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.

Practice Report

We’re about half way through the season. I have compiled some very interesting things statistically. Since we’re about half way through the season I want to do a player by player rundown combing these stats with my own evaluations. However, it is late, I am tired, and since I won’t have time to post really before tomorrow I wanted to recap today while it’s fresh.

The weather forecast was terrible. Steve called me 3 times during the day to find out if I had heard if they were going to cancel practice. It was clear he wanted them to cancel. I worry with all this losing that he’s tuning out. Anyhow, it doesn’t start raining until he gets off the train where I pick him up (which is typical for us). I drive him to his house as we are taking separate cars (which again is not something we normally do) as I have a job interview of sorts after the practice (I mention this as it’ll be important for something later on). So I arrive at the field about 30 minutes before the practice and it’s unpleasant and raining. Due to my not wanting hat hair at the interview I have no hat on so we hang in the car for a few minutes and then get out. Brendan is the first to show, with Ethan there right after. It is raining somewhat hard when Bobby arrives and Jesse calls me to find out about practice. Steve and I confer and decide he shouldn’t bother as we’ll likely practice for about 15 minutes, especially as the other team isn’t present. Of course at that point it clears up, almost at the exact time practice is to begin. I do some work with Ethan on his pitching and Steve works with Brendan on his catching. When it becomes clear that we’re not going home imminently we get the team out there for batting practice.

The other team we are to share the field with, arrives nearly all at once on time, it’s kind of scary. The other asks what time we’re practicing until. I tell him the time and we agree on a time to switch the field. We get our team up there for the “modified” batting practice where they can earn bonus swings based on how well they bunt. Ethan comes out as the only person to bunt through both times, but overall our bunting has improved. Especially Everett. He later tells me he’s been practicing with his brothers. This warmed my heart. It to me is an example of having standards, as he had indicated that he wasn’t so good at bunting and didn’t want to do it, and I told him “well tough luck we’re going to be bunting” so he decides that maybe he should work on it. Especially as a travel team player having one more tool in his arsenal is not something that will hurt him, and will be something which will definitely benefit the team.

We then do our “2-1” drill where each batter starts the count at 2-1. Bobby is our pitcher for this and Brendan the catcher. Bobby does not look very good. Brendan also does not look particularly great. In particular, he is still not getting almost any ball in the dirt and his throws back to the pitcher are wild half the time. The former I can excuse, the latter I find maddeningly frustrating. As the plan is to use Trey and Everett for 2 innings each tomorrow we really sort of need Brendan to be available to catch, but I’m not sure he’s there yet. We’ll see what Steve says when we do lineups tomorrow. So as Trey, our last batter is at the plate, the other team starts to come in literally swarming over our team. I look at my watch and see that it’s 3 minutes before our agreed switching time. I sort of pleadingly ask for one more batter before I think “why ask?” and say “We still have time. We’re going to finish this batter before we switch.” This guy was clearly a bit of an asshole, as will become clearer later, and so I was glad I had been firm here.

Anyhow so we go into the deep outfield, out of the other team’s way which is more then they did for us. We then work on sliding. The kids just ate this up and had a blast. Brendan has been a terrible slider, but improved a lot in this practice. Kelvin is clearly afraid of sliding as he slows way down before sliding. I did get him to run faster though before the slowdown so even that was good.

Next we worked on a rundown drill. They looked terrible. But they still had a fun time, though they looked pretty bad. We’ll definitely have to return to this as it’s an important skill and a good way to get an “easy” out.

We the ended practice with running bases. Steve and I were the throwers. The kids all had a blast. Lots of fun. Kelvin won. What’s interesting is that he has the worse base running skills of any of our kids. Getting doubled up in our last game and also doing fairly poor as a runner in the rundown drill. So it seems like he needs some instruction here rather then lacking natural instinct. What I found amusing is that Steve really wasn’t so good at executing rundowns. He became far too determined at outrunning the kids, which he can do as he’s 24 and they’re 12, and so this was amusing in light of the poor way they did rundowns.

Overall it was another really good practice. And we had a few more kids this time, which was good. Jim was once again an unannounced no show which concerns me as next to Bobby he’s the person I want to work with the most on pitching. The kids left the practice feeling upbeat. I feel that their work on sliding went very well. They all got some good chances to hit the ball in batting practice and the 2-1 game and they had fun with running bases and the rundown drill, even if they weren’t very good at it.

So once again it become incumbent upon us to get the energy going before the game. If they didn’t tire themselves out so much with running bases I would even play that for 5 minutes before a game. Perhaps a game, instead of a talk, is our pregame key. I mean our talks are short, 3 minutes or less, but perhaps we do a 60 second one. Dunno. We’d have to think of a good game as well, perhaps “footbaseball” as there’s SOME running there. This idea just came to me as I am writing this out so it’s very unfinished.

Anyhow practice ends. I go inside the building there to change into a suit for the interview. When I come back out, 15 minutes, after our practice ended the other team is JUST on their last person. In other words their coach not only wanted to kick us off the field early, but was not really splitting the time equally as they were staying later then we were in any case. I do not think well of this, though am somewhat muted in light of what comes later.

So off I go to job interview and I realize that I’ve left my suit jacket back at the building. After the interview (which I totally kicked ass at, but will not accept the job if offered to me unless the salary blows my mind) I return. There is a game going on the field we had used. I see that a kid I have a pretty good relationship with from the library/youth center is about to pitch so I go over to watch. I then can’t help but overhear the kid’s manager really complaining about how stacked the teams were and how he got the short end of the stick. This guy’s team has not done too well from what I’ve heard, so I can understand his frustration. While he’s bitching, I insert myself into the conversation, to ask questions of process. And from what I heard, overall I can’t complain too much about it. If desired I can explain all that I learned, but basically it sounds like the assigning into teams was done in a good matter. The best part was when the Park District guy said “And then we had 5 parents come and review the teams. In fact weren’t you one of those people?” That was classic.

Anyhow that guy goes and coaches so I’m left with the park district guy, Kevin. We talk some more. Turns out that he had suggested the idea, done in a nearby community, that a team would stay together for 2 years. So the 5th graders we had this year would all be together again as 6th graders next year if they returned to the league. I thought this was a great idea, considering that I think the work we’ve done this year would really pay dividends. Turns out this idea was rejected by the Park District Board, for whatever reason. When the season ends I will be using my political contacts to try and champion this idea, which I will pretend was my own for his sake, as it would be really good for the kids. The positives are overwhelming. What I also find interesting is that he says he’s seen every team play twice now and that there are 2 teams head and shoulders above the rest of the league and 2 heads and shoulders below it. We’re 1 of the two that has a talent deficit and that this guy has no real right to complain as he’s got several players who can really play. And from the two innings I saw? He’s right.

Overall today I am in a much better place then I was Saturday. The team we play tomorrow is supposedly the other team that is one of the bottom two. That gives me hope. In general I have taken the time to zen and that has helped. I also came up with what I think will be a great plan on how to use our pitchers to the best. It seems right now that Percy, Trey, Everett, and Avi are a notch above everyone else. We’ll need two more come playoffs but for now 4 is great. Anyhow, I remembered that towards the end of last season we started taking pitch counts very seriously. We gave a kid a number of pitches he could throw and then we’d pull him. While I’m not as worried about pitch counts now, I think as we try and find our 2 inning pitchers we can use a similar strategy. So, unless disaster strikes, Trey will pitch the first 2 and Everett the third. In the fourth Everett will be told that he will pitch to 4-6 batters, depending on how many pitches he throws. Then Percy will come into the game and pitch the remainder of the inning. Depending on how many he throws a similar strategy can then be used in the 5th with Avi. In this way we can put a hook on a kid who is tired, without bruised egos. It’s not that they’re pitching poorly, it’s just a matter of the pitch count.

So that’s the plan. I’m excited. I want to win. I think we can win. So now we just have to do it.

Practice Report

Before Practice
Everett is the first one to arrive. As he’s playing catch with Steve, I tell him “Congratulations.” He looks at me puzzled. It’s at this point that I tell him he’s now our #2 catcher. You can see he’s surprised. Steve asks him if he likes to catch and he says that he does in house league. Which is a good thing cause if he was unhappy about it and still had to do it, that wouldn’t be a great situation.

As they trickle in, instead of having them play catch we have them roll grounders to each other. It was a nice change of pace and a good way to reinforce a very important skill.

Bobby arrives fairly early on and I pull him aside to work on his pitching mechanics. I did a little internet research and came up with a couple of drills for him to try so as to improve his mechanics. What we did today was when he lifts the leg up, I had him hold it for 3 seconds, and then to follow through. The idea being twofold: 1. Help him practice his balance as it is off while he pitches and 2. Give him a second (well actually 3) to think about what he’s going to do with that front foot when he plants it, as he does all sorts of weird things with it. We did this about 20 times before practice. What I love about Bobby is how eager he is to receive coaching. Sadly, despite his eagerness his mechanics are still very poor. As long as he’s still an eager student he’ll get 1 on 1 time to work on his pitching, but he will not be seeing the mound, except in an emergency, anytime soon.

When Trey comes I pull him aside. I had been studying the score book and my recollection. I tell him that he has a deadly strike out pitch. He says “I do?” And I tell him he has a rising fastball, that I have seen him throw both in practice and in games, to great effect. Furthermore, he’s almost always ahead on the count, often with it being 0 and 2. However, if the batter doesn’t bite on the rising fastball he tends to end up with a full count. So I told him he needs a new pitch to go to if the rising fastball doesn’t work. I give him a couple of suggestions, but admit I simply don’t know him well enough as a pitcher to know what that next pitch should try and be. He says he struck out a friend of his with a pitch low and away and thinks he can do either that or do low and inside. He’s going to do a little pitching into a net during the next couple of days to try and figure out what he’d like to do. He is certainly at the point where he can be going for control and aiming the pitch, the exact opposite message we want to send to our weaker pitchers, which is great. I told Trey that he, myself and Steve, and Jesse, who is his catcher, will conference before the game so we all know what to expect.

The Practice
We start the practice missing Kelvin, which we expected as he has tennis on Wednesdays, Jodi, Avi, and Brendan. We gather the team around as Steve and I want to talk about the first couple of games for a moment. As we do so Jodi and Avi come in. I take this opportunity to do that education 101 staple “the compliment sandwich”. I start off saying how happy I was with the hustle on the base paths, talk about how embarrassed I was at our fielding execution, and then end with congratulating them on getting up there and swinging at the ball. Steve then sends a bit of a mixed message as he talks about how he hates to lose. I frankly am not a fan of this tact, as discussed earlier, but I wasn’t surprised to hear it.
This seems like as good of a time as any to reflect on the general perceptions of us as coaches. Last year I was listed as the “head coach” because that’s how they made us fill out the forms and so I got 95% of the phone calls and emails about scheduling and general questions/complaints, which was to be expected. I was curious to see how it would play out this year. And so far it seems like I am still going to get the calls and questions. I had, for instance, 1 parent and 1 kid call me today. I have to admit the fact that a player called me surprises me some as Steve is bar far the “cooler” of the two of us. Last year we clearly had different sort of relationships with the kids, and it is shaping up to be so again this year. These relationships, while different, are also complementing so I view it as a good thing that I’m more of the “dad” and he’s more of the “older brother”. Both of us get respect, it’s just in different ways. I really like that we are co-coaches as I don’t feel secure enough about everything we do to be a Head Coach, not to mention I think if I had an Assistant Coach who was a parent without Steve, he would attempt to run all over me. But when things like figuring out what we need to do at practice or creating a lineup, I find that I pretty much say what I want and that’s what ends up happening. On the one hand I like that, on the other I don’t want Steve to feel like I’m bossing him around. So far there has been zero tension about this that I have perceived so I think we’re doing a pretty good job of maintaining the balance.

Anyhow, back to practice. We had the field first, which wasn’t what Steve and I planned, but I think worked out well in the end. We started with a game of Baseball Knockout. Two lines form, one behind SS, one behind 2B. Steve hit a grounder. The player has to cleanly field the grounder and throw it to me at first. They do that they switch to the other line. Last kind standing wins. To little surprise, Everett and Jesse were our winners with Jodi finishing a close 3rd. It’s a shame that Jesse is catching so much as I would love to have his glove in the field more.

Following that we repeated the game we did on the first day where they hit the ball and then have to try and reach as many bases as possible. We had exactly 5 people on each team so there was enough for each of the infield positions plus a catcher, which for this game worked perfectly. I threw some nice lobs in, both so the kids could hit and so they couldn’t hit it too far considering our lack of outfielders. The fielding and throwing was pretty crisp all things considered. Jodi once again got the best hit and was the only person to get 8 bases, or two full circuits around. I got Bobby some time at first base as I think he would do well there but has told me how he doesn’t want the pressure. Steve and I had planned for him to work with Brendan at this point, but Brendan was not there, and he did not call, which is disappointing.

Our time on the field was over and so we went into the deep outfield. At that point we went over the basics of how to bunt. I was all over this as when I played I sucked at hitting, but I was an unbelievable bunter. In case you are wondering, I decided to keep it simple and teach them simply how to move their hand up on the batting grip, as opposed to actually trying to grasp the bat itself with your hand. A few kids knew how to do this already and I told them that it was fine if they did it, but if a kid did not feel 100% confident doing so they were to do the method I was showing, simply because doing the other way wrong is a recipe for broken hands, something Avi was all too happy to ask about. After about 5 minutes of my demonstrating and having them practice the bunting move in a line together, we split into two groups with one group staying with me to bunt and the other going with Steve to hit off the tee. I didn’t really get a report from Steve about how the Tee went. As for what I saw, sadly, our best bunters seem to be Everett and Trey, the two kids who I am LEAST likely to tell to bunt. Everett is a lefty and laid down a couple of great drag bunts, without my even having given instruction, so perhaps if he’s leading off an inning we’ll give him the green light to try a bunt if he wants. Additionally, if Trey can hit a deep one early in a game we can have him show bunt next time at bat so as to force the infield not to play him back. Bobby did an excellent job of getting out of the box quickly so perhaps we’ll give him a go. I had thought Jodi with her softball experience would be an old hat at bunting, but this proved not to be so. She is raw, but should make a good bunter. A big focus of mine during bunting was Kelvin. His batting is not so great, but he’s one of the fastest kids on the team so if we can get him to be an OK bunter he’ll be on base far more then he would otherwise. I made sure he had extra throws during this time and also told him we were going to practice again before the game. He has a lot of work to do, but the payoff would be great especially considering his place in the batting order.

At the conclusion of practice, we brought everyone together and had them name something good they had witnessed in practice or the first two games about another player on the team. Several of the players clearly think it’s corny, BUT I know it does its job of building us together as a team especially as almost every kid had someone point out a positive about him or her and Steve and I were able to fill in a couple of the blanks. A few kids had to pass on the first time through but were able to think of something. Everyone that is except Avi. Avi simply could not think of anything. Even after I gave him an extra minute by telling them that they needed to be at the games 20 minutes before, no excuses, instead of the 15 we’d previously said, he still couldn’t think of anything. I told him that he would need to have something before our game on Saturday and sent everyone on their way.

After Practice

As Trey and I were talking a bit about his practicing low pitches this week, Jesse asked if he could talk to Steve. After I’m done talking to Trey I go over and catch only the end where Jesse says “I just thought I should tell you” and Steve assuring him that he was doing the right thing. Steve also took the time to comment on Jesse’s leadership, something I have also done, so hopefully he hears how good it’s been and will keep it up. As Steve and I walk back from the outfield towards our cars he tells me what the conversation was about. It seems several of the players on the team have commented on Avi being “rude”. A couple of examples were given. As Steve and I have both experienced this, it comes as no great shock, but was good to know that we needed to take things into hand.

As we get to the parking lot who should be there, but Avi. It was destiny. After insisting Avi call his parents to find out where they were, despite his clearly not wanting to, we sit him down. As I call him over to sit on a bench with us he goes “am I in trouble”. Of course the answer is “Yes”, but I do the good thing and just say “We just want to talk”. I start off by trying to find out if he is an optimist or pessimist, without being able to use those words considering he’s in 5th grade. In the end I resort to the glass half-full or half empty example and ask him which he thinks it is. Now I know, without a doubt, that the kid is a pessimist and his inability to find a positive about a player on the team just confirms it. In other words, what he says makes it clear. However, he choose to say that the glass was “half-full”. So Steve and I used that as a building block to explain that it’s important to talk that way with the team and to think that way about yourself. He asked for an example of a time when he had been negative and we tell him. As we are talking we give him the chance to say if he’s been having problems with anyone and he sort of names Jesse. So clearly we are going to have to watch it carefully as Steve and I don’t want Jesse to stop what he’s doing from what we hear, but also want to make sure Jesse isn’t getting frustrated with Avi and causing him to be outcast. Avi has mentioned numerous times about his desire to pitch and during the conversation asked why Trey was getting so many opportunities. I was quite blunt and told him flat out that Trey has good arm strength, good velocity and nice control, and that makes him our best pitcher. I did take the chance to complement him on his previous pitching, tell him he was going to pitch in the first 3 innings on Saturday and if he does well at pitching he’ll get plenty of chances. Avi is very hard to read but I think he heard our message in a good way. What he’s going to chose to do with it, and how he presents it to his parents, I don’t know, but there you have it.

One final note from practice. As I am pulling out Everett and another kid who I know are standing in the parking lot. As I pull by, after pretending like I was going to hit them in slow motion, Everett’s friend informs me that ES said that our team stinks. I try and get a confirmation about this from Everett and he doesn’t really say anything, but is saved by his friend’s mother, who I also casually know, who assures me that the kid was just trying to stir up trouble. Likely true, but at the same time I think it’s likely true Everett had said it, which is also good to know. I hope we win a game soon.

Previewing Saturday’s game

We play the White Sox, who from what I’ve heard from the grapevine are not a very good team and are 0-2 like us. Hopefully this is true and we’ll have a shot. Before the game Steve and I set our pitchers and catchers, though not in any order. This was useful as during warm-ups Ethan asked if he could catch on Saturday. I said “No” and explained that we already had our catchers setup for the game. Ethan then asked if he would ever be able to catch. Steve and I gave each other a look that said “no bloody hell” before I delivered our standard line that every kid would have a chance to play every position they wanted to at least once this season. What was more interesting was that Percy also expressed some interest in catching. Frankly I don’t know if he has the skills, as we haven’t really seen him do that, so I think if we get a chance before the game I would like to see him try and catch.

So anyway our tentative catchers are: Jesse and Everett for 2 innings and Fuller and Trey for 1 each. It’s possible that Fuller’s inning will get swallowed by Jesse depending on how we end up deciding to pitch our pitchers. While Fller hasn’t had a chance to catch in a game, everything I’ve seen at practice tells me he’d not going to work out. I think giving Steve time to work with kids at catching will likely be a focal point of next Tuesday’s practice.

On the pitching side of the equation will be Trey for 2 innings, Avi for 1, Jodi for 1, Jim for 1 and Everett for 1. I threw out two possibilities on how to use Trey. I said we could either pitch him the 1st and 2nd OR have him be scheduled to pitch the 5th and 6th with us understanding that he would likely pitch before then and giving us the chance to use him if we have to yank a kid and it looks, as we expect, that the game will not go the full 6 innings. We didn’t really get a chance to reach a decision before the kids started arriving. Besides Trey, I don’t think any of our kids have the arm strength to pitch 2 and I said to Steve that if we need another pitcher besides those 5 we would have to pitch either Bobby or Percy. In reality it would likely be Percy as I really want to hold Bobby until we’ve had more chances to work together. But the thought of having to use Percy after his performance yesterday is not confidence inspiring.

I’m sort of surprised our practice here has produced the longest post yet, but there you have it. Thanks again for reading along and I really appreciate all of the comments that have been made.

3rd Practice

Before Practice

As of yesterday Steve and I have not heard from Jodi’s family. I am off at a meeting all night and so Steve does the calling. He calls and leaves a message at 6:45ish. He is a commodities trader and so he wakes up very early and is lying in bed ready to fall asleep when his phone rings at 9:30 and it is Jodi’s mom. Following the conversation Steve leaves me a message which basically boils down to “Did you know about this **** with Jodi? I know if you knew about it you’d have let me know. I have the biggest ******* headache right now because of this. Call me in the morning.”

I call Steve and he is extremely pissed at Jodi and at Libby, the Park District coordinator of the league, as it seems that Jodi has conflicts because of Softball and Hebrew. Oh and there is something about soccer which he doesn’t understand. The whole conversation was rather incoherent but he’s really upset with Libby so I tell him to write her an email and we talk about what the email will say, essentially that Jodi is rather unfair to us, and I hang up confused.

Fast forward several hours. I am on jury duty this week. I am assured that only in the strangest cases do people in the jury pool get kept beyond 5 o’clock. Well I guess when you get Judge Dickweed strange cases happen, as he started assembling a jury 2 and a half hours late. We don’t get out until 5:50. Practice started 5 minutes ago and I’ve been unable to call Steve except to warn him I’m going to be late several hours earlier. The bigger problem? I am the bunting expert and that was what we wanted to start practice with. Oh and I have all the equipment.

I find out later that Steve adapted to another idea we had tossed around besides bunting and essentially they make do by Steve hitting grounders to a theoretical shortstop who throws it to a 1B. The throws are, not surprisingly, off, but he said the actual fielding and catching was better then expected.

I arrive to the practice in record time, with most of the way it seeming like the sea of cars had parted perfectly for my purposes. I arrive just in time for us to take the field for our second half of practice.

Infield Practice
So my idea was to get a sort of game situation going here by taking our players and putting them in the field, calling ones up to hit, and changing every 2-3 batters each position. This went very well in helping cement our views on players. I’m going to do a rundown of each of players in a second so the important observations from it will go there.

After Practice Talk with Jodi

Jodi was, to my surprise, at practice. After practice I talked to her mom and got the scoop.

The Park District states that in order to play travel you have to play in the house league. However, as Jodi plays softball, but in house league she plays baseball, Wednesday is a common day between both leagues, with it being their practice day. So Jodi’s mom and Libby have been emailing and the basic resolution is that Jodi will come to all our games, but have to miss all practices either for Hebrew or Softball. Jodi will also, unfortunately, miss several of our games on Saturdays. Basically it seems like she will be around, about 40-60 percent of the time. Steve is considerably less fine with all this then I am. But it is what it will be.

Setting the Line-Up
After practice Steve and I set our line-up. You are only allowed to do this twice during the season and so it’s rather important. It’s also continuous so if you have a terrible player sandwiched in between good players, as we had last year, you learn to expect a lot of potentially big innings being killed. Since we have had 3 practices, rather then 2, I feel that this is going to be less of a problem.

As the league is a development league it also has strict rules that ensure that all players in the six inning game get at least 2 innings in the infield, including at least 1 inning of the first 3. Further, no player may sit out twice until everyone has sat out once, and no player may play any position, except catcher, for more then 2 innings and a catcher may catch for 3 innings.

There is also a rule that says that pitchers may not pitch more then 5 innings a week. Last year this was very important, but Steve made a brilliant observation: this year we only have 2 games a week until the play-offs. This is great, because it removes the problems that can be created when you have to have a kid you had planned on pitching 1 or no innings come in for relief and basically means you don’t have to plan pitching for the week and can do it more on a game to game basis.

Steve and I want to see a lot of people at a lot of different positions. It likely means we will lose and I am ok with that. No kid, except Jesse who catches for 2 innings, plays the same position twice. We also made a conscious effort to sit some of our best players in the earlier innings to show that everyone will sit. As the game has a 90 minute time limit, it is unlikely because of bad pitching, that we will get past the 4th inning.

Here’s the quick version before a detailed look at it:
Jim
Trey
Everett
Brendan
Jesse
Percy
Bobby
Fuller
Avi
Ethan
Kelvin
Jodi

The Detailed Look at the Line-Up
So here’s our line-up.

Jim – 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.

Trey – 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 practice 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.

Everett – Continues to be our best hitter. Hopefully Trey and Jim will setup some good situations for him. Funny aside: I had a chance today to visit the guy I student taught for today during lunch. When I went into the cafeteria I went into the lunchroom and looked for him. After being literally swarmed by kids (it was really touching considering I hadn’t seen many of them for 2 years and never taught any of them) I found out that Everett was in the “quiet room” aka the elementary school version of detention. So at practice I tell him “I hear you’ve been a bad boy” with a smile, of course. He got SO flustered, it was clear that he was upset that I thought this and so I had to reassure him I was only joking and didn’t think he was a bad kid. It was really cute, actually.

Brendan – Will be our #2 catcher behind JM and shows promise there. There is a big drop off in talent we perceive between Everett and Brendan. 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.

Jesse – 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, with Brendan likely being able to as well.

Percy – I’ve been under whelmed 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.

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.

Fuller – 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 he is scheduled to catch the 6th inning so he’ll likely not see action.

Avi – 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.

Ethan – Couldn’t hit TG 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:

K.S. – 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.

Jodi – She really deserves higher, we think, but since she won’t be around a lot it’s another one of those “she could be though of as the start of the end of the lineup” decisions. She’s clearly talented, but without ever being at a practice it will limit her opportunities on this team.

Our pitching order goes as follows:
Trey
Avi
Jim
Bobby
Everett
Percy

If people are interested I can post the whole chart we do which shows their positions for each inning. I am very excited about Saturday and hope to win, despite knowing that isn’t our first goal for the game.

Thanks as always for reading, and I promise that things should get shorter when I start recapping games.