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.

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.

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.

Game: Marlins vs Braves

Before the Game
So I go over to Steve’s house and we agree that Avi should be our first pitcher. We had no sooner agreed to this then Steve’s phone rings and he looks at the caller ID and goes “uh-oh”. Long story short, Avi is going to be about a half hour late to the game. We can deal with this and so he gets the nod for the sixth. We end up deciding to start Trey, but also decide we want to see a lot of different pitchers and so we only pitch each of our pitchers for an inning. The pitchers we want to see are:
Trey, Everett, Avi, and Percy

Percy, if you recall, had a disastrous outing. However, he’s been throwing very well in “bullpen” sessions so I want to see how he does in a game. We put in Jim in for the 5th figuring he had a bad outing the last time and would still be able to come in for relief if Percy can’t get the ball over.

We don’t expect to get past the 5th, with the exception of our first game we haven’t gotten past the 5th and it’s cold, with a chance to rain, further decreasing the chance we’d get past the 4th, let alone 5th. Not to mention we expect the other team to be scoring runs. With all that in mind, we decide to go ahead and schedule Bobby to pitch, since he’s looked pretty good, and have Brendan catch him. We need to start developing Brendan and so we figure this would be a good way to say that he’s going to get some chances without actually having to worry about him catching. It also gives Steve an excuse to work with him before the game.

Steve and I decide to start keeping track of who is showing up the requested 20 minutes before the game. We’ll then have them do something not too onerous, but enough to get our message across such as run laps. Today, Brendan is the surprise first arrival, with Everett & Fuller there shortly after. With Jesse and Avi excused it still leaves an awful lot of late people, though all are there 10 minutes before the game, except Avi, as expected.

I work with Bobby and Percy before the game and they both look ok but not great. We’ll see how it goes. Steve does his work with Brendan and he looks not so great.

The Game
We’re the home team. Trey comes up and takes care of business on 9 pitches with 1 strikeout. Meanwhile, the bottom of our lineup doesn’t get anything going, except for Kellen getting a single and a couple of steals.

Everett, as usual has a rough time of it. Jesse, who was sitting out, even comments that he throws good pitches so it’s kind of surprising that they hit him as much as they do. I think we need to work on his pitching rather then throwing. He’s pretty good about getting ahead in the count, which makes it all the more frustrating. He allows 2 runs and we get out of the inning without more damage after we double up a player on a popup. Now it happens to be against the heart of their order, so it’s not the worse thing, but still isn’t great.

In the bottom half of the inning, things don’t look so good when Trey and Everett both fly out on well hit balls. But then Brendan gets on base and steals 2nd. Jesse rips a ball, which was over his head, into left for a run scoring single. After stealing second, he then scores when Percy hits a triple. Bobby follows it up with a double to score Percy and we end up with 3 runs, all produced after we had 2 outs, after Fuller grounds out to end the inning. It was pretty nice. And the great thing is that pretty much everything was legitimate. It wasn’t like Percy got lucky with the triple, he really deserved it. Score is 3-2 good guys and we are definitely in a game we didn’t think we would be.

Avi then pitches the top of the 3rd. He walks the first batter and gets the next one to line out. The 3rd batter rips a ball into center that gets by the outstretched hand of Jodi. Trey runs over from right and relays it to Jodi who then tries, against what Steve and I were saying, to throw the runner out at 3rd. She naturally overthrows and the run scores. However, the batter never gets a chance to score as we retire the side while holding him at 3rd.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Ethan, of all people, gets a nice one out single and then scores, when Kellen, of all people, hits a double. Kellen steals 3rd and then scores when Jodi hits one back to the mound. Jim walks, steals second and then tries to steal third but comes up short of the bag on his slide and gets tagged out. Ending the inning.

At this point we’re moving fairly quickly in his game and it’s starting to drizzle. It’s a little early for the predicted rain, which considering the fact that we’re ahead is a shame. Anyhow Percy, the first of our real tests, is up on the mound. After I threw with him I had him throw to Jesse and both insist that Percy has a nasty slider. However, when he tries to show me it keeps rising instead, so I tell him to stick with fastballs. Worse yet he starts off facing the heart of their order. Sure enough their slugger hits a solid single. On the next play we get him out on a fielders choice. Overall Percy looks good and while that runner on the fielder’s choice ends up scoring after a single and a putout at first, he only lets up the 1 run. I was pretty sure that the first appearance was a fluke and this seems to bear that out. Going into the bottom of the 4th it’s 5-5

As we start off the inning, Trey confides in me that he hates leading off. I think this fits in my overall picture of Trey as someone who puts a lot of pressure on himself (as does dad) and one of the times he feels this pressure is leading off. Obviously there’s nothing we can do about it at this point, but it’s an important thing to realize for the playoffs when we do have flexibility over the batting order. Anyhow, Trey gets an infield single. He then steals second on the first pitch. Before the inning, I had told Everett that if Trey got out that I wanted to see him bunt. He told me that he doesn’t really feel comfortable bunting as he doesn’t practice. I told him I understood that, but to consider it in-game practice and also assured him we’d be working on it as a team. When the count becomes 1-0 after the passed ball with Trey advancing, I tell him to do what we had talked about. He squares around a couple times but can’t get contact. The second time was a ball. After the inning I tell him one of the reasons I want him to practice bunting is he knows where the strike zone is and so he shouldn’t be bunting at balls. Anyhow he gets behind 1-2 and ends up striking out. Trey does manage to steal third during Brendan’s at bat when he walks. This gives us runners at first and third. I tell Brendan on the first pitch he should steal. For whatever reason their catcher throws down to the base. The ball goes into center and Trey scores without a problem. On the very next pitch Brendan steals third. Jesse then hits ANOTHER ball that was way to high and bloops it for a single, though Brendan had to hold up as it was on the third base side. I tell Jesse to steal on the first pitch, as we have the 1st and 3rd situation again, but on the first pitch Percy hits a single advancing Jesse to third. I tell Percy he should then steal. And he does and gets a good jump. Yet AGAIN the catcher throws, though his throw is on time this time and in a close play Percy is called out. However, Brendan does score giving us a run for an out. Later in the game their coach confides in me that he can’t believe his catcher threw down the second time and let us have another run. Bobby grounds out to second to end the inning, but putting us up 8-5.

Now we’re in the 5th. There is still 25 minutes left before the mandatory stop time of an hour and a half. I hope for a LONG inning as I do not want to have to throw Bobby. Jim is once again having clear control problems. He walks the first batter. The second one grounds out to short, he then walks the third batter. Both score on a double, where we once AGAIN overthrow 3rd. Their slugger gets another great hit and drives in the guy who was on second scores on a close play at the plate. The guy however overruns 3rd and Everett makes a dead on throw to Avi who applies the tag and we get the out. Now was the guy really out? I don’t think so, neither does Steve, or the other coach. But as the other coach said even if he wasn’t out it was the right call to make as kids shouldn’t be overrunning third. Despite the 3 runs that scored when we get that out it was a clear momentum shift and Jim strikes out the next batter. Overall, Jim did not have great stuff, but neither did he fall apart on the mound. He kept his cool and got us through the inning. It’s now tied. Out bottom of the order acts like the bottom of the order as they bring in their ace pitcher, and we strike out 1-2-3.

As we were are coming in from the field I say to Steve that Brendan shouldn’t catch in the inning and we should use Jesse instead. He agrees. Steve goes over and explains to Brendan that since we’re in a close game and Jesse has “more experience” (which I thought was an excellent way of phrasing it) that we were going to have him catch. Brendan takes this well. All of this is karma for our pitching a pitcher who we didn’t want to pitch. Anyhow Bobby gets up and walks the first batter. On four pitches. Steve turns to me and says “I want to keep him on a short leash.” I ask him “Who can we sub for him?” The answer is nobody. Our choices at his point would be Kellen or Jodi, neither of which is appealing and Bobby almost for sure has better stuff then both of them. He starts to pitch better but does allow a run to score. We end out getting a man out at third on a caught steal and Bobby had a nice inning. Overall, Bobby got better the more he threw which was great and just what we needed.

As we head out into the field I hope that their ace will not be on the mound again. He is. However, we have the top of our order up. Jim gets permission to bunt. He then lays down a great bunt… if he was trying to sacrifice. Unfortunately, bunting right back at a travel team pitcher with no one on base does us no good. Still, I’m glad we tried it. Trey, with no doubt a good deal of self imposed pressure, strikes out. This gives us 2 outs. Everett gets a nice single. I give him the green light to take off and he goes on the second pitch. Alas, Brendan reverts to form and strikes out ending the game with a 9-8 loss.

Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward
Well the good news is that we didn’t allow any big innings. The most they scored in an inning was 3, which is good. Our fielding was terrific. We were hitting the ball hard and having multiple people score. Percy and Bobby both had good outings, Jim, not as much.

During the post game speech Steve said if they think about where they were at during the first game and where we’re at now it’s a huge improvement. Bobby, little wise guy that he is, says “So you’re saying we used to be crap?” which draws a large chuckle from the parents. I mean that is what Steve is saying, but still. If you all could see the progress they’d made you would agree that we’re improving far more then most teams. It’s a shame we don’t get the victory here, but unlike last game where I think there were some decisions which could have given us the runs we lost by, in this game we were right in it, and got shut down by their ace pitcher when we threw 6 pitchers.

The good thing is that it has given us enough confidence that we’re going to try and not pitch Trey next game, or to save him for a relief situation. If we can keep getting good outings from six kids we’ll be in great shape come the playoffs. It’s frustrating that we haven’t had practice in so long, especially as they are forecasting rain again for Wednesday, but we’re looking good, especially as we play a team that I was not impressed with when we scouted. So once again the future is looking great even if the individual result was not as much.

We had the kids, after our short speech, do the “name something good you saw” and they all have no problems naming 11 different things. We awarded Percy the ball for a great day at bat, a nice inning on the mound, and a heads-up play as a RF when he backed up Trey on a play that Trey blew at 1st.

So I pretty hopeful that when I write the next game recap on Tuesday or Wednesday I am talking about a win.

Game Report

Before the Game
As we had the 7:30 game Steve and I figured we would go to his early, whip out the lineups and then go to dinner before getting to the field nice and early.

We had decided we were going to do two schedules, one with Jim and one without. Jim’s family had experienced the death of a family friend recently and so it was unknown whether or not he’d be there. We sit down and fairly easily work out the lineups. We’re just finishing up when my phone rings. The caller ID tells me that it is Avi’s house. Avi, who we of course have pitching. I pick-up the phone and Avi’s mom tells me Avi will not be at the game. When I ask why she starts to babble a little before it is discovered that Avi had baseball taken away as a punishment for misbehavior. Steve and I were not happy with this. Steve grew especially livid when he learned that she could have called us earlier in the day. We both agree that penalizing the whole team, as this does, when there are a myriad of options open to a parent for discipline is unfortunate.

Well at this point the entire lineup needs to be redone and it leaves us a pitcher short. For simplicities sake we decide to just assume Jim will not be there, which is what was indicated as most likely when we found out Monday about the death. We put together a lineup. And it’s painful. I won’t lie. We end up feeling forced to give Brendan an inning at catching. As of now Steve and I agree that we do not want Trey or Everett to catch until after they have pitched which means early inning pitches for them. In order to solve the inning of pitching we were hoping Avi to do we end up giving Jodi two innings. I’m still not sure what made us think this was a good move.

We end up with the following pitchers:
Trey, Trey, Everett, Jodi, Jodi, Percy

Steve and I go to dinner and have some great pizza. We then drive to the field getting us there about 40 minutes before our game, and about halfway through the preceding game on the field. Just as we are pulling up to the parking lot Steve’s phone rings. It’s a local phone number we don’t recognize. Trouble. It’s Bobby on the line. Now I only heard 1 side of the conversation but it must have gone something like this.

Bobby: I am not coming to today’s game
Steve: Why not buddy?
Bobby: Well I can’t find any of my uniform and my parents are out of town so I can’t ask them where it is.
Steve: (exhaling) Well do you have a way to get to the game?
Bobby: Yes
Steve: Well then you should come and we’ll sort out the uniform issue at the game
Bobby: You’re sure?
Steve: Yes. Just come. We’ll see you at the game.

He hangs up and explains. Now Bobby is by no shakes an all-star player. But on our team? He’s one of our more consistent fielders and serviceable at the plate. We could really use him. Not to mention if he is does not show that means we have exactly 9 players and so if there is the expected unexpected no show we’re playing with 8 players. Anyhow crisis averted.

While Steve and I throw to each other we scout out the two teams playing. And it becomes clear that we could be competitive with both of them.

Our first player arrives about 30 minutes early and all of the players are actually there, except 1, 20 minutes before the game. It was great. Just as the first player arrives we get a call. It’s from Jim and he WILL be at the game. As Steve takes the players to warm up, I immediately start to redo our lineups. Best of all it means that JF will not have to pitch two innings.

In the end we end up with the following Pitcher/Catch combos:
Trey/Jesse, Trey/Jesse, Everett/Trey, Jodi/Jesse, Jim/Everett, Percy/Evertt

I manage to get some time with Percy before the game and work on correcting a problem with his motion that is giving him poor control. Hopefully he’ll be ok if he has to pitch.

The Game
We’re the visiting team. Trey is leading off so we hope to get right on the board. Trey starts off with a walk and steals second. Everett grounds out, advancing Trey to 3rd. Now we have Brendan. Steve and I had talked to him about getting up there and swinging at the first couple of pitches, as he’s been pretty much watching these and finding himself behind in the count, and sure enough he does this. On a 2-2 count he makes contact, only the second or third time all season, and hits it hard to short. Steve sends Trey home. Now this was a questionable decision. Trey, however, did not help the matter by hesitating and then not appearing to run full out. Anyhow the SS makes a nice play, and the catcher, who we find out later catches for the travel team, makes a perfect catch and tag and Trey is out. Brendan ends up stealing second on the first pitch which lets me talk to Trey in the dugout (I’m coaching 1st this inning). He tells me he disagreed with the decision to send him. I said did that disagreement mean he didn’t go as quickly and as hard as he should have. He says he doesn’t know, and I believe him, but it gives me a chance to reinforce the importance of listening to us, and if we make the wrong decision it’s not his fault and no one will be mad. It’s all done in a very neutral/upbeat way, so it SHOULD have had a bearing on what will happen later. Anyhow Jesse strikes out to end the first.

Trey allows a couple of hits to the heart of their order but escapes without allowing a run and we have a 0-0 game after 1.

We can’t get anything going in the second, despite getting Bobby to 3rd with 1 out. Trey has little problem in the bottom half and it remains 0-0 in a pretty well played ball game.

In the third Jim leads off with a walk. And then we start to pound the ball. Trey hits a double, Everett hits a 2 run single, Jesse absolutely KILLS a ball into LF for a double. Bobby gets a single and we end up with 5 legitimately earned runs.

As the bottom half starts, with a couple of singles to the better part of the order, I comment to Steve that Everett seems like he’s never going to have an easy inning. Anyhow the bases get loaded on a Everett walk. Now before we now it, the bases are loaded. When the first base runner got on, Steve and I both told TG: DO NOT THROW UNLESS WE TELL YOU TO. Anyhow the bases are loaded. The kid on first is a slower player. After the second pitch he goes a little too far and Trey looks him back and when he kind of walks back to the bag Trey makes a throw. Percy is playing first and while he was on the bag he was not expecting a throw, which might have been OK, if it were not the fact that Trey makes a terrible throw that ends up sailing well over his head. TWO runs score and it’s only a nice throw by Jodi to Jesse that holds the last, slow, runner at 3rd. The run ends up scoring on a single to 3rd, but overall Everett does a nice job of pitching out of trouble, striking out two. Brendan also makes a great diving catch on a popup at 3rd.

The next inning when Trey is on the bench I talk to him as he’s putting his bat away. I ask him, in a sincere voice, “Did you know that you play on travel?” He gives me this look that says “Are you crazy” but says yes. I then explain that Steve and I know it as well. And that he doesn’t need to go out there and try and make all star plays simply because he’s an excellent player. Further that he needs to listen to us. Period. Trey couldn’t really look at me by the end of this discussion and was close to tears. And I say good. I don’t mind letting a player know that he’s screwed up, done in a nice way of course, because it gives me more credibility if I say they did a good job.

It’s important to remember despite the 3 runs that scored we are still dominating this game. We have completely deflated the other team and our team is playing pumped up. Jodi leads off the 4th with a walk and ends up at 2nd. I then make a poor call on a passed ball and send her to 3rd. Normally this would not be a poor decision, but with Trey and Everett scheduled to hit now that she’s gotten on I should have had faith that she would have scored when they hit it. Furthermore, I know that the guy they have catching, somebody who I’ve coached fairly extensively in basketball, has a great and accurate arm. So yeah that was a bad call and Jodi gets out as a result. Jim strikes out and Trey pops up to end the inning.

This is Jodi’s inning to pitch. However, as Bobby is sitting out, I had told him we were going to work on his on his pitching. So we go out of the dugout. He tells me he has been practicing and it’s true. He’s looking really good. Not only is he maintaining his arm balance but his arm mechanics are looking better then before. Now I am only half paying attention to the game at this point so I don’t really know what’s happening. I do hear a couple balls hit and from what Steve’s saying I know it’s not going well. After what sounds like a particularly disastrous play, I explain to Bobby that I need to go see what’s happening. Steve later tells me that Everett booted a ball at second base and then stood there instead of trying to either get the ball, or cover 1st, for Kellen who evidently was attempting to recover the ball. The first play I see is a ball hit to short. Jim, our SS, positions himself well, but then like a bat out of hell, Everett comes and grabs the ball, WAY on the SS side of second base, muffs it and the runner ends up safe. Later on Kellen misses a throw that pops out of his glove. A kid hits a hard hit ball to third and Brendan ends up throwing the ball so far into right field that it ends up being a “grand slam”. It was ugly. Jodi neglects to record an out. We are saved only by the seven run cap on an inning. Her mechanics are in need of work, because she kept aiming the ball rather then throwing it, but she is a pretty gifted player so I hope that it will be an easy fix. Regardless, by the sheer necessity of what we are dealing with she is going to get more innings.

Anyhow instead of being up by 2 we are now down by 5. I had been noticing some bad dynamics going on the bench when I had been coaching first. Further, Bobby had made a comment to me. Jesse, I think, has been crossing the line from player to coach on occasion. What he’s saying isn’t ever wrong, but I don’t think the team is responding well to hearing it from him. So I have Brendan’s father coach first base, while I stay in the dugout. Last year since we had 3 coaches we rotated who was coaching bases and in the dugout and I have realized how valuable this time was. As such I have decided that I will make this a semi-regular habit for me and am encouraging Steve to do the same. Everett starts off by striking out, Brendan then draws a walk and steals second. Brendan does not know how to slide and could have really hurt himself the way he slid into second here, so I think we will work on sliding at our next practice. Jesse grounds out to the pitcher. Percy walks. Both advance a base when there is a passed ball. Bobby then hits a triple into the gap in right center. Sadly Fuller records his first strikeout of the year to end the game.

And we lose 10-7.

Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward

Frankly I’m not sure what we could have done differently that would have made a difference. Both Steve and I made a bad call on sending a runner, but that alone wouldn’t have made the difference. Trey not listening to us on a throw cost us two runs but that alone wouldn’t have made the difference. Both of those put together though? That’s likely the 3 runs we lost by which is frustrating. In the end this was a game Steve and I both feel that we should have won. We basically dominated and were it not for the seven run inning we’d have won. The sad thing is that with who was there I didn’t feel better about bringing in a different pitcher for Jodi since I wasn’t sure they’d have been an improvement. Hopefully we will not have that situation again.

Steve noticed that Brendan was showboating and so he’s going to have to talk to him about that.

Our game tomorrow is against the Braves who have been just killing everyone in the league. I don’t know what happened Wednesday but going into that game they had hit at least 1 homerun and had reached the 7 run cap in each game. They appear to be a dominating team. I think as such that we should use it as a learning experience. Try and see if Avi can pitch two innings. See how Percy and Bobby would pitch against real batters, etc. Steve would rather not take this development of people approach and instead would like to really try and throw our best possible pitchers against them. So we’ll see what we end up doing.

We have also had some talks about how in general to use our pitchers. Steve is wondering if we shouldn’t hold back our good pitchers more. I pointed out that if we had done this we wouldn’t necessarily have had the momentum we had going into that inning. I do like the idea of developing Percy as a “relief” pitcher who would come in and throw hard for 1/3 or 2/3 of an inning but he isn’t there yet. For now it seems that we will likely hold Avi in reserve as he can be spared but also seems to be able to get outs.

There is no doubt we’re getting loads better with each game and so it’s sad that we didn’t win this one and are going to face such an uphill climb in the next game.

Game 3 - Marlins vs. White Sox

Setting the Line-Up
Steve and I met around 2 hours before the game. Originally we were going to go right to breakfast but I suggested we do the lineups on the computer, as we normally do, and then grab breakfast. Steve agreed we had ample time to do it this way and so we sat down and hammered things out. The important parts:

*We decide to have Trey scheduled to pitch the 5th and 6th leaving him in reserve for when we feel it would be best to use him
*Steve had made a push to still use Brendan as a catcher, arguing that we didn’t really have choices. Whether or not to use Brendan, despite his poor form and missing of practice, was decided when Steve was reminded I had talked to Trey about catching an inning and had been OK with it. So we decided not to use Brendan as a catcher. Furthermore, when doing the schedule one person would have to sit twice. This person was to be Brendan. Steve and I agreed as a general practice if somebody misses a game or practice without telling us, that this will be the consequence.
*The pitching/catching batteries are tentatively set to be: Everett/Jesse, Avi/Trey, Jim/Everett, Percy/Everett, Trey/Jesse, & Trey/Jesse. When using Everett as a catcher we agreed that using him as a pitcher before having him catch was important and so it is likely that Everett will start many games for us. Avi was given the second inning as we’d promised he’d pitch and so we wanted to do it early to send the right message. Deciding between Percy and Bobby was a coin flip. I made the call to use Percy as I have been working with Bobby and would like to have him be in good form before he throws again, with him knowing that’s the goal.

Pre-Game

After a great breakfast and a quick stop at Walgreens we get to the field about an hour before the game. There is a Triple A (the league below us) game going on when we get there. Steve and I throw to each other a bit. Now remembering that we had stressed 20 minutes at practice, our first show was Trey. I inform him that he’ll be catching an inning and throwing 2. Trey is still clearly uncomfortable with this. But he nods.

The players slowly trickle in with only Trey, Bobby, Percy, and Jesse being on time, however almost all of the players were there by a quarter to, so it’s a definite improvement. I think if Steve and I keep stressing the importance this rate will go up.

When Bobby arrives I immediately pull him aside and start working with him on the 3 second delay rotation. And there’s been a huge difference. I ask him if he’s been practicing, and he claims not, so I’m not sure why it’s suddenly clicking, but it did. After doing this about 6 times in a row successfully I setup as catcher and have him throw to me. Out of the 10 pitches I had him throw he had the proper footwork for 8 of them. It was just a huge improvement. If he’s able to do this again on Tuesday at practice we can start to work on his actual throwing mechanics. Very exciting. Bobby was sitting out during the second inning and he asked if we could do some more practice. I told him I had to focus on the game, but loved his work ethic.

After this I pull aside Percy and have him throw me some pitches. After a couple of off pitches he settled down nicely and threw well. I told him that if he can do this without a batter, he can do it with a batter. He made some excuses about it just being a bad day on Tuesday. I don’t really buy it, and keep on the upbeat message of just thinking about it like there’s no one there. I hold out hope that the 4th inning won’t be completely disastrous.

As we gather around the bench and put up the lineup, Trey finally coughs up what has been bothering him, when I tell him he’s catching Avi. It turns out last year, in the lower league, the coach was having him catch for the best pitcher on the team and he just couldn’t do it. He felt good about the fact that it was Avi because he knew that Avi didn’t pitch all that quickly. This explains his reaction as he was clearly reluctant to do it, but since I was the coach he was going to do it, and without complaint. It was a good reminder of the power as a coach you can have. I am glad though we got the anxiety out there in the open and it gave me a chance to reinforce the idea that my goal for him was not to be catching every ball, simply to keep it in front of him. I had been saying this from the time I first told he was going to catch, and when I said it at this point it was likely the 5th time I had said it. It seems like it was at this point that it sunk in though as he clearly was realizing that he could do what I was asking of him.

The First Couple of Inning
As we take the field, it becomes apparent that Kelvin is not present. This obviously annoys me, especially as he was scheduled to play 1st in the first. I quickly plug in Trey, who had been scheduled to sit. Everett strikes out the first two in short order. The heart of their order comes up and scores 3 runs, including a stupid play by Jesse. Everett threw a ball in the dirt and it got by Jesse. Everett comes jogging in, as the runner isn’t going, and Jesse sees some reason to flip it to Everett. You can predict what happens next: Everett misses, and Ethan, at second base, is not backing up Everett, despite having been reminded and sure enough then the run DOES score. Anyhow they get 3 which includes Everett striking out a batter with runners on second and third. After Everett struck out the first two batters I had hoped we were in for a good day, but 3 runs was fine, all things considered.

With Kelvin not being there, Jim is the first up. He walks. Trey is then hit by a pitch, which brings Everett up. Everett promptly rockets the ball into the gap in right center scoring Jim and Trey for a nice double. Brendan strikes out, Jesse gets a solid infield hit, but Percy and Bobby both ground out to the pitcher to end the inning. Still 3-2 is just fine.

Avi is now pitching to Trey. The whole thing went great. Trey didn’t really have any problems catching the ball. Most importantly Avi got a weaker part of their lineup to strike out, and then hit two back to him at the mound. He fielded both of them perfectly. The first one was hit pretty quickly, so he took his time, ran over towards first and then underhanded it to Jesse for the out. The next play was a slow roller and he did a great job picking it up and getting an accurate throw for an easy out.

In the bottom of the inning despite Avi and Ethan getting on with a walk and hit batter, we can’t get anything going as Jim and Trey were both absolutely smoked by the pitcher. Still at the end of 2 we’re looking at a 3-2 ballgame.

The Last 3 innings
Which is, of course, when the wheels come off. Jim’s mechanics were just terrible. He was repeatedly dropping his glove arm and his balls were coming up short, or being thrown wildly to the side. Things weren’t helped when Percy made a silly mental error costing us an early out by not knowing which base to throw the ball to. Jim only ended up walking 1 batter despite only throwing 4 strikes to 8 batters. Jim was clearly frustrated on the mound and while it was going on it seemed much worse then the 5 runs it turned out to be. The first of the two controversial calls also occurred this inning. After Jim let up his walk, Jesse caught the batter cheating too far down the line at 3rd and threw the ball down to Avi who caught the ball and made a nice tag getting the batter by more then a step. But he was called safe. Avi immediately started to complain and I very loudly and forcefully had to cut it off. This out turned into a run as well which makes the whole thing even more unfortunate. We’re now looking at an 8-2 game where your are maxed out at 7 runs in an inning.

Things do look a little better when Everett and Brenden are hit by pitches. We manage to get both of them home, but it’s basically by trading a run for an out, which when considering how far we’re down is not the goal. During this inning I look at my watch and we’re rapidly approaching the 1 hour mark. Steve and I discuss, and basically he leaves it up to me to decide whether or not it’s time to bring Trey in. I decide it is. Just as the inning ends I find out that Ethan has to leave. Did Ethan tell either of us he was leaving early? Of course not. This now means that we have no one sitting on the bench. I scramble a little to get people in reasonable positions and basically use the 5th inning lineup positions in the 4th inning.

My thinking is if Trey can keep it 8-4 we stand a good chance. So of course my dreams are crushed as the weaker part of their order just wails on Trey. There were a couple of bad fielding plays, including one by Trey himself, which did not help the situation. In the end Trey faces 10 of 12 batters but manages to hunker down against the good part of the order and gets away with only allowing 3 runs.

I feel some hope as we have the top of order come up and their pitcher is clearly not a very good pitcher. His arm mechanics are just terrible and it’s clear he’s trying to “aim” every pitch. Avi leads off with a walk. As Jim bats I let Trey know that this pitcher is aiming his pitches and so he should wait because he’ll either get no pitches or a great pitch to hit. Jim walks. Trey comes up and on his first pitch hits a screamer into center. I thought for sure it was going to drop and send Jim. The centerfield makes a great shoestring catch, however, and Jim is forced to hustle back to the bag and there’s no real chance of a double up as he ran the play well. This now brings Everett up to the plate. Everett hits a screamer through the gap in right center and we’re off to the races. ES is running his heart out and by the time Jim has reached 3rd Everett is less then half a base path behind him. Steve waves in Jim, a move I absolutely support. Jim is clearly flagging as he makes the turn and he looks back at the ball two or three times. In the end the relay from the second baseman is a perfect throw to the catcher. Jim slides in, as they go to tag him and he’s called out.

At this point Jim just loses it. He throws off his batting gloves and immediately starts to break down. I go over and calm him down. Jim insists that he slid under the tag, but it was a close play made so because Jim kept looking back which slowed him down just enough to make it a close play. When I talked to him he insisted that he didn’t understand what Steve was telling him to do, which I just can’t believe to be true. Anyway the play completely deflates our inning, and while we get two runs, it could have been a much bigger inning if we had that run and out back.

Tre comes and pitches his second inning, allowing a leadoff single and a double that turns into a triple because of poor fielding. He then gets it under control and we only lose 1 more run and we’re standing at 12-6 going into the last inning. Trey was clearly not as sharp as he had been before. I was talking during the game to his father and he says that basically Trey is out of baseball shape but should be getting back into shape soon based on all the baseball that he’s doing. I wonder if it was just an off day or if the inning he did at catcher weakened him enough to make a difference. Having him in reserve should have made a big difference as if he had clamped down, liked we hoped he would, and allowed say 2 runs instead of 4 during his 2 innings, it’s a different ball game.

They have yet another new pitcher up there and it’s yet another guy we can hit. And we come out and do our thing. Percy and Jesse get on base on walks. Bobby grounds one to the pitcher. Fuller then comes up and has what is, without an exaggeration, a 10 pitch at bat. In the end he gets a single. The right fielder, a travel player, tries to get the out at first but instead throws the ball out away, not to mention Fuller would have been safe anyway. The ump then makes a bad call in our favor. Jesse had advanced to third on the hit, and Percy to second. Once the ball was overthrown, Jesse should have gotten home and Percy 3rd, but instead as we had them running anyway, the ump gives Percy home on the overthrow. Avi walks to give us runners on first and second. The momentum is clearly on our side. The pitcher is tiring. We’re about to hit the best part of our lineup. Jim works a couple of pitches and then hits a ball to the first basemen. And Avi, instead of running to second, goes back to first. Bam before you know it, there’s a double play and the game’s over. Evidently Jim said something not too nice to Avi at this point that I did not hear. I did hear Bobby start to say something and immediately put the kibosh on that. It was an incredibly dumb play, but we don’t need the already least popular kid on the team being further ostracized because of it.

Post Game and Looking Forward

We give a pretty good post game speech. I talk about how we are all feeling so rotten because we played so well and we left so much on the field and other things along these general lines. Bobby gets the game ball for an amazing catch he made at short during the 5th. It was going to go to Avi but we had to make a last minute change based on the last play of the game.

As people filter away I grab Trey to talk with him. I stress to him the importance of not moping, as he did some of that on the mound, even when things aren’t going as well as they normally do. Simultaneously Steve is talking to Jim. We finish our talks at about the same time and then see Avi crying as he leaves. We both grab him and reassure him. It’s at this point that I learn that Jim said something not too nice. As we are talking, Jim even comes over and apologizes for what he said to Avi. We remind Avi about all the good things that happened during the game and to try and not let 1 play or comment ruin a good day. He definitely calms down by the end though he is clearly still not very happy.

All-in-all, it was our best game. We are still having lots of trouble having a big inning and preventing the other team from taking what should be a 1 or 2 run inning and making it into a 4 or 5 run inning. At practice on Tuesday we will once again be focusing on groundballs, do a drill to promote situational awareness, and some sort of nebulous team building exercise that Steve and I need to find to make sure we continue to bond as a team in response to the dynamic that manifested itself at the end of the game. JMessetold me that he felt Avi was better this game, and I agree, so it’s too bad we had that one moment at the end which unraveled things a bit. While we still lost I was heartened at the progress we made. We play the Orioles on Wednesday a team I have heard nothing about so I have no idea as to what kind of opposition they’ll be. If we can play another good game though I will be very happy, especially if we can show more improvement after the practice.

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.