BK's RL Little League Dynasty Season 2

[Barkeep49]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jeremy F – Wasn’t at practice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Barkeep49]

Pre-game Practice
Steve talks to Kevin around noon and learns that we will not be having a practice. Oh no. We’ll be having a game. Do we have any idea who our pitchers our catchers are? Nope. Steve and I decide we’ll have a mini-practice before the game. The game is scheduled for 5:45. Steve and I make some phone calls and ask the kids arrive between 5:10 and 5:15.

Steve and I decide to get to the park at 4:45. And who is there, but Cameron. Talk about ridiculously early. Anyhow this gave us some real quality time to hang out with Cameron. He’s a quality kid and a good time was had.

Jeremy Me shows up. I do some hitting practice with him. Jeremy Me is a quiet quiet kid. His dad does a fair amount of talking. I learn that he was, according to dad, his team’s closer last year. I do some whiffle ball hitting with Jeremy and he is thoroughly unimpressive.

Eventually our team gets to the game. Steve takes the catchers aside and does some work. I do some real poor work with the pitchers. I did not bring my A game. I was very disappointed in myself as I feel like I squandered a good practice opportunity. The clock is ticking and so it’s time for me to start to do lineups. We have the team throw tennis balls to a few of the kids as catchers, but I was trying to figure out the lineup and so I didn’t really observe this closely.

The Game

We’re the home team. Initially we were going to pitch Jeremy Ma first since he says he pitches for travel and it wouldn’t surprise me. But in order to make the subs work, as I don’t like to sit all of the really good players at once, Cameron gets the nod instead. Right off the base we’re in trouble. Their #1 hitter on the first pitch lays down a TERRIFIC bunt. He of course reaches first easily since we’ve never practiced fielding bunts. On the next pitch he steals second. Their aggressive nature indicates to me that we’ve been out coached. They were simply able to accomplish far more in their practice than we were in ours. Next batter hits a single moving the runner to third. Here’s where my opinion of them starts to change. We call time and pull our catcher, Jared, over. We explain WHEN (not if) the runner goes fake a throw to second and hold onto the ball. Except the runner never goes. There’s a couple of pitches and the runner never goes. This ends up possibly being fortuitous when the batter grounds into a fielder’s choice to short. When the next batter strikes out, it looks like we might escape too much damage. Until their fifth hitter RIPS a triple into right center. The next batter is hit before Nick fields a well hit ball to short and makes it look easy recording out three at first. We’re down 2-0 to start the game.

No worries though as I feel we could come and get them right back. Jeremy Ma starts us off with a walk. Cameron then comes up and rips a double to score Jeremy. Justin hits one back to the pitcher and must have looked at the ball he hit 3 times, which was likely the difference between him being out and safe. Nick hits a single but they hold the run at third. We get another infield single from Jared to load the bases. Matt S comes up. This kid will hurt the ball if he can get a hold of it. Sadly he hits back to the pitcher. They get the out and home and easily double him up at first. 1-2-3 DP and we end up with only 1. 2-1, A’s.

I’m feeling good though as Jeremy Ma gets set on the mound. I figure after a little trouble last inning this should be a smooth go. Of course the first batter, on a full count, gets a single to center. This is where our problem comes in. The original plan had been to use our best projected catcher, Jared, with our best projected pitcher, Jeremy Ma. Except when I had to move Jeremy’s pitching to the second, I didn’t also move Jared. This means Matt S, who Steve said was our worst projected catcher, is now scheduled to catch. The fact that Matt can’t catch the ball definitely costs Jeremy some strikes this inning. The other thing that cost us some strikes? The wildly inconsistent strike zone of the ump. Anyway they’re able to steal 3rd due to passed balls. He then walks, on a full count again, the next batter (AK from last year). I hope he’s staring to settle down when he strikes out their #10 hitter. We’re now at the bottom of their order and I’m hopeful we can get another out here. Except he once again walks the guy to now load the bases. He then walks yet ANOTHER batter to walk in a run. He records a strike out, before hitting a batter with a pitch. At this point I go out to talk to him. Tell him it’s a weird strike zone. I know he’s a good pitcher. Just throw us some strikes. Alas he walks the next batter. I call time thinking I have to pull him (4 walks and a pitcher is pulled) except Steve says it’s only his third. This is of course a mistake. Anyway he stays in the game. Next guy hits a single. Finally, we get out of the inning when the 6 hitter fouls one off to the first base side, and Alec nearly makes a great diving catch. Next pitch he hits it again but this time Alec is able to make the catch, and adds in an unnecessary dive for good measure, to end the inning. The A’s extend their lead 6-1.

Austin, Alec, and Matt A go down 1-2-3 with Alec and Matt A striking out. Nick comes in as our next pitcher. I think we’re in better shape when he strikes out the first batter. But then the next batter rips one to left, and with Matt S playing there and taking forever to get to the ball, a single becomes a double. Nick doesn’t get rattled though and strikes out AK. He remains un rattled when he hits the next batter and walks their last kid. There’s a little dribbler back to the mound to end the inning without any runs scored. We head into the bottom of the 3rd still down by 5.

Sean comes up. I’m thinking, honestly, another 1-2-3 inning at this point. Except Sean RIPS a ball to deep center. The outfield was playing ridiculously in and so we get a triple out of a double. Steve and I are pleasantly AMAZED. Jeremy F then gets up and hits a weakly hit ball. However, he SPRINTS down to first and due to his great speed just barely makes it there in time. The run is held at 3rd, however. Jeremy Me strikes out as does Jeremy Ma. Cameron then hits a single, which turns into a double as they throw home to prevent Jeremy F from scoring. Justin, however, hits one back to the pitcher to end the inning. We’re now down 6-2.

We start the inning well. The first batter hits a well hit ball to center off of Jeremy Me. Cameron, however, is there and makes a good catch for out number one. The next batter hits a ball and the throw gets by Austin who is playing first. He then attempts to throw the guy out at second, despite Steve and I saying not to, and that ball gets by them so the runner ends up at 3rd. Jeremy looks a little upset on the mound but strikes out their next player. This is when the ridiculousness starts. On two consecutive plays there is a ball hit to second. Justin fields it cleanly and throws it to first. Both plays are close and both times the runner is called safe. I think it was the right call both times. Steve insists that the first one was definitely an out. However, our team gets fired up as they think both of them were outs. This puts some runners on and instead of ending the inning without allowing a run, when the next kid hits a single two runs score. Fortunately the next player hits a ball to right field, right at Alec who is playing there. Alec makes the catch and we end the inning. We’re now down 8-2, however. We’re able to get things going, however, when Nick hits a great ball to the warning track for a double. Steve had pointed out that the catcher is weak and so I have Nick steal 3rd. Jared walks and steals second uncontested. Matt Sherman hits a check swing tip to the catcher for our first out. Austin is then walked, loading the bases. Alec is then walked, scoring a run. Matt A walks for good measure, causing the pitcher to be pulled. Their catcher has been weak this whole time and I’ve been looking for a reason to send a kid home. Sadly it never comes. Sean hits a single scoring another run. I had started to send Alec home but then called him back. If I’d just sent him, he’d have been safe as the catcher lost the ball. That was my mistake as I sent him knowing the catcher wouldn’t likely catch it and then I wimped out. Our rally is cut short, however, by yet another double play. Jeremy F hits one to second base and Sean gets caught off of first to end our inning again. Still, we score three and make it an 8-5 game.

I still think we’re likely out of it however as scoring 4 runs is hard and we still have to hold them in the 5th. The 5th is going to be our last inning based on the time limit (no inning starts after an hour and a half). Justin is our next pitcher. As I’m catching him in warm-ups he’s showing exactly what he told me during practice: he can’t pitch fast but he throws the ball over the plate. Facing the bottom of their lineup he strikes out the first two players on seven pitches. It takes 3 more to induce a ground out to the mound. Three outs on 10 pitches is just terrific.

So now, with basically the top of our order, we just need to score four to win, three to tie. It’s going to be hard, but it’s doable. Jeremy Me starts us off well with a single. Jeremy Ma walks. Cameron then laces a double scoring one. Justin doesn’t want to be outdone as HE hits a double. I’m coaching first base this inning. When there is confusion getting the ball back to the pitcher I send Justin to third. This exposes my one big frustration with Steve: he’s not a good base coach. Fortunately I am able to correct it in this very important situation. I honestly think Nick will end the game but he bloops one to first. Jared, however, ends the game with a great hit into the gap in right-center and the BoSox win the game.

Jared got the game ball for his game winning hit.

Post game thoughts

The team is just ecstatic about our come from behind win. Steve and I are just so happy that this team is not going to be a repeat of last year’s.

We learned that we should have a surplus of pitchers and catchers. We have, for sure, three kids who we can use at catcher: Jared, who’s likely going to be our best catcher, Jeremy Ma, and Alec are also going to be just fine. Alec in particular surprised me with how well he caught. While Jeremy Ma is a better catcher now, I think Alec could easily grow into our #2 catcher. Matt S thinks of himself as a catcher, and he certainly has that build, but is our weakest catcher. Hopefully we’ll be able to grow him as the season goes on.

As for pitching, Nick and Jeremy Me proved that we’ll be able to use them regularly in any situation. Nick could have easily pitched another inning were we not trying to see as many players at different positions. Justin showed he could get the ball out of the plate. Cameron is the one who I feel the least good about. Jeremy Ma actually pitched the worst, but I have to think that’s just a fluke.

What was most amazing about the game was the fact that we didn’t have one fielding error. Every ground ball was fielding and every fly ball, with-in reason, caught. We had some throwing errors, but to have basically a perfect fielding game in the first game bodes VERY well for our season.

Also the fact that the top of our order produced both times they were hitting with no outs means that Steve and I likely did a good job of putting together the order, despite our limited knowledge of them. I’m not saying we’re going to go undefeated, but after last years pain I’m just so glad to have a better team.

[Barkeep49]

Pre-Game
Steve and I were hanging out the night before and so we ended up making the lineups Friday night. Jeremy Ma was going to be unable to attend since we was going to the Bulls/Heat playoff game, lucky guy. We decided that we wanted to continue trying lots of different kids in different spots. We also agreed to give Jared and Austin a chance to pitch. All of our kids would see three innings of infield in the game if we went the full sixth, a possibility given the nice forecast, which we felt real good about.

Our team arrived early and with energy for our second game. I did some work before the game with Jared on his pitching. He didn’t look particularly strong. I changed him from working out of the windup to working out of the stretch. Still could have been far better. I need to really brush up on my pitching instruction since I’ve not been able to give the sort of specific tips to my pitchers that I’d like to be able to do.

The Game
The other game ends and we’re up to bat, facing the Yankees. We go down 1-2-3, though with no strike outs which is good. We gave Jared the start since we want to use him at catcher and it’s good, we’ve learned, to have them pitch before catching. Based on our work before the game, I knew that it could get real ugly. Sure enough he walks the first batter and second batter after going to full counts each time. He induces the next batter to ground out to second before walking two more. At this point he’s reached his limit and so I have to pull him, having also walked in a run. In comes Justin, who was scheduled to pitch the second. I feel good about Justin pitching as we know he’ll get the ball over. He lives up to our expectations, striking out the first batter, and doing the old ground-out to center (there was a force at second). Still they score 1 and we once again will have to play from behind.

Fortunately, we’re not behind for too long. After Matt A (who’s been nicknamed Noff) gets a walk, Sean hits into a fielder’s choice getting Noff out at second. Jeremy F then singles. Jeremy M singles in Sean. Jeremy F is now at third. It is here that I learn that he’s an absolute nervous nelly on the basepaths. He’s just terrified of getting out. To the point where he won’t even lead off at third. It doesn’t batter as after Cameron walks, Justin hits into a fielders choice scoring Jeremy. Nick ends the inning with a ground out and we capture the lead 2-1.

Justin comes back in and after allowing a walk to the first batter gets the next three out so we maintain our lead. Jared starts our inning with a strike out. Matt S then hits a hard hit ball that gets underneath their shortstops glove for a single. He ends up scoring after advancing to second on a fielders choice and a single by Alec.

We have another new pitcher in Austin, who we have throw to his brother. This is an unmitigated disaster. While Justin showed some signs of progress, Austin is a long way from being a pitcher we can use. After four consecutive walks, we use Cameron in relief. Cameron looks a lot better than he did in the first game. It looks like we might get away with only allowing one run, until one of their guys hits a base clearing triple. We end up allowing four runs giving them a 5-4 lead.

We need some runs in the fourth and Sean starts things out well by getting a single. He then steals second. I tell him to steal a half second too late, on a particularly poor catcher, and he gets called out, just barely. Whoops. Anyhow, Jeremy F then hits a single, steals second and third. Jeremy M unfortunately pops up to the pitcher for the second out. Cameron walks, and steals second easily, which is nice because Justin then drives in Jeremy, advancing Cameron to third. Nick hits another single driving in Justin. Jared continues our little rally, but unfortunately Matt grounds out to the pitcher. However, we’ve recaptured the lead, 6-5, Bo Sox. The bottom of the inning, with our ace pitcher Nick, goes as expected with his striking out the side on 14 pitches.

We then continue our offensive spurt scoring four more thanks to singles by Austin and Alec, a walk by Sean, a triple by Jeremy F, on a hit that he just laced, who scores on a single by Jeremy M. Four more runs gives us a 10-5 lead. The bottom of the fifth is going to be our last inning. We’ve got our best pitcher up. I’m thinking the game is in the bag. Except it just doesn’t happen that way. Nick gets a couple of bad calls on some strikes. This isn’t helped by the fact that Matt S, who is catching, isn’t a particularly good catcher. Nothing is working for Nick and we eventually have to pull him, with the bases loaded, only one out and having already surrendered 3 runs. In comes Jeremy M. His dad made a big deal the first day we met him how we pitched in relief last year. When he gets to the mound I ask him what we’re expecting him to do. He tells me “close the game”. I agree that is what we’re asking, but I ask him how he’s going to do that. He tells me “throw strikes”. I agree that this is the way. I tell him not to worry about letting them hit the ball, just to get it over the plate. He promptly ignores my advice (ok not really) and strikes out the first batter. This then brings up the strongest player on their team. On a 2-2 count the kid gets a hold of the ball. Fortunately Jared is out in left. He tracks down the ball and we escape with another win.

Post Game thoughts

The game ball went to Jeremy F, who was 3-3 including his great triple. He’s a nervous kid and I’m real glad he had some success today. Austin and Alec are going to need a lot of work on their hitting, as they’re just ugly to watch right now.

At catcher, Jared remains our strongest catcher, with Sean our second best catcher there today (Jeremy Ma might be better). Alec didn’t look nearly as good today and Matt S looked bad. Matt S really has a desire to play the position so it looks like he’s going to be Steve’s project this year.

Our fielding remains strong, with only one error, by Jeremy F at short, while our throwing could use some work. We’ll do some of that at our next practice, of course.

Overall, we continued to hit well today. Considering we had to remove three pitchers because they had walked four batters, to come away with the victory is just wonderful. I think we’re really starting to get a feel for who we can count on as pitchers and who we won’t be able to. Steve and I remain very upbeat about what we’ll able to achieve this year.

[Barkeep49]

Saturday Addendum
One thing I don’t think emphasized enough was how different I am as a coach this year compared to last year. I see how Steve is coaching this year, commenting nearly relentlessly and I know I did almost as much of that last year. When we started to unravel a bit, Steve was having a difficult time handling his frustration, and I know I felt similarly last year. I really think basketball changed this about me. I do less is more when it comes to comments, while still making sure the good outweighs the critical. And when the game that had been a blow-out started to get close, I felt it, but I worked hard to not let it show. I know that several of my parents, most notably Lucas’s dad, loved the fact that I always remained calm and I think this is a big reason we won nearly every close game we had. To be honest I even said something when Steve got audibly flustered that I shouldn’t have said (something like “Calm down” in a quiet and nice way). Anyhow, coaching baseball has made me see how much I’ve grown as a coach and I’m real pleased with the new me during games.

Tuesday Practice
Monday night Steve calls me. Long story short, in a month he’s going to unexpectedly lose his apartment and he and his roommate have to go hunting Tuesday during practice. This is going to leave me on my own for only our second practice.

Last week we’d developed a really awesome practice plan, for the Wednesday practice that was canceled due to rain. I basically decide to go with a modified version of this practice. The practice is going to be heavy on base running with a minor in hitting/bunting.

I get to the field and Jeremy Me is the first to arrive. We play catch for a bit. 5:45, the nominal start time of practice rolls around and he’s the only one there. Now I knew we’d have quite a few late players due to religious school, but I expected more than one kid at the start of practice. Our practice doesn’t start, therefore, in actuality until 6. Practice ends at 7 so it is a short practice. When we start there is only Jeremy Me, Sean, Jared, Cameron and Nick. Austin and Alec came to drop off Nick, but their mother basically couldn’t deal with logistical issues involving having Austin and Alec there so they missed. As we were throwing a little before practice started Nick and Jared were both concerned about their pitching performance. I reassured Jared he’d get to pitch again and Nick that he’d get to pitch two innings again.

We started off with some sprinting competitions with a sample 1st base and home plate. I would yell “Ball 4”, they’d drop their bat and run, going through the bag at first. After a little initial groaning they had some fun with it. We also practiced sprinting down to first and then making the turn towards second. As we were working on this Jeremy Ma, Jeremy F, Matt S, and Nof all showed up. We then worked on a drill where they practiced leading off as soon as the ball crossed home plate from the pitcher. All of these drills are designed to send the message that we will be aggressive on the base paths and to give them the practice that they need to do it. Aggressive base running can mean 1 or 2 runs every single game and I want to make sure we get them all.

By this time it was almost time for us to get the field. I did one last quick game where they were partnered up and I gave them 20 seconds. The goal was to throw back and forth as many times as possible in that time. They were about 2/3 of the distance between bases. The idea here is teach them on how to get the ball out of their gloves and make accurate throws under pressure.

Then it was time for us to take the field. The missing fifteen minutes of instruction would have been devoted to the basics of bunting and some individual hitting instruction (had Steve been there). I decided to go ahead with modified batting practice, where they can earn extra swings based on their bunting ability, anyway giving a very cursory bunting lesson. None of our batters were particularly successful with the bunting, understandably. I’m not sure that this hitting was the best use of time, actually, but they were clamoring to hit and this activity was on my practice so I did it. After the modified BP, we did the “how many bases can you get” game as this is both a throwing game (our one weakness so far) and a hitting game. We still had quite a few errant throws. By this time practice was almost over and so I ended us with a throwing relay race competition.

For this practice I feel like I gave excellent base running instruction. My hitting instruction was so-so, though I did make good progress with our novice bunters.

The big revelation of practice was that the ball Jeremy F rocketed during the game was no fluke. Both during BP and the game he KILLED the ball. He actually got 7 bases during the game, which is about the most you could get.

Nof is going to be our weakest hitter. His fundamentals just aren’t strong and he knows it. He’s an incredibly nice kid though and so hopefully we’ll be able to help him. Matt S is also weak, though he can wallop the ball if he gets a piece of it.

Nothing really stands out either way from any of the others.

Week Wrap-up
Heavens forbid that we actually get a full week of baseball in, our game yesterday was canceled due to rain (hardly unexpected). The forecast is favorable for Saturday though not so good for Tuesday and Wednesday for next week. There is a possibility we won’t play on Saturday as the fields could still be too wet, but hopefully that won’t happen.

I also received a sad email today from Kevin. Justin G has broken his arm and is going to be out for 3 weeks. We’re certainly going to miss his good cheer, his bat, and his pitching. Basically we’re going to miss him. I haven’t talked him yet, but am going to see if he’d be interested in coming to some of the games and perhaps doing some base coaching (not too much harm they can do at 1st base).

Hopefully you’ll see another update on Saturday.

[Barkeep49]

We are facing the Cubs today. We had practiced with them on Tuesday and they were also 2-0 entering the game. However, they’d allowed almost no runs in their first few games, which was more impressive, to me, than their victories.

We’re the away team so we’re up to bat first. We get a couple of base runners with two outs but Alec ends the inning with a strikeout. Jeremy Ma throws a great inning sending them down 1-2-3 on only 9 pitches.

Second inning starts off with a couple of strikeouts, as they have the same pitcher in there from the first inning. However, after Jeremy F draws a walk and steals second, Jeremy Me drives him home with a double. They come out strong and score 2 putting us down 2-1.

We start to get things going with Cameron drawing a walk, and Nick singling him over to third. They have a very bad catcher in there and so after Jared lines out to the pitcher, who caught the ball more out of self defense than anything. If it had gotten by him it’d have been a two run single, easily. Anyhow, I convince Cameron to steal home next time the ball gets by the catcher. All goes well and Cameron will be safe, except he doesn’t slide and so he gets called out. Matt S then flies out left to end the inning. Their coach commented to me that this inning could have gone real poorly for them.

Nick comes in and on only 16 pitches strikes out the side, including have walked a guy. The big test for him will come next inning, as we’ve seen that he can just dominate the first inning he throws, the question is if he can keep it together for a second inning. When I told him before the game that he’d be pitching two, he was pleased but told me that if starts walking people to take him out. I assured him, that he’d be pulled pretty quickly if it looked like he didn’t have it for two innings. Anyhow, after 3 it’s still 2-1 Cubs.

We continue not to get anything going in the fourth. Fortunately, Nick does not need to be pulled as he strikes out the first two, lets up a single, however Jeremy Ma, playing catcher, throws out a guy who attempts to steal second ending the inning.

In the 5th we should have just gone to town. Jeremy F singles and proceeds to steal first. Jeremy Me then walks. Jeremy F steals third, the throw goes wild and Jeremy F gets a run. After Jeremy Ma walks, Jeremy Me, tries to steal third but gets thrown out. I would not have had him steal there, but don’t say anything since I hadn’t told him not to and we’ve been preaching aggressive base running. Jeremy Ma does advance to second. I then tell Jeremy Ma not to steal unless I tell him to, as their catcher has figured things out and I don’t want to risk us losing a big inning. So of course, Jeremy Ma on the first passed ball attempts to steal and gets thrown out. I was really upset with him about this, as not only did he ignore what I had said to do, but should have seen on his own that we just had a guy thrown out at third attempting to do the same thing. We do score Cameron after he walks, and is then driven home by Nick, who gets a legitimate double but ends up on third after some astute base running when the Cubs are sloppy getting the ball back to the mound. The inning ends, however. Good news is that we’re now up 3-2.
Cameron is now on the mound for us and things do not go particularly well. As in he walks the first three guys he faces. This then causes Steve and I some consternation about who to bring in if we need to pull him. We can either bring in Jeremy Me, who is scheduled to pitch the sixth making him ineligible to pitch there, or bring in Jared who is likely to be just as shaky as Cameron. Fortunately, Cameron settles down and strikes out the next batter. When the bases got loaded Jared, as shortstop, called out to throw home if they had the play. I immediately correct him and say “throw to an infield base” as we have Matt S catching and I don’t trust his ability to make the play. So of course when the next guy hits a ball right to Jared, Jared comes up with it and rockets it home instead of going to first or third, both of which would have been easy outs. Matt S, misses it and so instead of out 2 we now have the bases still loaded and only 1 out. Cameron strikes out the next guy. Which makes the fact that the next kid comes up and rockets a ball into the outfield all the more tragic. They tried to stretch out a triple, and we’d have gotten the out at third, except that Sean wasn’t covering the base. Fortunately the next kid flies out to end the inning. Still we are now down 7-3, when we might have gotten out of the inning with a tied ball game.

Life doesn’t start out well when their pitcher gets the balls over the plate and strikes out Matt S. However, after the pitcher hits Austin (in the groin), he becomes rattled. We then start a rally. Alec singles. Nof hits a double driving in Austin. Jereremy F singles, scoring another. Jeremy Me doubles, as does Jeremy Ma, giving us three more. We now are up 8-7 going into the bottom of the sixth.

Once again Jeremy Me is called up on to save the game for us. And while they do manage to get runners on second and third, Jeremy Me takes care of business striking out the last two players. We win in an another squeaker.

After the game, Steve and I disagree. Since we won, all is good for Steve. I feel like we had several mental errors, and our throws are still not as accurate as they should be. I know that if we’d lost the game, I’d have felt more positive about it than Steve. He’s pretty results driven, where as I try to see the good in loses and the not so good (if it’s there) in victory. Anyhow, game ball goes to Nick for his commanding two inning performance.

Good news is that, weather permitting, we’ll have two games this week as they made Wednesday’s practice into a game. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for thunderstorms, but hopefully they won’t come around here.

[Barkeep49]

Steve and I had decided that we wanted to see 6 different pitchers for this game, after going with the typical 2-2-1-1 setup last game. It was time to see some new pitchers, so we decided to give Jared another chance, and also to give Nof and Matt S their first chances to pitch. We were careful to have a good pitcher ready to come in for relief if need be. When we get to the field we realize that we’re going to be playing the Braves which means we’ll see PW (from last year) and Steve and I are both excited about that.

We start off well, with Nick hitting a single. We then proceed to run ragged on their catcher, who is JM’s little brother from last year, with Nick advancing to third. Jared draws a walk, steals second. Matt S also draws a walk. Nick then scores when Austin is hit by a pitch. During Alec’s at bat Jared scores on a passed ball. Unfortunately even after he walks to load the bases we can’t get anything more going as their pitcher has finally found the strike zone. Still we come out with a 2-0 lead.

Jared is first up on the mound for us. And he starts off with his continuing habit of throwing off the plate. He ends up walking the first guy. However, during that at bat he pitched one high but over plate. I stressed to him that was what we wanted him to do. Just get the ball over, even if it is high. And he settled down some and was able to start to throw some strikes. In pretty ugly fashion, assisted by the fact that he looked to be facing the dregs of their lineup he strikes out the next three. It was a good inning from him and nice to see him have some success.

After Jeremy Me strikes out, Jeremy Ma walks and scores after being advanced to second my Cameron’s single and then home on a double by Nick, which turns into a triple when Cameron is thrown out at the plate (when I sent him) on a close play. Jared strikes out to end the inning.

Jeremy Ma does not start off well, throwing some balls and then hitting the batter. We have a particularly weak infield behind him so he really needs to record some Ks I feel for this not to be a bad inning. The next batter gets on base and the two runners are able to advance when the batter hits the ball back to the pitcher. On the next play there is a wild pitch and a run scores. Next play up there is ANOTHER wild pitch and this time we get the guy out at the plate, which was great to see. This was just one of several good plays made by Austin behind the plate. He was great at getting the mask off real quickly, was real nice. This helps him with his ability to catch popup fouls that most catchers at this age don’t have a prayer with. He didn’t catch any today but he will. Anyhow after that wild play the batter is walked and ends up at third on some steals, but Jeremy strikes out the batter to end the inning. 3-1 Sox

In a continuing theme Matt S starts off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. When Austin grounds out to first he advances to second and is then thrown out steal third. The kid should never steal a base but since we preach aggressiveness it’s hard to criticize him there. Nof then hits a double scoring Alec. Sean walks. Jeremy F hits a single scoring Nof, but our rally is ended when Jeremy Me grounds out to end the inning.

Our big question mark is now on the mound: Nof. As he finishes his warm ups I express to him how important it is to just get the ball over the plate. We don’t care if they get a lot of runs as long as he’s throwing strikes. First batter up, which we think to be close to the heart of their order, he gets up 0-2 before the guy rockets a triple to center. He scores easily when the next guy hits a single. The onslaught continues when the next batter gets a single due to bad fielding. Fortunately only one more runner scores after a grounder to third for an out, a ball down the line at third where Jared astutely gets out a runner going for home and another grounder to third. We’re up 5-3 at the end of 3.

As the fourth starts it looks like it’ll possibly be the last inning based on the time limit. Jeremy Ma then grounds out. Cameron comes through with a bloop single into right and ends up at third when Nick doubles. Cameron scores after Jared grounds out and that’s all we get.

I’m happy to have Jeremy Me up on the mound here. He starts off shaky, however, allowing the first two runners on. They end up scoring, but that’s all they get, including a great play made by Nof to get the third out. Everyone was giving him praise as we went into our team circle at the half inning which was so great to see. He had that smile of pride, where you could just tell how happy he was. It’s moments like that which make me glad to be coaching.

Of course there is still time left to start another inning. It did look real bad at first when Jeremy Me let up those first two hits that we’d have the double whammy of them scoring enough to extend the inning and thus end the game because we couldn’t start a new inning. But fortunately that didn’t happen.

Austin starts off with a walk and a steal. Alec singles him home and gets called out at second trying to get second after they throw home. He overslides the base and gets called out which he was quite upset about. Nothing else going so we now have a 7-5 lead going into the last half inning.

Steve and I had decided that Matt S, who was scheduled, would not pitch if the game was still close. Instead we’d throw Nick. I let Nick know at the start of the half inning that if it was close he’d be pitching. Matt S asks me if he’s going to pitch. He’s been very excited to pitch and his dad is standing close enough to the dugout to overhear what I say to him. And the explanation is “Depends on how many runs we score. I’ve never really seen you pitch and I’m not going to throw you out there for your first chance in a real close game. We’ll go with Nick instead. I want you to be successful and pitching for the first time in a real close game isn’t the right situation. You will, however, pitch in the first or second tomorrow.” Matt was real accepting of this and after the game his dad thanked me for handling it like that.

So Nick is on the mound to save the game for us. And things don’t start well when he hits the first batter. However, that batter gets thrown out by Jeremy Me at third when tries to advance on the next batters single. Nick pretty much settles down after that and we win the game 7-5.

This game was close, and frankly I’m not sure why. We were so much better fundamentally than they were. The real answer, I feel, is that our bats were just not as alive as they had been. Sure we score 7, but we didn’t hit the ball as much and having to go station to station, rather than have some doubles and triples thrown in there, makes life hard.

So far, so well. The only negative of the season is the continued difference between Steve and I over how important winning is versus growth. For Steve all is well as long as we win, and I know that’s just not quite true. Not a big issue while we’re winning, but I’m worried about what will happen if we lose a game or two.

[Barkeep49]

Pre-Game
Steve and I had done the lineups for the game the night before. We went with, again, six pitchers. I made a crucial mistake. The twins told me that they would be at the game right on time or a little late. And we still scheduled them to pitch in the first inning. This would prove to be a mistake. We also scheduled Matt S to pitch in the 3rd, rather than 1st or 2nd, since his dad had asked for that inning to give his wife a chance to get to the game to see him pitch.

As I’m leaving the house I feel how cold it is, and think perhaps I should get my jacket, since it’s a little chilly even with my having on a long-sleeved shirt. I then decide I’ll just tough it out. Ohh that was a big mistake.

Anyhow when we get to the field, we do a little warm-ups and then since the Marlins aren’t there we take the field and so some infield practice while Steve works with Matt S on his catching.

The Game

We are the home team. Since the twins are late, I come up with the idea of doing a slightly modified version of the fifth inning. This means Cameron is our starting pitcher and instead of his throwing to Alec, he’ll be throwing to Jared. Cameron, as his is his norm, starts off with a walk. After that, however, he does a better job of getting the ball over the plate. He does allow two runs, but really, in most ways, had the best control we’ve seen from him yet. It was nice to see.

Jeremy Me starts things off with a well hit ball to the outfield, unfortunately it’s right at a travel player who catches it. Jeremy Ma gets things started in earnest for us with a double. I really thought it was going to be a triple, but that same travel player made a great throw to hold him at second. He advances to third when Cameron grounds out to the pitcher. Nick drives him in with a single. After Jared walks, Matt S strikes out to end the inning. 2-1 Marlins

Nick is now up on the mound. I’m hopeful as he’s been our best pitcher. So of course their first batter doubles. He then steals third. After a strike out and a grounder to short, which scores the run, Nick just gets hit upon. In the end he lets up four. He wasn’t throwing poorly, but the ump, who is a guy Steve and I know well, is very inconsistent in his calls so that combined with some good hitting lets up the runs.

Austin and Alec both single, though Austin gets out at third on a fielders choice with Nof getting to first. After Sean hits it to the first basemen for the second out we’ve got runners at second and third. Preaching our aggressive style I send Alec on a passed ball. They can’t quite make the tag, as he does a nice job of sliding and so we score a run. As I thought it might this rattles the pitcher, who’d bene looking good up until that point. Jeremy F then singles home Nof, Jeremey Me doubles and scores after Jeremy Ma singles. Cameron, rockets a ball to the first basemen to end the inning. Still we get the four runs back to make it a 6-5 game.

Matt S is on the mound for us. He looks real good in his warm-ups. After a few rough pitches he settles down. While he does let up two runs he located most of the balls over the plate and even better showed some velocity. He definitely earned some more innings.

And in the third we go wild. Nick walks and ends up stealing home after a single by Jared, who ends up at third. Steve makes a questionable call to send Jared, who gets called out at home. Matt S then grounds it to the first basemen (which would have scored Jared). But we start a two out rally after Austin singles and Alec and Nof walk to load the bases. Sean then hits home two of them with a double while Jeremy F hits a base clearing triple. Jeremy Me singles Jeremy F home, but unfortunately Jeremy Ma ends the inning with a dribbler to short. However, we get six big runs to put us up 11-8

Jeremy Ma comes in and after walking the first batter settles down and takes care of business. By this point it’s bitterly cold. The sun has gone down. A fog has rolled in. There is a lake breeze which rattles through you. It’s miserable. We are also, 12 minutes away from the time limit. I tell the team our goal is simple “12 minutes of hits”. Cameron starts us off well with a double. In an on going theme with Cameron he forgets to slide at second. Nick rockets a ball to the short stop who bobbles it and comes up with the bare handed catch. When Cameron steals third with Jared at the plate he once again fails to slide. I tell him at this point he needs to slide. I also let him know if we play another half inning that he’ll be sitting out (he was originally scheduled to sit the sixth). He’s disappointed at first until I explain that this is so we can Jeremy Me available for relief. He’s happy about that. Anyhow, with Matt S at bat, Cameron takes advantage of a passed ball and, for once slides, causing him to be safe. While that was going on Jared had stolen second and never stops running, coming safely into third on a close play. He scores when Matt S gets an error assisted single. Unfortunately we can’t really get anything else going. We do get a couple of insurance runs to put us up 13-8 and don’t hit the time limit so we’re playing one more.

Austin is up on the mound. He looks like he’s going to be ok as after a couple of bad pitches he gets the batter to popup to him. Unfortunately he then can’t get the ball over the plate and proceeds to walk the bases. I decide to pull him. In comes Jeremy Me to save the game once again. I tell him that I don’t care how many runs he lets up. He asks what the socre is and I tell him again it doesn’t matter, just to pitch. And it’s true. I have no doubt that even if they score 7 (the most allowed) that we can come back and get 3 to win in the bottom part of the inning. First batter hits one right back to the mound and Jeremy Me gets the runner out at home. The bases are still loaded and he does let up a single, but the next guy grounds out to Nick at first and the game is over. 13-9 good guys.

Post Game
Overall despite the bitter cold it was a great game. It was the comfortable victory that Steve and I had talked about the last couple of games. Couple of notes I didn’t work in there. Jared once again displayed bad sportsmanship by rooting for one of their players to drop the ball on a play. I’ve told him before that we root for our team not against the other team and so I, even as the play was going on, let him have it again. Kevin also complemented Steve and I, for what was the millionth time, about how awesome we are. It never hurts to hear nice things. Sean is also agitating to catch two innings, so perhaps we’ll accommodate this request at the next game.

We don’t have a game on Saturday (it’s our bye) so we have six days off before our next practice on Tuesday. I think we’re going to work on sliding and throwing as our primary skills. Rumor has it we’re the only undefeated team, which is nice, though we’re not THAT much better than the rest of the league. So far it’s been a pretty successful season I’d say considering that we’ve used many different players at many different positions. So far things are pretty good in Red Sox land.

[Barkeep49]

After our win on Wednesday at dinner Steve and I discussed a few areas we’d like to focus on for our next practice, which was held yesterday. We came up with four major areas: throwing, sliding, bunting, and game awareness.

One good thing is that the practice field we were assigned to had another unused field and so rather than share the field with a team we went and used this unused field, which was nice because it gave us complete freedom to do whatever we wanted.

As I had discussed at our last practice we moved the starting time to 6 and went a full hour and a half. Jeremy Me’s phone number didn’t work for Steve and so he showed up expecting a 5:45 start time. This was great as it gave us some time to hang out with him and he’s finally coming out of his shell some. It was terrific. He expressed some interest to us about playing catcher so we’ll have to give him a shot there at some point.

We started off practice with a good jog. Steve let Jeremy F and Ma get out to a nice lead in front of them. I was bring up the rear and attempted to catch up. Steve proceeded to smoke me and Jeremy F, granted with his good head start, actually managed to beat Steve. The kid is fast.

Next we played some speed catch. People partner up, try and get the most round trip catches in 30 seconds. This went well. As did our next activity. We introduced something called “5 and 10” which is basically competitive catch. You play about 50 or so feet away from your partner. If you throw at eye level you get 10 points, at chest level 5. First player to 50 wins. We did a second round of this as well which was fun. Starting off practice with a couple of games never hurts.

Next we lined people up on the third baseline and went over the bunting mechanics. Next we divided them into two groups and one group went with Steve and did whiffle ball hitting, while the other group worked on bunting with me. Nof proved to be our best bunter, but of course he said he doesn’t want to bunt and was pretty adamant about it. I’m going to try and wear him down though because he’s not a great hitter and having him be a good bunter would be terrific. Sean was a pretty good bunter, as was Matt S. One thing I had forgotten from last year: travel players aren’t really that much better bunters than non-travel players. They just haven’t worked on the skill either so everyone’s at a somewhat level playing field.

Next we did a quick sliding lesson. Everyone did really well on it except for Jeremy Me, who couldn’t do it at all or even come close. We’ll have to do some 1 on 1 work cause he needs to learn how to slide.

Finally, we closed practice with our 2-1 game. Count starts at 2 and 1 and then it’s baseball. The team struggled the first go round with the concept but as they did their second at bats seemed to get the concept down. During this time we saw Jeremy Me, Nick, and Sean pitch. Sean didn’t do so well, though he wasn’t terrible. Instead he was overly self critical of himself and after expressing some interest in pitching in a game now doesn’t want to pitch. That’s ok. It’s too bad we only have one more practice since I think this drill would be good in the long run to play.

Anyhow, I feel like this was one of the better, if not the best, practices Steve and I have run. There was a lot of fundamentals work done (sliding, bunting, and hitting). There was fun had. The team was on task, worked hard, and was eager to learn. I’m so pleased and hopefully we go out and win again tonight.

[Dutch]

Finally, we closed practice with our 2-1 game.

That's what I was forgetting at Monday's practice...

Oh, and rain cancelled us for today.

[Izulde]

Some real nice success victorywise you're having to open the year, BK and it's great to hear that Matt S shows some pitching aptitude. Hopefully that means he'll give up trying to be a catcher and concentrate on pitching.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Dutch

That's what I was forgetting at Monday's practice...

Oh, and rain cancelled us for today.

I think you'll like how it goes, but it does take a little time for time to figure it out. I hate rain outs

Originally Posted by Izulde

Some real nice success victorywise you're having to open the year, BK and it's great to hear that Matt S shows some pitching aptitude. Hopefully that means he'll give up trying to be a catcher and concentrate on pitching.

Well we stuck him back at catcher for this game as you'll see. The problem is that we have a whole bunch of kids who can pitch somewhat well and deciding which of them is going to get innings is somewhat difficult. This problem is only going to be compounded when Justin gets back from his injury.

Setting the Lineup
This year’s lineup making is so much easier than last years. The fact that we have several kids who are somewhat competent catchers helps. As does the fact that we have several kids who can play well at pretty much any position we put them at. 11 players is also easier to schedule than 12 players, though we could soon be back to 12 as Justin’s finger is just about healed. Anyhow, we’d told Sean he could catch 2 innings, and Nof, Alec, and Cameron that they’d be pitching. Jared missed Tuesday’s practice without notifying us so he got to sit twice. For catchers it was going to be Sean for the first two, Jeremy Ma in the 3rd, Jared in the 4th and 5th, and as a sop to him Matt S in the 6th.

The Game
We’re the home team, with our friendly ump Mark calling the balls and strikes against the Astrods. Noff is on the mound against what has to be a weaker part of their order and sends them down 1-2-3, though this included a fantastic play at short by Jeremy Ma. A kid hit it hard up the middle, Noff got his glove on it, deflected it, Jeremy Ma adjusted picked it up barehanded and got the kid at first. Just a terrific play.

We got up, after a hot grounder by Sean back at the pitcher, Jeremy F singles and steals. Jeremy Me flies out to center, but Jeremy Ma doubles home Jeremy F and is then driven home himself by Cameron. Nick strikes out to end the inning. 2-0 Red Sox.

Cameron is on the mound and does not look good. He eventually lets up 3 runs and has to be removed because he’s walked four. Jared comes in finishes the inning uneventfully. I think Jared has shown that he deserves more innings at the mound and Cameron should really only see time for us in relief as he just walks too many. 3-2 Astros.

Fortunately we come back with a one out double by Matt S who scores after Alec singles him home. 3-3

I’m sort of dreading the next inning as we have Alec on the mound. He hasn’t ever pitched for us and while he looked good in warm ups when I’ve practiced with him, I wonder if he’ll be able to translate that to the mound. And the good news is that he does. After letting up a walk and a single to a weak part of their order, he gets one player to fly out. And then suddenly he has heat on his pitches, striking out the next two players looking real good. It was insane. One batter he looks OK, the next he’s throwing them in there hard and well. We’ll definitely have to see him again. We take the lead in the bottom half of the inning with 2 runs, started off by a double with Sean. 5-3 Red Sox

Nick is up for us and after walking the first guy, who then proceeds to steal second and third on wild pitches, settles down. The first batter scores when a player grounds out to first, but otherwise he looked good. 5-4

It is then a bunch of uneventful half innings. Both teams go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 4th and the 5th. I had hoped in the bottom of the 5th we’d get an insurance run, but they have their ace on the mound. Fortunately we have our ace on the mound as well. So going into the 6th, Jeremy Ma just has to hold them for us to win our 6th straight. And he does hold them, except that on a disputed call a kid gets awarded first base on a hit by pitch. It sounded like it’d hit his bat and initially it was ruled that way for us, but in the end that ruling was reversed. The kid stole a couple of bases on Matt S and scored on a grounder to first. Jeremy Ma ended the inning by striking a kid out with a wicked change-up that ended up striking Matt S in the thigh and caused him to roll around on the ground in pain.

Steve and I feel good about the game since we basically have the heart of our order up. After Jeremy Me strikes out, Jeremy Ma gets things going with a walk. Cameron and Nick fly out, however, to end the game with a 6-6 tie.

All-in-all, it was another good effort and I have no real complaints about the outcome. Not to mention we play the Marlins Saturday and they’re the one team who we really hit well, so hopefully after a relatively dead day for us at bat, we’ll rebound nicely in that game.

[Barkeep49]

Travel Basketball Convergence
As we’re warming up before the game, who do I see but Dante, from my travel basketball team, there for his soccer team. We didn’t have much time to say more than hello. He did ask me if I was going to coach the team next year and I said “I don’t know” which is pretty much a lie because I absolutely plan on going back.

Then during the game, Eric came up to me and we were chatting a little. And basically he offered me a position coaching for them. While I didn’t accept, I did express interest and explain that I would need to coach either 4th or 6th grade, and would only coach the upper division team (as HP has teams in both the upper and lower divisions) and he was amenable to that. I now just need to decide if I have the time, when I’ll likely be switching teaching positions, to coach two teams, because with the new administration, coaching for my home town is a lot more appealing. However, I couldn’t run out on my team from last year, especially not with their moving up from the lower to upper division, assuming at least two of the triplets return.

The Game

Yesterday was not great. Going into the sixth and final inning we were down by 7, which also happens to be the most you can score in an inning, meaning the best we could do was tie. Anyhow seems like a good time to do a good, bad, and ugly for the game.

Good

Our 6th Inning hitting: We came out and rocked their pitcher who was accurate but slow. We had the absolute heart of our order up and it showed as we had 2 singles followed by 4 doubles, a sac fly, and two more singles which netted us our 7 runs. It showed once again that we were a team who could come from behind.

Justin: It was Justin’s first day back after breaking his thumb. He pitched moderately well, made a stupid play in the 5th inning at 3rd, but it was his hitting that we really missed. He had a good at bat in the 3rd, which ended in a walk. He then proceeded to steal two bases. In the sixth he was the first one to start our extra base hit rally. It’s good to have him back.

Cameron: The kid isn’t fast (not slow, but not fast) and so the fact that he’s hitting .667 is a testament to how well he’s hitting. He once again did well at the plate going 2-2 in clutch places.

Matt S: He pitched fairly well again recording two strike-outs though he did let up a couple of runs. He suffered from some bad bounces on those though. He also had a near homer, over the fence, during the sixth.

Jeremy Me’s fielding: He made an incredible play in the 4th at second diving for a hard hit ball with the bases loaded that saved us two runs when he caught it for the third out.

The Bad

Jeremy Ma’s pitching: He didn’t have the same snap on it that he normally does and just couldn’t close the game for us. He actually look bad enough in the 5th that I considered having Nick, who hadn’t pitched for us, come in and pitch the sixth. And frankly after he walked the a batter in the sixth I should have likely pulled him. I didn’t since I figured Jeremy was better under the pressure, but he just didn’t have it on Saturday, or rather I should say he didn’t have what he normally had. After the kid he walked, which had followed a double and a steal, a guy came in and won the game on an infield single. If they hadn’t won the game after the first run they would still have been going strong and he could have easily allowed 3 or 4 runs during the inning.

Our bats against good pitchers: The last couple of games we’ve faced more good pitchers and we have not been able to hit them. This game we eeked out a run in the second, getting lucky scored a couple in the third, but we were basically shut down for the day. Last game was a similar story for most of the game. We’re only going to see more of the good pitchers and less of the bad pitchers, so this is a problem.

Sean’s head: Kid is wildly inconsistent. Some days he’s definitely our best catcher, but other days he’s just out of it. No real rhyme or reason as to which day it’s going to be either, as far as I can tell.

The Ugly

Jeremy Me’s pitching: Basically he’s a relief pitcher. I think coming in with the pressure causes him to throw hard and thus better. When he starts an inning he just doesn’t look as sharp. He ended up allowing 4 very ugly runs, and we had to pull him after four walks and a hit batter. Between this and Cameron, it’s a good thing Justin’s back because our next best pitcher is Jared, who we need to catch. Jeremy Me will be our good to reliever, but I hesitate to put him in to start an inning again.

Our throwing: We ended up allowing all sorts of trouble as several consecutive throwing errors on a steal at third base allowed two runs to score. It was bad news. We’ve done some work on this at practice and looked pretty good last game, so I hoped we’d moved forward, but it appears one of those two steps forward, one step back things.

The twin’s minds: If you asked them they’re both the reason we lost. We were warned that they would play mental games with themselves and they did. For the most part they played well. The exception being Alec who made the first throw on that awful play, even after both Steve and I said not to throw the ball. But their moping required some extended talks, mostly by Steve, to keep them focused.


All things considered, if we’d tied the game it would have been an incredible victory after our seven run inning. However, the Marlins won, getting their revenge after we beat them pretty decisively, and it was the better team that walked away with the victory. Tuesday’s a new chance and hopefully we’ll put out a better showing.

[Barkeep49]

We were rained out of our game yesterday and practice today. With no game on Saturday we're off until next Tuesday.

[Barkeep49]

Yesterday’s game was another disappointment. We had 3 hits in four innings of play. Now granted we had several more walks and did score some runs, and we had a double play on a flyball to the outfield with the bases loaded that ended the inning. However, we simply did not produce the kind of offense we needed to. Matt S did not look well in his pitching and had to be pulled in favor of Noff who did look good. Nick struggled yet again in his second inning though he pulled through in the end. Jeremy Me caught an inning for us and looked good. So a loss, and one where we didn’t have any energy, but hardly catastrophe. We go at them again tonight

It seems like today would be a good time to do an overview of the team, going by our original batting order.

Jeremy Ma – Our best pitcher and likely our second best catcher. He has the second biggest difference between his OBP and his batting average with the biggest difference going to the kid with the worst BA. This suggests to me that while he has a very discerning eye, he should perhaps be putting the ball into play a bit more. Of course I’d rather have him walk than strike out, so I’m not sure if this merits a conversation with him. Thoughts would be welcome.

Cameron – Unexpectedly did not show up for our game yesterday. Hopefully he’ll be at today’s game as we’re only expecting exactly 9. I’d call to confirm except our contact sheet is missing his phone number for some reason. Anyhow, Cameron is our best hitter with a stratospheric 1.67 OPS. Of course since OBP is so much higher in Little League than in the majors it’s hard to say just how great this is, but either way it’s pretty terrific. I feel like we’ve done a bit of a disservice to him as we haven’t worked much with him on his pitching as he could likely be good with some work. However, with the wealth of pitching we have this year our time, oh so limited, has been spent elsewhere.

Justin – Hard to say too much about him since he was out for so long. He does play very smart baseball. Hopefully he’ll be a reliable pitcher for us, and I think we’re going to really push this to the extreme today possibly pitching him two innings. He has a beautiful swing so I would expect his rather pedestrian batting average to rise as he gets some more at bats.

Nick – Nick might be our best all around player at the moment. His pitching has been nearly as good as Jeremy Ma despite having nowhere near as much experience. He has an extremely respectable 1.47 OPS. He runs well, loves baseball, is eager to learn. Not a whole lot you can say which isn’t positive. We saw a bit of mental weakness yesterday. His being a dominant pitcher, as he has been for us, was more of a metamorphosis than an evolution and so the mental part is something he doesn’t have a lot of practice with. Additionally, his pitching of two innings is still a hit or miss prospect. He’s lights out for an inning nearly every time but the second inning is something he needs to master a little bit better. But I think he’ll get there.

Jared – Much to my surprise you could make an argument for his being the third best pitcher on the team after Nick and Jeremy Ma. He’s definitely our best catcher. Hopefully he’ll continue to grow in these areas. His hitting is alright though nowhere nearly as good as I’d thought at the start of the season.

Matt S – He’s perhaps the nicest kid on our team. He’s so big it is easy to forget that he’s only in 5th grade. He’s very rough around a lot of edges part of it is likely because his body hasn’t caught up to his size yet so the coordination isn’t all there. However, if that happens he could be a real good player. His hitting isn’t what I would like especially as he has a tendency to strike out. But I think that’s clearly because of his coordination difficulties. We need to find him a couple more chances at catcher before the season ends.

Austin – He’s pretty good at making contact with the ball. However, the ball doesn’t tend to go anywhere when he does make contact. He hasn’t grown nearly as much as I would have liked. We did some work with him on his pitching but that just didn’t turn out. I think the lack of practices hurt him more than any other player.

Alec – He has quite a bit of potential at catcher though I’m not sure we’re going to be able to realize it all this season. He’s also shown some ability at pitcher which I’m not sure we’re going to fully realize either. However, he’s come a long way in a short time and should be proud of what he’s accomplished this year.

Noff – Quiet kid. He seems like he’s an OKish pitcher. Steve and I have had to work hard to make sure he doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, especially as he’s our worst hitter. Hopefully he’ll continue to find success in the other things he does for us. I just wish he wasn’t so afraid to bunt, a fear I don’t quite understand, as I thin he’d be really good.

Sean – He started off the season hitting so well. And then he dropped off. I think some of this is because he went up there scared after getting hit a couple of times. I don’t really know the cure for that. He’s also wildly inconsistent in terms of his attention. He’s a passable catcher, though I am glad that Jeremy Me seems to be panning out more since it means that we really won’t have to play him come playoff crunch time. I hope we can turn his hitting back around in the time we have left.

Jeremy F – He’s been a pleasant surprise. I actually think if the guy wasn’t afraid of his shadow he’d be a good ball player. He really struggles against top notch pitching but otherwise is great about making contact and getting on base, having the smallest differential between his BA and OBP, which is ok as he gets a “hit” (remembering we count almost all error assisted hits as hits rather than outs for purposes of computing BA and OBP) 55% of the time.

Jeremy Me – We haven’t gotten him an inning lately though part of that is because we haven’t played a whole lot lately. I really wish I could figure out why he can’t start an inning for us without falling apart as when he’s on he’s great. His turning out to be a serviceable catcher is a great bonus. We just have to figure out a way to get him back on the mound.

That segues into one of our biggest problems right now. We have more pitchers who deserve time than innings. I don’t really like to just concede games so we’ll continue to use Nick and Jeremy Ma. After the innings they’ve gotten we have a fairly dense groupings of innings pitched. It’s a nice dilemma to have, but still a balancing act to get everyone some quality time on the mound.

Tonight will be interesting as we’re only going to have 9 players, including having Noff’s little brother. This is due to a band concert, so perhaps the other team will be in the same position as us, however I’d feel a whole lot better if I knew that Cameron was going to be there for sure.

[Barkeep49]

Well Wednesday was another disappointment. We had to call the game after only 4 innings because we were blown out. The problem is that we scored only 1 run compared to the many we scored the last time we played the A's. Sure there were fielding miscues and mishaps. Sure our pitching could have been sharper, but that doesn’t get around the fact that we scored 1 run. Our bats have just died. I don’t know why it is and it’s incredibly frustrating. Steve also cost us a run by attempting to steal home with Noff’s little brother, who was playing for us. This kid was ill prepared for that demand and was tagged out easily, but would have scored when the batter hit a single. This isn’t the first time that this has happened and I did say something to him about how that wasn’t the right situation. However, what does 1 run matter in this context? Not a whole lot. The mystery of why our bats have just stopped is puzzling and frustrating to me and I wish I had the answer. My inadequacies as a baseball coach are showing through again which is a good deal of my frustration. Hopefully we’ll turn it around soon, as the season is rapidly drawing to a close and I’d like to have a successful playoff.

[Barkeep49]

Well we finally came together and did some hitting winning 8-4. We were never seriously in jeopardy after a big 5 run first inning. Now granted we left runners in scoring position in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, all with less than 2 outs. That was frustrating. Still it was good coasting to a nice easy win.

Steve and I did two things that I think helped contribute to our big day. First, we didn’t put any pressure on about hitting. I think we caused the team to obsess a bit too much and so we were swinging at bad balls. We also redid our lineup, using the one time a season allowance for that. It’s not a whole lot different than before, in that many of the same players are still grouped together but here is our modified versus original:

Cameron (+1) Jeremy Ma
Jeremy F (+9) Cameron
Nick (+2) Justin
Jeremy Ma (-3) Jared
Justin (-2) Nick
Alec (+2) Matt S
Jeremy Me (+5) Austin
Jared (-4) Alec
Sean (+1) Noff
Matt S (-4) Sean
Austin (-4) Jeremy F
Noff (-4) Jeremy Me

Considering we hadn’t seen Jeremy Me or Jeremy F before our first game, and they were the biggest movers, I think we did pretty well overall at crafting our original lineup versus what we have now that we’ve seen them and have some stats.

On the good side of the game was Jeremy Me. The kid had been lock down good for us when he came in relief, but had been rather poor when he started an inning. We’re dealing with a small sample size here, given, but his stuff just looked better when we’ve seen him in relief than starting an inning. However, we need him to start innings for us come the play offs (after yesterday’s game only 3 left). Anyhow we decided he needs some pressure to focus (the opposite of most kids) and so we tried starting him. He pitched well for us, which was a great difference to how we’ve been starting games. We then responded with that monster first inning capped off with a bases loaded legitimate triple by Jeremy Me.

Justin also was a positive for the game. He had some absolutely amazingly heads up base running in the 3rd. After a well hit ball to right center he tried to stretch it out to a double. When that didn’t work he forced a run down. While that rundown went on Jeremy Ma was able to score. When they diverted a throw from the run down to home, Justin then ended up at second anyway. After being advanced to third, he drew a throw home on a dribbler allowing the batter (either Jared or Jeremy Me) to reach safely, but while the throw went home he was standing back at third . He also pitched an OK 5th inning to cap off our victory.

On the negative side is Nick. Both Steve and I commented that he looked out of it before the game started and this was true. He struck out twice, only his second and third strike outs for the season. He also didn’t look too commanding his first inning and fell apart in the second inning we threw him. Part of this was compounded by two throwing errors by Jeremy Ma, which advanced runners farther than they should have, and one error by Nick. Still while these runs can’t be fully attributed to Nick, the fact was he just didn’t have his stuff. We seem to have to seriously consider the idea that as much as we would like he might not be up to pitching two innings. I really think he is up to it, but we have to face the reality that he might not be up to it. If he’s not that means for the playoffs we’ll need six pitchers instead of the five I had thought we’d need. In the playoffs, unless math interferes, you play six innings. Using a 2-2-1-1 pitching schedule you need four pitchers, plus one in relief, plus having 5 pitchers allows you to mix-up who is throwing in a game keeping people fresher. If we go 2-1-1-1-1 we’ll need a sixth pitcher. This means that someone out of the group of Alec, Matt S, Noff, and Cameron will need to emerge. I feel like we’ve given Cameron his shot and he just doesn’t have it. The most likely candidates out of that group are Matt S and Alec, I feel, so we’ll have to see how each of them do. We won’t have Jeremy Ma or Nick on Saturday so that should give us some opportunities to try out some pitchers.

We needed a good performance and it was good to get it. Hopefully we’ll keep the momentum up tonight.

[Barkeep49]

Another day another victory. The most remarkable thing about today’s game was the fact that it was a shut-out. A shut-out in little league around here is truly a rarity. Now really a lot of that was luck. In the second inning Alec could not get the ball across the plate to save his life. However, the other team ran on passed balls and we got two outs at the plate that way. Alec didn’t really deserve any outs based on his pitching. He threw 17 pitches with not one recorded strike, though two balls were hit into play. The inning could have been disastrous. After he walked to load the bases, for the third time in the inning, I pulled him. Jeremy Ma came in and struck out the worst player on their team to end the inning and preserve our shutout.

But then again to record a shutout you’ll need some luck. So besides the two plays at the plate to limit runs, we also had other good fortune. For instance, with Jared on the mound the first batter of the 4th inning, their cleanup hitter hits a hard hit ball to between second and first. Nick ranges far off the bag to get it, however Jared never made any effort to go to first. Nick won’t win a footrace to the bag, however he won’t have to as Matt S makes the play with ease. Sometimes, as Napoleon was rumored to have said, it’s better to be lucky than good.

Not that it was all luck. No pitcher, including Jeremy Ma who threw 1 1/3 threw more than 21 pitches. They only had 9 base runners, which includes 5 from Alec. In other words Jeremy Me, in his second consecutive start, Jeremy Ma and Jared all threw incredibly well. This sort of lights out pitching bodes very well for our play-off chances, especially if we can find a 6th friggin pitcher.

In reality they could have easily broken through the shut-out. They were the home team and when we went up by 9 in the top half of the 5th, pressing up against the time limit, I figured they’d still want to bat. However, their coach called it quits. Which is too bad as I was going to throw Noff, considering that we need another pitcher for the play-offs and Alec blew his audition tonight. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to give their team one last at bat, but I guess they felt truly down after a drubbing.

The real problem for them was that their pitchers couldn’t find the strike zone with a laser guided missile. We had 12 walks tonight. Combined with some aggressive base running, a couple of key hits, and we get to 9 runs. It was truly a team effort as 8 of our 12 players scored a run and everyone, except our team leading hitter Cameron, reached base safely (and on their own merits).

There are of course other positives to mention but I won’t go on.

However, tonight didn’t really get us any closer to figuring out the playoff puzzle. Alec might get a chance on Saturday to redeem himself, but I don’t know. Jared shows signs that he could pitch two innings. However, if we’re pitching him two we can’t really catch him three, more like one. That MIGHT be doable if Sean can catch for us. We laid it on the line with him tonight and explained that there is the focused and unfocused Sean. Yesterday we got the focused Sean. We got that again tonight.

The thing is we’re blessed with a surplus of talent. We have no less than three kids, Jeremy Me, Jeremy Ma, and Jared we can comfortably throw behind the plate. Of course the problem is that those are three of our best pitchers right there, which adds to their wear and tear. There has to be a solution to our jigsaw problem, I just haven’t discovered it yet. There’s still time, and if Sean can keep being focused that would certainly help somewhat, but really the issue is we need just one more pitcher. So who’s it going to be?

[Barkeep49]

Well it seems fitting that after one of our best games of the season we come out and have trouble. The pitching was about what I expected. Well Nick in the first let up more than I’d have expected but that was due to Matt S catching him more than anything. Alec actually did better than I was expected and settled down after the first few batters. He was also helped out when Noff made a great play on a ball hit to him at second, tagging a runner going to second before throwing to first for the double play. Speaking of Noff he pitched his normal way, which is he gets the ball over the plate though he will be hit (he averages less than a walk an inning but about 3 hits an inning). Jeremy Me also had a nice inning in the fifth striking out two and basically looking in command the whole time, though he did allow a walk and a hit. Matt S, however, did not pitch well and had to be relieved in favor of Jared.

It looked like Jared was going to pitch two, however, Jeremy Me got the nod in the 5th after Alec through a hissy fit after striking out and his father removed him from the game meaning we needed Jared to catch. It was Alec’s second hissy fit of the game. After the game Steve and I talked to both twins as Austin had his own fit after he tried to stretch a double into a triple, against Steve’s orders, and got tagged out when he overran the base. It was very disappointing and we let them know it.

Also disappointing were our bats. Now granted we were missing Jeremy Ma and Cameron, two of our better hitters, but we just couldn’t get much going. Particularly frustrating was the third inning when the were not throwing a good pitcher and we just utterly failed to take advantage of the situation.

And, as there often is in a game of this sort, we had some bad luck without any countervailing good luck.

The play-offs start for us next Saturday. We used today as a last chance for people to get some innings in at various positions we won’t use them at again. We’ll get a little more serious on Tuesday, our last game, before our playoff debut. Despite yesterday’s debacle, I still feel very good about our chances. But I’ll do more of a playoff preview and end of the regular season wrap-up on Wednesday or Thursday.

[Barkeep49]

Our last game of the regular season was a good one and so I think we’ll go inning by inning for this one.

Pre-Game
One of the schools had an event last night and of course we have three players from that school so we had just nine players, with Sean, Jeremy F, and Noff all missing. We decided that we were going to give Jared the chance to go two that he didn’t have on Saturday and also we wanted to give Nick one more shot, though under some pretty controlled conditions. Having only 9 players was nice for them since it meant a lot of opportunities to play the infield. Last time we played the Cubs we scored a whole bunch in the top of the 6th inning to come back and win the game by a run. We started the game late because the ump went to the wrong field.

The Game

Austin and Cameron both started off the game with strike-outs. Nick singled and then managed to steal second and third. Unfortunately, Mandel got robbed by the shortstop on a liner and so we don’t score in the inning. After recording two outs, the Cubs manage to load the bases on Jared, before a dribbler back to him at the mound which gets us the third out. 0-0 after 1

They switch pitchers here and we take advantage with a single by Justin, who steals second. When he steals third they over throw the third baseman, on a throw that shouldn’t have been made, and so we get a run and essentially a new inning. Alec strikes out. Jeremy Me singles, gets to second when Jared walks. He steals third and is singled home by Matt S. Austin then singles home Jared, before Cameron grounds out to end the inning. 3-0 BoSox

Jared gets a nice brake when Austin comes up with a well hit ball into center. The next batter rockets a double into deep left, which Cameron does a nice job of getting to and getting back in. Jared hits the next batter. The player on second then steals third on a wild pitch. Next pitch gets by Jeremy Me, who easily recovers the ball. He likely could have made the tag by himself, but he tosses it to Jared who just barely misses the tag. Jared bares down and strikes out that batter and gets the next batter to ground to first. 3-1 after two.

The supposed heart of our order, Nick, Jeremy Ma, and Justin, go down 1-2-3 including 2 strikeouts against the same pitcher we saw in the second. On comes Nick. Nick once again has a rough outing. He ends up lasting only six batters, walking four striking out two. So much for his going two innings. We bring in Justin who strikes out a player to end the inning. Only one run from that inning is fortunate and we maintain a 3-2 lead.

The next inning we stake off. Alec, Jeremy Me, and Jared all hit doubles, followed by a single by Matt S which drives in Jared for our third run. Austin hits into a double play and while Cameron singles Nick pops out. Still we get 3 more runs and go up 6-2.

Justin comes in for his second inning, strikes out the first batter, gets lucky when the second batter CRUSHES the ball, but it hits a tree giving Jeremy Me just enough time to catch the ball for out two. While the next batter walks, the last batter lines out to Justin at the mound. Justin looked very sharp in his inning and a third.

We go down in order in the 5th. The ump has to ump the next game and wants this to be the last inning. However, when Jeremy Ma mows them down, I point out that if we had started on time we still wouldn’t have hit an hour and a half of play time. I get him to agree to play the sixth. While Jeremy Me singles to start things off, we don’t do anything else.

In comes Jeremy Me with a four run lead to protect. And basically our fielding falls apart. There is just one bad fielding play after another. On one Alec calls for a ball which he can’t get to, but Cameron or Justin would have been able to get to. So that’s a hit. On another, it goes through Cameron’s legs at short on a not particularly well hit ball, he simply didn’t get down. On yet another Jeremy Ma fails to come up with a throw at first. Three runs end up scoring before we can get things back into control and we come away with a 6-5 victory. Jeremy Me pitched incredibly well, facing 8 batters on only 17 pitches. Our defense simply failed to come through for him.

Post Game

I give a very upbeat talk about how we played well. And even when things started to go poorly we didn’t lose our cool and we prevailed. We gave the game ball to Alec. Everyone felt real good going into the playoffs which is great. The twin’s mother took the time after the game to thank us for all that we’ve done with them which was real nice of her to do. Also nice was that Steve and I ran into Cameron and his mother at the restaurant we’d gone to after the game and so we had a great dinner talking to him and his mother.

There’ll be another update tomorrow as I outline the playoffs and how we’re approaching them.

[Barkeep49]

Saturday begins our playoffs. We were fortunate to receive a bye, as the brackets are done randomly. There is a good news bad news aspect to that, however. If we lose our first game we’re out of the playoffs. Teams that had a first round game get a consolation game. The good news, of course, is that if we win the first game we either get to play in the championship game or in a 3rd/4th place game.

We will be playing either the Marlins or the Angels for our first game. These would not be the teams I’d pick. We beat the Marlins rather decisively in one game and they beat us even more decisively in the second game we played. The Angels, on the other hand, are the only team we haven’t played, so we have no idea what to expect against them. Our second round game will be against either the A’s or the Orioles, both teams I’m pretty confident we could beat. But even if we don’t we’ll get another game. I just feel like we have such a good team this year, especially after the disaster that was last year, and will admit that I’ll be disappointed if we flame out n the first round.

The rules do change during the playoffs. Where as normally we play either 6 innings, starting no inning after an hour and a half, for the playoffs we play 6 innings. The big “controversy” this year is over a change of the 2-2-1-1 rule. In the regular season a team has to use at least 4 pitchers. However, for the playoffs Kevin decided to change things to a 2-2-2, cutting a pitcher out of the equation. This means teams that have three dominating pitchers have a big advantage over a team like ours where we rely on a bunch of different kids a little.

In order to avoid flaming out in the first round we not going to repeat last year’s mistake of saving our best pitcher for the last two innings. So Jeremy Ma is going to get the start. For the play-offs, as I’ll discuss shortly, you’re allowed to change your lineup for each game. This means that Jeremy should be facing the best players on their team, but hopefully he’ll bring his best stuff.

After two innings of Jeremy our plan is a little more flexible. I think our current plan is to do Jared for an inning or two followed by Justin, who might finish out the start of Jared’s inning and then pitch one of his own or just pitch one of his own, and then to have Jeremy Me ready for the 6th inning save. This leaves Nick out of the equation which might not make sense, because if he can find the strike zone he’s, hands down, our second best pitcher in terms of “stuff”. At the same time having a pitcher in reserve seems like a good thing, as we saw with Nick’s last performance.

Pitching Jared second is important because it will allow him to catch AFTER he’s pitched. Steve and I have agreed that until the last game on Sunday, if we get there, we want to limit our pitchers and catchers to no more than 3 innings combined between the two. That means if we’ll want to use Jared for two innings behind the plate, which I think we will, he’ll pitch just one. We can get an inning from Jeremy Ma, an inning or two from Jeremy Me, which means we’ll be relying on Alec for an inning behind the plate, which is hardly my favorite solution. All things being equal he’ll likely catch the first inning of Jeremy Ma, and I don’t know what after that. Having a catcher who catches the balls means more strikes. It’s not that Alec doesn’t catch the ball, but then again it’s not like he really does either.

In the field certain kids will be slotted into certain spots as well. Noff, for instance, has proven to be incredibly heads up at second base and we’re excited to put him there. Other kids will be more of a mystery. First base itself is a bit of a mystery. Jeremy F and Matt S both like playing there. Are they considerable downgrades from other options? I’m not sure. At the same time I don’t really feel good about them there. It’s likely Jeremy F will see some time there cause I feel considerably worse about putting him elsewhere. Matt S remains a bit of an enigma.

The nice thing is that we will only have to sit two an inning on Saturday, which makes scheduling SO much easier. The bad news is that we are sitting two an inning because Cameron will not be there. This is a major minus when it comes to our hitting. He is arguably the best hitter on the team and it’s not easy to just replace that. Though Cameron has been in a bit of a slump lately. I think the leadoff position is just not the right spot for him. However, it is perfect for Jeremy Ma who draws a lot of walks. After that I think we’re looking at something along the lines of Nick, Jared, Jeremy Me, Jeremy F. At the bottom of the lineup we’ve got (going up) Noff, Sean, and Matt S. That leaves Austin, Alec, and Justin somewhere in the middle. The nice thing is that unlike last year we don’t really have a part where we can’t count on ANY hits. If we can make their pitcher throw a lot of pitches in the first inning I really feel like we could do some damage in the second.

So I enter this weekend upbeat and hopeful, though quite nervous. I had some unease when we were entering the basketball tourney, but I knew we were still a favorite to get to the championship game. Here, I feel like we have the talent, but we’re not SO much better than the field that we’ll need some luck, or to at least avoid bad luck, to go forward.

I’m not sure if I’ll update Saturday or after the weekend on how we do, but you can count on a full report.

[Dutch]

Saturday begins our playoffs. We were fortunate to receive a bye, as the brackets are done randomly. There is a good news bad news aspect to that, however. If we lose our first game we’re out of the playoffs. Teams that had a first round game get a consolation game. The good news, of course, is that if we win the first game we either get to play in the championship game or in a 3rd/4th place game.

This must be fairly universal, as we are doing almost the exact same thing. (and yes, I would prefer the consolation game...but no biggie.)

[Barkeep49]

Steve and I are at his house doing the lineups, and nearly done with them at that, when we get a phone call letting us know that Cameron will be at the game. We’re very excited by this. It does mean that we have to redo our batting order and lineup, but we make it work. We decide to go with the following batting order:
Jeremy Ma, Nick, Cameron, Jeremy Me, Jared, Jeremy F, Austin, Alec, Justin, Matt S, Sean, and Noff.

Having to play the two games, hopefully back to back, means we have to use our pitchers wisely, and also balance out kids catching with their pitching. Steve and I both feel real good heading into the day. Hopefully our optimism will be justified.

Angels vs. Red Sox

We lose the coinflip and so we’re the away team. Their pitcher goes out there and retires us in order, including two strike outs. Jeremy Ma frustrates me by once again swinging at the first pitch. The kid does very well when he waits until later in the count, but he seems to swing all too often at that first pitch. It looks like we’ll have our own 1-2-3 inning, until their third batter doubles. Jeremy Ma walks the next guy, but we get the next batter to dribble out to first base to end the first inning 0-0.

We get going though in the second. Jeremy Me walks. Jared then singles. Frist strikes out, but it doesn’t matter when Austin doubles home Jeremy Ma. Alec then singles home Austin. Justin and Sherman keep our rally going by each singling, which drives home Alec. Unfortunately Sean and Noff each strike out to end the inning. Still four big runs is good news for us.

Jeremy Ma comes back out and facing the middle and bottom of their lineup makes things interesting after he walks a couple of guys but we get out of the inning without any damage thanks to a couple of timely strikeouts.

With us at the top of our order I hope we’ll get some runs going. Jeremy Ma does his part by singling. Unfortunately, Nick grounds into a fielders choice. Things don’t look good when Cameron strikes out for out number two. Jeremy and Jared walk, with Jared’s at bat proving to be especially crucial as Nick finds an opportunity to steal home on a passed ball. We get a run.

Jared is our next pitcher, and he just doesn’t have his normal stuff. After getting the last player in their lineup to ground out, we’re back at the top of their order. And their leadoff player doubles. Jared then walks the next three. Things look like they might be OK when we get the force out at home thanks to a nice throw by Justin at short. Unfortunately Jared walks another player, which is the second run he’s walked in. It also means we have to pull him. When I went out to the mound after his third walk he offered me the ball. I didn’t take it, but it shows that he was clearly rattled and perhaps I should have. Justin comes into pitch in relief. And unfortunately their batter rockets a 2 run double into left center. Fortunately Alec pulls down the next ball in right to end the inning, which could have been another run or two if he dropped it. Game is now tied at 4 going into the 4th.

Austin lines out to second base, on a nice play by the second baseman, AK from last year, to start the 4th. We then draw a couple of walks. Sherman is hit by the pitch, and it should be clear that this pitcher just doesn’t have it. Sean continues the walk parade, though Alec has already stolen home. Jsustin then steals home. Noff grounds into a fielders choice, but Jeremy Ma comes through with a single to drive home Sean, but Nick ends our rally with a strikeout. We get three big runs with another nice rally. 7-4 BoSox.

I tell Justin before he goes out there that he is going to be facing the bottom three batters in the order and it would be nice if we could get two outs out of that part of the lineup. We only get one out after a strikeout, followed by an at bat where their player fouls off no fewer than 6, and possibly more, 3-2 pitches. Justin finally walks the guy. Their next batter reaches on an error. When their leadoff player doubles, we let up the run. Happily we get the next two batters and no further damage is done. 7-5 BoSox.

We go down in order, including Cameron racking up a “hat trick” with his third strikeout of the day. He basically was up there looking at pitches which you simply can’t do with two strikes. I’m a little worried at this point, since Nick has not looked good lately for us and he’s our next pitcher. And indeed my worries seem justified when he walks the first two batters. However, he then settles down and strikes out the side. PHEW.

Jeremy F doubles to start of the inning, however, we can’t get him home and so we maintain a two run lead going into the bottom of the sixth. And Jeremy Me comes in and walks the first batter. I’m still feeling good about our chances though, as we’re once again at the bottom of their lineup. The next at bat is beautiful. We get a three pitch strike out and on the third strike the runner attempts to steal second. Jared throws him out for a crucial double play. Their last player strikes out and the Red Sox win the game.

This was a crucial game because it means we get to play two more and will either reach the championship or the 3rd/4th place game. We’re all very excited and upbeat after this first crucial victory. Our next opponent will be the A’s, who we’re 1-1 against, and so we know we should have a good game on our hands.