4-4

Trey leads off the inning with a single and steals second but a good pitcher strikes out Everett, Brendan and Percy and makes it look easy.

As we enter the top of the 4th it’s clear this will be our last inning. Percy is pitching. First batter hits a hard hit ball to Avi who cleanly fields it to get the out. Next batter hits it right back to Percy who records the out easily. The top of their lineup comes and the guy who hit the double now hits a single. Percy walks the next guy. And the guy after that, to load the bases. The good news is that through all of this terrible pitching Brendan is looking not just OK, but good. It’s clear this kid has been practicing his butt off since the progress he’s made is substantial. Brendan clearly is ready for some more innings, which does the great service of allowing us the opportunity to field Everett, Trey, or Jesse more in the field. The next batter, their callup, hits a ball to Everetty. With the bases loaded, and Everett near second base he can either step on the bag or flip it to Kelvin who comes over. Everett does neither of these and then instead throws it wild to first. Trey makes a great play to keep the ball from being an overthrow but instead of being out of the inning a run scores. Percy refocuses and strikes out the next batter on 4 pitches. 5-4 going into the last inning.

They have the same pitcher as before. I am worried as this guy basically struck out our side and made it look easy. Their coach tells me that he’s never thrown him two innings before. It gives me a little hope, but not much. Jesse starts off with a hit and steals second. Bobby then walks. Fuller hits a play to short that is misfielded putting Jesse at third. Avi strikes out. Ethan, in another solid at bat, walks. This brings Kelvin up. Basically I decide that I trust Bobby to steal home more then I trust KS to get him home, which I realize isn’t what the stats, considering Kelvin’s .533 OBP, would tell me what to do, but there you have it. This looks prescient when Kelvin hits a dribbler to the first basemen. He cleanly picks it up, and despite the loud protestations of his coaches, jogs over to first base for the easy force out allowing BS1 to score on the fielder’s choice. MARLINS WIN!

Post Game and Looking Forward

As we run to lineup to shake their hands, jubilant at our come from behind victory, the other team is absolutely defeated. Just totally down on themselves. Despite the fact that it is 9 o’clock at night Bobby managed to talk to me about going for ice cream if we won. Steve is actually going out with a friend after the game so he can’t make it, and in the end only about half the team shows up, but everyone who does has a good time.

You already know about Wednesday and the Ethan incident. Steve moved into a new apartment over the weekend and tomorrow the cable guy comes so he won’t be in town until shortly before the game starts. We talked a little bit today and following that I sent him the following email:

Ok some straight stats, which change a fair amount each game because we’ve had so few games. So if some guy, for instance Percy, goes 2-2 tomorrow he’ll go from .333 to .400 in BA. Anyway, here it is from top to bottom in BA:

Jesse .500
Kelvin .455
Trey .429
Bobby .412
Fuller .400
Everett .350
Percy .333
Ethan .300
Jim .286
Avi .273
Brendan .154
Jodi .100

And for OBP it is:
Jesse .583
Trey .579
Kelvin .571
Bobby .565
Avi .556
Fuller .550
Jim .524
Ethan .500
Percy .478
Brendan .421
Everett .409
Jodi .182

So using those as a starting point, and putting JM in the #3 spot and building around him, we get the following:

Bobby
Kelvin
Jesse
Trey
Avi
Fuller
Jim
Ethan
Percy
Everett
Brendan
Jodi

Which I think is a very interesting lineup, frankly and would be my recommendation for what we do for tomorrow. As I said stats are likely to change considerably in our last 3 games, but I think that’s an interesting grouping to go off of. Percy and Everett are pretty good hitters, I continue to feel, but their objective numbers have been poor so they don’t merit a high placing, but putting the two of them next to each other could produce good results. If you have a different idea, by all means I would love to hear it.

As for pitchers and catchers I’m thinking along the following:

Percy pitching to Brendan
Percy/Everett pitching to Jesse
Everett pitching to Jesse
Bobby or Jim pitching to Brendan
Trey pitching to Jesse
Trey pitching to Everett

We need two more pitchers for the playoffs besides Everett, Percy, Avi, and Trey. There is simply no getting around that. Do I want to beat the Yankees? Hell yeah but we need another pitcher, with two being ideal. So with that in mind perhaps we take our medicine in the first? I feel like we need to get Everett at least one inning, Percy needs continued chances which doesn’t leave a whole lot for Trey. I mean if you want we could really go broke and pitch Bobby AND Jim, but that almost seems like throwing our hands up in defeat, so I don’t know. Frankly, neither pitcher is “ready” in the sense that neither of them can locate the plate with any consistency. Perhaps have them both warm up and who ever looks better gets the nod? Dunno.

So let me know your thoughts on the batting order and pitchers.

And that’s where we’re at going into tomorrow’s game against the Yankees.

Unexpected update

An unexpected update from my work last night at the library. Every year one of the schools holds a writers workshop where they invite local bigwigs, local writers, etc into the school to discuss a piece of writing of the student's choice for each 4th and 5th grader. The school invites one of our librarians in to conduct a group and she often has me read the pieces she's assigned, between 5 and 8 depending on the year. Well anyhow, this year one of the people she was assigned was Jim, who, not incidentially, was described as "the most egocentric kid I have ever taught" by his classroom teacher in a note attached to his writing.

Anyway he wrote a pretty nice piece of survival/baseball fiction which was clearly wish fulfillment. Already in the story we meet Michael, a tall 10 year old, who has had to rescue his parents after they are hurt in a tornado. Upon taking him to the hospital he learns they must have $100,000 in surgery, but never fear, the reason they were in the car was to drive to a baseball tournament with a $100,000 prize. Below is the writeup of the baseball scenes

The day of the games begins. Michael is very nervous; he has to win for his parents. In the first inning when he came up to bat, he let the first pitch go by to see how fast the pitcher was throwing. Michael hit a double off of the second pitch. There were two outs and Michael was on third. Ben came up to bat and hit a single to right field, which drove in Michael to home. The next half inning, Michael pitched a 1,2,3 inning. In the fourth inning, Michael came up to bat and hit a homerun. The game was now 3-1 in favor of the Helena Turtles. The Turtles went on to win the game, 5-4. Michael hit a triple, a double and a homerun. In the second game of that day, they played the New York Jets. The Turtles won, 6-2. Two games, two to win. Micahel really wanted to win the tournament to save his parents. The TUrtles won 11-5 in the Saturday game. SUnday came and it was the championship game. The Turles were playing the Seattle Blue jays.

In the first inning, Micahel hit let off and hit a single. He evntually scored that run. He pitched two innings of 1,2,3. In the bottom of the 6th, Michael was up to bat with two outs. They were losing by three runs. The first pitch was a ball. The second pitch Micahel fouled off. The third and fourth pitches were balls. The fifth pitch was a strike. Then it was the sixth pitch. The pitcher went into the windup, and threw the ball. Michael swung. In that moment, all Michael was think about was saving his parents. The ball made contact with the bat and Michael closed his eyes. Smack!!!! Michael had just hit the championship winning grand slam!! The crowd was going wild as Michael ran home. The turtles had just won $100,000 and the coach and the team decided to give all of the money to Michael so he could pay for the operations his parents needed

A little after I read this piece, Ethan comes on in. He tells me that he and his dad were out practicing squaring up to the ball and long throws. We joke for a minute or two and then he goes off to use the internet. Maybe 10-15 minutes later dad comes strolling in. He calls Ethan over and I mention how I heard they were practicing.

At this point Dad just goes OFF on Ethan. "I told him after Tuesday night that if I ever saw him play like that again I would just quietly pull him from the game. He was so unfocused. Throwing dirt around and not paying attention." Later on in the rant "His fielding was just terrible. I'll tell you one thing Coaches don't do in this league. I'll tell you that Coaches don't teach the kids to square up to the ball." Talked about how Ethan was just "lazy". How "coaches don't teach the kids that baseball is a running game" and they need to run. Later on he said again that if Ethan was not going to "contribute" to the team he would just quietly pull him from the game. When he took a breath, after ranting for a good couple of minutes (and it always seems longer when you're listening) I finally was able to get a word in edgewise. Considering my two choices of who to defend, myself or Ethan, I decided to go with Ethan and said "Steve and I both feel Ethan is a contributor to the team". This seemed to take some of the wind out of his sails, but he did go on for maybe 30 seconds more. The whole time his father is doing this rant, Ethan is just standing there uncomfortable with this painful smiling grimace on his face.

After Ethan and his father leave, with Ethan saying, in a very upbeat manner "I'll see you Tuesday" the librarian I was working with just went off on his dad. She talked about how he's missing the whole point of playing. How the kid is 12 years old so of course his mind is going to wonder. How it's supposed to be about fun and the kid is never going to be a major league player so he should just lighten up.

As for me? Well it made me mad. After the incident with Jim's dad I was upset, but not really at him, but at Libby. This made me mad. The way he went off on his son, right in front of him and another adult is completely unacceptable. Threatening to pull him from the game is completely unacceptable. Implying that Steve and I are not teaching these kids who to square around to a ball? Completely unacceptable. But the worse part of it was is that Steve and I PREACH the need to run to the ball. To get there quickly so you have time to setup. And if this asshole would attend more then an inning or two of our games he'd hear that. Even typing this now my blood is rising, I am still upset about the whole thing. I haven't talked to Steve about this yet, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to convey how completely unacceptable what his father was saying was with Ethan standing right there.

The funny thing about all of this? Ethan was throwing dirt, but he was more aware of the game then he normally was. Steve and I both commented on it. I think that perhaps we'll put together a "curriculum" of what we've done with these kids. I've written cirriculums before so I can make them fancy and impressive and so perhaps that's the way to go. I'm not sure really what I think the next step is here, beyond saying something, though what I don't know, to Ethan on Tuesday.