Practice Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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