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Old 04-04-2006, 11:38 PM   #1
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
A Little Little League Team RL Dynasty

Ok I’ve tried doing one of my coaching experiences as a dynasty before. I still think of JonInMiddleGA’s dynasty about his rather turbulent year as a baseball coach to be one of my favorite dynasties. So here’s an attempt. If you stop now and don’t read until there are say 15 posts in the thread, I wouldn’t blame you. But if there are 15 posts already hopefully you’ll find an interesting read about youth baseball.

Background
Last year I was going through the mail and for some reason saw the Park District’s athletics brochure. I then got the idea to coach a team in the house baseball league. I wanted to do it with somebody as I was only 23 at the time and so there would be a sort of “safety” in numbers. I had previously coached a high school prep league basketball team (the sport I really am best qualified to coach in) and wanted to have a coaching experience in the spring. I contacted a former best friend from high school, who I had fallen out of touch with after our first year of college, to see if he’d be interested in doing it with me. We agreed to do the 5th-6th grade league as that would have the kids be old enough that they would have some grasp of the basics, but not so old that we didn’t know a million times more about how to play baseball then they did.

He was and so we ended up coaching the Mets last year. It was a good experience as we were matched with an assistant coach, purely by luck, who was normally a head coach but was starting a new job and so he was unsure if he’d have the time to be a head coach. I was technically the head coach, but in reality it was more that we were all co-coaches with none of us ever raising a fuss about decisions that were made. My friend, whose name is Steve, and I did the lineups and such, but having that experienced coach in our corner was invaluable. I feel like we both learned a lot and we had the time of our lives doing it. Our team ended up finishing in 3rd place out of the 16 teams so we felt really good about it. I really can’t express what a blast we had. We decided, however, that we were ready to do it on our own this year.

The Team Comes Together

In previous years what they had done is all the coaches got together and evaluated the players. They then drafted a team. After the draft teams were distributed randomly so you most likely did not get the team you drafted. This year they did it differently. Rather then evaluating the kids through a 3 hour clinic they had the coaches fill out extensive evaluations at the end of the previous season. This, combined with any changes from this year’s clinic, which coaches could not attend was how they graded the players. They then simply put people onto teams. The catch was that they also didn’t tell anyone that they would be coaching until AFTER the teams were out. Steve and I at first felt we were being jerked around, but really it wasn’t true, they just did things in a sort of strange manner.

When the roster came out, we saw that we were indeed coaches and would be co-coaching the Marlins. Looking over the roster I knew about a quarter of the kids. Despite our wishing and hoping we didn’t get any of the same kids as last year. As I said at the time I felt that their combined weight was MAYBE as much as me. Further, despite this being baseball, and their being a separate softball league, one of the players I knew was a girl. I happen to know she was a complete tomboy and from what little I knew most likely an excellent athlete, but this combined with the complete lack of skill that I expected from the other players did not make me hopeful.

The First Practice

Today was our first practice. Last year we had 2 practices and then the rest of the days were games. This year we are going to have 3 practices before the first game and then at least 1 of the 3 days each week is a practice. This will be quite different and I think might actually be too much practice for a house league (there’s something nice about just letting them play) but it will allow Steve and I to do things we couldn’t do last year.

Whereas Steve would be happy to wing things, the teacher in me knows that planning must be done and so it seems like I will be doing most of the outlining of what we do during practice, which is fine. As we have 3 kids who cannot make Tuesday practices, nor games, we decided to save fielding, pitching/catching until tomorrow when the whole squad will be there as in Majors baseball good fielding wins more games (or rather doesn’t lose them) then anything else.

As such today was a hitting practice. After stretching and quick intro, half of the 9 (1 Hebrew School kid was there) kids went with Steve to do hitting off the Tee while the other half was with me doing whiffle golf ball hitting. After we did that for about 40 minutes we were able to use the baseball diamond (2 teams practice on the same field) and so we played a hitting/conditioning game. Turns out during one group at the Tee somebody made a derogatory remark against Mexicans, which wasn’t so good as one of our players is Latino.

After both teams had a chance to bat we called them in, at second base away from the parents (that was Steve’s excellent idea) and focused on the importance of us as a team. I think it was a pretty successful practice all things considered

Meet the Team

Steve got to the field before I did. A father and his son were already there. The first thing the father says to Steve is “You’ve got your work cut-out for you.” He goes onto explain that his son, a kid of average height for a 6th grader, was going to be one of the tallest people on the team. And this proved to be entirely true. One of the kids even admitted during practice today that there are a couple kindergartners bigger then he is, which as a 5th grader isn’t what you want. The team we got last year was no real shakes either, but they came together extremely well and developed as players well, so I still hold out hope for a successful season.

Let’s do a person by person breakdown. I am going to use initials so as to protect their identities.

J.F. – This is our girl. She’s a Hebrew Schooler so we’ll see her tomorrow.
T.G. – Could be the best player on the team. Though I haven’t really seen him pitch except loosely to his dad it’s likely he’ll be our starting pitcher. Above average, though not knockout, hitter.
E.G. – This kid carries himself like an athlete. During our game he ran so hard he made himself sick he ran so hard, so you’ve got to like the hustle. Thing is he couldn’t make contact with a moving ball. I keep wanting to think that he was just excited as it was the first practice, as his form is decent, but he is swinging too soon for the most part, but he’s a bit of a mystery for now.
A.K.— Hebrew schooler
J.M. Our tallest player. He’s not a great hitter, and has your typical 6th grader’s focus, which is to say not much, BUT he’s the sort of kid who, without being asked, will go and get balls that were hit. He has a sense of humor so he isn’t a goody too shoes either. He needs to not be so stiff in his batting posture.
F.O. – Hebrew schooler. I know his twin older brothers well and both are below average athletes. One of them tells me he’s more athletic then them so perhaps he’ll be OK.
J.S. – This is the kid who is shorter then kindergartners. Besides being short he also seems like a bit of a goof. Steve is much more down on him then I am.
E.S. – Next to TG he is in contention for our best player. He can hit everything. And he’s a lefty. During whiffle ball practice he was able to hit things all over the strike zone. As we use a continuous batting order (so the kid who got the last out the previous game bats last the next game) he’ll be our #1 hitter. He’s one of the kids I knew and as the whole family is athletes, and nice, I am very excited to have him on my team.
B.S.1 – When I first looked over the roster I didn’t remember that I knew this kid. I know him from when I was student teaching and his mom really likes me, which is always a plus. He seems to have a good grasp of some technical areas, such as how to position ones self for a cut-off, but isn’t a great hitter or fielder as I remember him pretty clearly from last year.
B.S. 2 – Our Latino kid who also happens to be white trash. Thinks more highly of himself then his skills merit, but I like it that way rather then the other way around. Is above average on our team, but not really above average.
K.S. – An immigrant from somewhere in the former Soviet Union, his mother sounds like Checkov from Star Trek and he still has a noticeable Russin accent. Seems like a really good kid, but he couldn’t hit a moving ball to save his life. Good news? He’s perhaps the fastest kid on the team, and as I said we’re doing pretty well in the speed department. As a stop gap measure, until his hitting comes around, if it comes around (he needs a lot of work) I think we’ll make sure he understands the basics of bunting.
P.W. – I know this kid plays travel baseball because I saw his name on the roster and his mother told me he did. He is also very fast, in our game where most kids got 6 bases, he got 7. That said I haven’t seen the sort of skills I otherwise expect from a travel player. We’ll see.

And that’s our team. Look for an update tomorrow after our second practice, first with the whole team. It’s going to be a fielding practice, and we’re going to start to see who our pitches and catchers are. Should be a good one.


Last edited by Barkeep49 : 04-04-2006 at 11:39 PM.
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Old 04-05-2006, 12:30 AM   #2
Vince
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Willow Glen, CA
Excellent idea for a dynasty! I was toying around with trying to become an assistant coach in my new neighborhood's little league, but I won't have enough time this year. I'll be following along though. Good luck!
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Old 04-05-2006, 03:23 AM   #3
Izulde
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Glad to see this dynasty! Coaching youth sports was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, though I did soccer, not baseball.
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Old 04-05-2006, 07:18 AM   #4
wade moore
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vince
Excellent idea for a dynasty! I was toying around with trying to become an assistant coach in my new neighborhood's little league, but I won't have enough time this year. I'll be following along though. Good luck!

I look forward to this dynasty for similar reasons. I have strongly considered trying to catch-on with the pee-wee football team in the area.
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Originally Posted by Subby
Maybe I am just getting old though, but I am learning to not let perfect be the enemy of the very good...
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Old 04-05-2006, 10:15 PM   #5
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
Day 2

As I said yesterday today was to be a fielding and pitching practice. Steve’s younger brother, Scott, who plays high school varsity baseball was there which was great. At the start of practice we only had 9 of 12 which was a bit of an annoyance. One showed up late, but he’d told us that he was going to be late and we’d forgotten, and one, I don’t know what his story was. Anyway Steve and I had divided them into three groups:

1. People who weren’t here yesterday
2. People who were here and not so hot
3. People who played travel

With only 9 there at the start of practice, I used some quick thinking and we quickly had three new groups. Group 1 was F.O., who we didn’t see yesterday, and J.S., E.G., and K.S. who were all weak hitters. Group 2 was our travel players with E.S., T.G., and P.W. and group 3 was B.S.1 and B.S.2. Group 1 went with Scott for hitting, Group 2 with Steve for grounders, and Group 3 with me for fly balls.

Fly-Ball Practice
Once again B.S.1 impressed me with his strong grasp of fundamentals. Before we started shagging the balls I asked them what the first thing they had to do in order to catch a flyball. Most kids said something like “call for it” or “square to the ball” or “take a step back” of all of which were great answers but not what I was looking for. After giving a guess B.S.1 was the only one to realize that I was looking for “Focus on the batter”. As I mentioned yesterday focus is a huge issue here and it was something I wanted to stress from the start. All-in-all, they did a very good job at my station with catching and communicating for fly balls.

At this point I should talk about A.K. He was in my last group for fly balls. He was a Hebrew kid from yesterday and I’m not quite sure when he showed up. Anyway he came over and immediately there was something I didn’t like about his attitude. We were going over the reminders of how to catch a fly ball and he just blurts out “Can we start doing it?” As I have been asked similar sorts of questions during class I was not phased, but it hardly endeared me to him.

As we are walking about to rejoin the other groups before we split into pitchers and catchers he tells me how he pitched last year (in the lower age group league which is called “Triple A”) and he and his dad have been practicing this year. Now at this point I missed a chance to be good. What I should have said was something along the lines of “That’s great! I can’t wait to see you pitch!” I don’t recall quite what I said, but it was far more muted. His brusque nature got in the way there, which is unfortunate.

Pitchers and Catcher

Steve used to be a catcher and so after a brief talk about how if there were any positions a player was dying to try or wanted to avoid to talk to us, we asked who had an interest in being our catchers. The kids who were most enthusiastic were E.G., J.M., F.O., and B.S.2. B.S.2 is a Red Sox fan and evidently he told Steve that he kind of thought of himself like Jason Veritek, which was amusing in a good sort of way. E.S. also explained that he had done a bunch of catching last year in the Triple A, but that he didn’t play that for travel. After practice I asked him if he played catcher last year because his coach told him to or because he enjoyed it and found out he enjoyed it.

The rest of the team, including E.S., came with myself and Scott. Scott, who had pitched for the High School team, led them through the five basic steps of pitching. At that point it was our turn to take the diamond and so I went and caught while Scott stood next to them as they pitched off the mound. After Steve had done his spiel with the catchers they took my space and after everyone had gone through the pitching once, throwing five pitches, we put the team out in the field and put in a batter. Ostensibly this was to do live batting practice, but was really my idea to see how the pitchers did with a kid in the batter’s box.

Evaluating the Catchers
We learned that J.M., E.G., and B.S.2 are all serviceable catchers, though E.G. has no arm strength, partly I think because he has a poor throwing mechanic which we can work on, which will limit his time behind the plate. F.O. I have the feeling was with the catchers not because he wanted to catch, but rather because he didn’t want to pitch. He will not be seeing much time behind the plate. With J.M. and B.S.2 being serviceable or better catchers, combined with what I am presuming is a E.S.’s ability to be at least a serviceable catcher, we’re in unbelievable shape.

In our league you have six inning games. The rule is that you can’t play the same position for more then two innings EXCEPT for catcher, so you need at least two catchers. Having three is great incase somebody gets sick or otherwise can’t make a game. We lost two games, and those are just the ones that I remember, last year due to our putting kids who couldn’t really catch behind the plate. Not only do your pitchers get robbed of strikes when the catcher can’t catch the balls, but players can only steal after the ball passes the plate. So basically a catcher who can’t catch turns a single into a triple if they allow passed balls and it can even be a homerun with a long at bat.

Evaluating the Pitchers
As for our pitchers there was little that was surprising. No one kid pitched long enough to see much of anything, but it seems that T.G. will be our Ace pitcher. E.S. seems pretty good.

After that the talent drops off substantially. The 5th graders, except for E.S., in particular struggled. The distance between the mound and the plate is longer in the Majors then in Triple A so this isn’t surprising or a particular cause for alarm for me. From an early impression it seems that J.S., who if you recall is the adorable kindergarten sized player, can consistently get the ball over the plate. If this holds true he’ll get quite a few innings at least early on. Despite the fact that the fielding is often terrible, I would rather have a kid get hit repeatedly then walk kids. This is partly because our league has, thankfully, rules about how many walks a pitch can throw before he is yanked, but also because walks cause the defense to lose focus. Having balls hit keeps the players in the game and can help lead to better plays. And partly because a lot of kids in the league quite simply can’t hit and so they’re likely to strike out, ground out, against even a poor pitcher and an out is an out. All this means we preach “Greg Maddix” pitching to all but our best pitchers: “You don’t have to be fast to be good”.

P.W., who is a travel player, looked like he had some good heat on the ball, but had some control issues. When I reminded him about our desire for control over speed, during his second go round he dropped some speed off the pitches but had more consistency with control, so that was good. A.K. was clearly frustrated with himself and what he was pitching as was B.S.1. The rest of the kids were largely unremarkable, though there could be talent there that just didn’t come out in the time we had today.

While we can do pitchers for more innings we will likely do each pitcher for 1 inning during our first game, which isn’t until a week from Saturday (I’ll explain more below).

In Conclusion

All in all Steve and I were very heartened by today’s practice. Granted it wasn’t a game situation, but they performed pretty well. We didn’t get to play a game today which is a minus, but otherwise it was a very successful practice.

J.F., our girl, still hasn’t showed up despite supposed to having been there today. I will be calling tomorrow to see why not and see if I can’t get her to come to some of Tuesday’s practice so we’ll see her before the first game.

We haven’t yet discussed our next practice yet but as I normally do the idea generation, with Steve suggesting tweaks, I think we’ll start introducing bunting, work on throwing (as in fielding) and do some extended player to player batting. Our next practice isn’t until next Tuesday as Saturday is uniform pick-up day. Our first game isn’t until a week from Saturday, due to Passover starting Wednesday night, which is a tortuously long time away.

Last edited by Barkeep49 : 04-05-2006 at 10:56 PM.
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Old 04-05-2006, 10:18 PM   #6
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
Thanks to Vince, Izulde, and wade for the kind comments. I hope you guys will enjoy this.

To you, or others, please feel free to ask questions or make comments/suggestions of any sort as we go along.
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Old 04-05-2006, 10:28 PM   #7
wade moore
lolzcat
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
Are you intending to go back and give A.K. a chance to pitch, or did you and he was just one of the "unremarkable" kids?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Subby
Maybe I am just getting old though, but I am learning to not let perfect be the enemy of the very good...
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Old 04-05-2006, 11:01 PM   #8
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
Quote:
Originally Posted by wade moore
Are you intending to go back and give A.K. a chance to pitch, or did you and he was just one of the "unremarkable" kids?
Thanks for bringing that up. I thought I had included something on that subject, and it turns out I had when I wrote A.M. (which are the initals of two students in my class). AK was one of the 5th graders who complained about the mound distance so he'll get another look. Right now for our six inning game I think we'll likely do the pitchers in roughly the following order:
TG
JS or AK
ES
The other between JS and AK
PW
BS1

I'll touch on this subject more in my post next Tuesday or as an intro for the first game post as there are a few rules that effect strategy here.

Last edited by Barkeep49 : 04-07-2006 at 01:41 PM.
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Old 04-07-2006, 01:41 PM   #9
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
The Mother
So who should walk in just yesterday as I am working at the library? But AK's mother. And we have a great converstaion about his reading and I help her find the book she's looking for. And then as she's just about left the department and is agood 60 feet away from me she turns around and says "Make sure to give him a chance to pitch he's really good."

I love the fact that mom is promoting the party line to me. It gives me an inkling of hope that perhaps it's not just a party line, but we'll see.

The No Show
I still have no clue where JF has been. We knew she was going to miss Tuesday but when I called last night wondering about Wednesday I left a message. I hope I hear from her family soon.
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Old 04-09-2006, 01:55 PM   #10
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
Uniform Pick-up

As I had an unfortunate case of a stomache bug, Steve went to the uniform pick-up by himself and discovered that there were only Mediums and Larges which is comical for our team. I sit here picturing JS running in a large t-shirt and tripping every two feet. They promised to order some smaller sizes for us, which is a good thing.
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Old 04-11-2006, 11:40 PM   #11
Barkeep49
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
Before Practice

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Practice Talk with JF

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

The Park District states that in order to play travel you have to play in the house league. However, as JF does not play softball, but rather baseball, Wednesday is a common day between both leagues, with it being their practice day. So JF’s mom and Libby have been emailing and the basic resolution is that JF will come to all our games, but have to miss all practices either for Hebrew or Softball. JF will also, unfortunately, miss several of our games on Saturdays. Basically it seems like she will be around, about 40-60 percent of the time. Steve is considerably less fine with all this then I am. But it is what it will be.

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

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

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

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

Here’s the quick version before a detailed look at it:
JS
TG
ES
BS2
JM
PW
BS1
FO
AK
EG
KS
JF

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

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

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

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

BS2 – Will be our #2 catcher behind JM and shows promise as a catcher. There is a big drop off in talent we perceive between ES and BS2. He does not have very good plate discipline/eye but he can make contact with balls outside the strike zone, which in this league can often turn into errors.

JM – Our #1 catcher. Really gets the leadership aspect. He kept saying to the team to encourage the pitcher today. It was great. He and TG clearly have clicked already as a battery which is great considering he is the only one I am sure can catch him, with BS2, likely being able to as well.

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

BS1 – Had an extended chance to pitch today and could not locate the strike zone with a live batter in there, though he did fare better against righties then lefties, so he’ll be getting an inning Saturday. He muffed an infield groundball and an outfield ground ball. Not good.

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

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

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

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

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

Our pitching order goes as follows:
TG
AM
JS
BS1
ES
PW

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

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

Last edited by Barkeep49 : 04-12-2006 at 12:44 AM.
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Old 04-12-2006, 12:35 AM   #12
Izulde
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I like the detailed analysis. It reminds me of the hours I'd spend going over my own team coaching soccer. Good luck with your first game and I'd be interested in seeing this chart too!
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Old 04-12-2006, 03:04 AM   #13
Vince
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I also like the detail -- looking forward to Saturday
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Old 04-14-2006, 07:41 AM   #14
MIJB#19
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Wow, you have much more to do with your kids group than I have to do. Good luck!
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Old 04-15-2006, 04:54 PM   #15
Barkeep49
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Join Date: Jan 2001
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Before the Game

As the kids trickled in, we had said 15 minutes ahead of time, Steve and I realized 20 was more like it and so we will be changing that for future games. BS2’s father was mildly upset when he started loitering in the dugout and I said that we don’t really allow parents to stay there during games. He said that the coach last year had done it and chatted with him during the games. I said I don’t mind talking during the games, but think it’s important to have space for the players to go without a million fathers around.

Our pregame speech was on focus and taking advantage of the little moments that come so often in baseball. It will not ever be captured on film as one of the all time greats, but was short and effective I believe.

The umpire also came over and gave a rather lengthy speech about the strike zone and that they should be swinging at balls. This umpire spent far more time with our team then the other team, and even at one point stopped the game to coach one of our players, which while it burns me inside on the one hand, can’t hurt us on some kind of unconscious level. So I act as friendly as I can muster to a guy I think pretty clearly is treating us differently, whether for good or ill, because of our age. I remember this ump from last year and he’s one of the more consistent umps, which is good, and he lived true to his word with a very generous strike zone.

Game Recap

We were the away team and so we bat first. We get off to a nice start with JS getting on base thanks to a, surprise surprise, a walk, so far, so good. On our next play TG hits a little blooper to the 2B that I didn’t quite know what to say. I had a feeling he was going to drop it, which he did, but didn’t want to get doubled up either. According to JS’s little brother, who was videoing whenever JS was at bat, I didn’t look too good there. Regardless, the end result was that TG beat out the play at 1st and JS was called out, on a force, at 2nd. Living up to our promise, we had TG steal 2nd at the first available opportunity. ES then ripped one past the 2nd baseman’s reach, easily scoring TG and which turned into a double. BS2 then struck out, without ever taking a swing, and PW hit a hard liner to the 1st baseman to end the inning. 1-0 Good guys.

TG performed as expected, striking out 2 and forcing a weak dribbler to 3 for the last out. We created some more noise in the 3rd, eventually loading the bases with 2 outs, but were unable to capitalize as KS hit a grounder right back to the pitcher. In the bottom of the 2nd, AK hit a batter and gave up a base hit, but then they hit the very end of their order and he struck out and then forced an easy put-out at 2nd to keep it 1-0 us. AK continues to think he’s better then he is, but he should get some chances to pitch.

In the 3rd inning JS hit a ball to the pitcher who made an amazing dive to get the ball and then throw him out at first. TG singled and we got him to 3rd while ES was up. ES then hit one back at the pitcher which scored TG, and then BS2, like seemingly everyone else, hit one back to the pitcher to end the inning 2-0 us.

It’s the bottom of the 3rd when things came apart. JS was pitching against the top of the order. We knew he was hittable, but he would get the ball across. This is what happened. They hit on him and sadly he suffered from truly lousy fielding which ended up in a big 6 run inning. When JS is on the mound, it’s a good reminder that we need a better infield as there will be balls put into play, unlike say when TG is pitching. After getting shelled, I went out and reminded JS that he was pitching great and it was a couple bad bounces which turned this from a 1-2-3 inning into a big inning. Of particular note was a play PW made at short, where he attempted to tag a player rather then just get a force out at 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Steve and I debated after the game a little whether it was the right play, before deciding that if he had gotten the runner out it would have been the right play, but because he dropped the ball on the tag, it would have been better to listen to us and get the easy out at 1st. On the positive side TG, who was playing shallow, had a ball hit over his head. In no time at all he got to the ball and lasered it in to 3rd base to change what should have been a base clearing double into a 2 run double. In the end 5 runs ended up scoring, when it should have been more like 1 or 2, putting us down 5-2.

The 4th saw us go down 1, 2, 3. Up came BS1 to the mound. Somehow he only letup 1 run, despite having almost no control of the ball. BS2, who was catching, did not help matters by letting far too many balls get by him at home plate. He improved during his 2 innings as catcher, but isn’t nearly as solid as I had originally thought. BS2, however, did make a great play. With runners at 1st and 3rd, I told him if the runner at 1st went to fake throwing the ball and then to hold on to and just let him advance. Well BS2 did exactly this, except the ball slipped out of his hand and rolled towards PW at short. PW was, thankfully, aware enough to get the ball and throw it home where BS2, whether through design or providence, was blocking the plate preventing the runner at 3rd from scoring. In the end BS1 struck 2 people out, how I’m still not entirely sure, and got somebody to ground out to SS. If BS1 is to pitch again he will need a LOT of work. With 1 run scoring the score stud at 6-2.

FO had a great at bat in the 5th. At his first at bat he swung at a few balls over his head, and ended up getting a pretty nice lineout to 3rd base. I talked to him about lying off the high ones and he did exactly that. He ended up having about a 7 pitch at bat, thanks to his fouling off of balls and working it to a full count. His patience was rewarded with a single. Sadly that was the extent of our offense that inning. ES started the bottom of the 5th by striking out the first two batters on 7 pitches. He then letup a couple of singles to the top of the order before getting somebody to send an easy roller to 2nd base.

This brought us to the do or die 6th. And frankly we died. TG walked and then used his speed to eventually steal home, but both ES and BS swung at bad balls in the dirt, and this combined with JS grounding out, ended the game 6-3.

Post Game Analysis

The game ball went to FO for his great hustle and at bat. Steve and I work hard to get everybody a game ball so for a player like FO we try and take the opportunities we can to recognize good performance, even if it stretches who really was the player of the game. Hence why we don’t call it game MVP or such.

Well this game causes me great concern about our hitting. Neither of us had a kid who could really rocket the ball, and when we do face a team with a player like that I worry about our ability to handle him. But more then that, I think we’re going to be scratching out every run all season long. Which is what I expected, but still has me more pessimistic about our chances then at the start of the game.

However, this game DID show us a lot of the information we wanted. Steve and I knew that we weren’t necessarily putting our kids in the best position to win, and this was true. The fielding, on both teams, was twenty times better then expected. The pitchers also all worked quickly and so we were able to play out a full six inning game, much to EVERYONE’s surprise, including the Park District guy at the fields. I don’t think that this team was particularly good. So we can either look at it as a bad sign, or as a bad inning costing us the game.

Here is our batting order and field chart for the next game.
Quote:


1
2
3
4
5
6
PW
P
CF
X
LF
2B
1B
JM
X
C
C
C
1B
LF
BS1
SS
X
RF
2B
3B
X
FO
RF
LF
3B
X
C
X
AK
X
3B
SS
X
LF
2B
EG
3B
X
LF
P
SS
RF
KS
CF
1B
X
RF
X
3B
JF
X
RF
2B
3B
CF
X
JS
LF
2B
X
CF
X
SS
TG
2B
P
P
1B
X
CF
ES
1B
X
CF
SS
P
P
BS2
C
SS
1B
X
RF
C

JM continues, we think, to be the only person who can catch TG, so hopefully they will continue their nice rapport. JM continues to act as a team leader as well which is so great to see. We’re giving EG a chance to pitch, as EG asked Steve if he could, and frankly while I agreed to it at the time now I think it was a mistake. We are coming out with a much stronger pitching line-up, however, so as to give us a better chance to win. We are still trying a lot of the things in the field, so players are getting a chance to try all sorts of positions, though Steve and I already have a fairly good idea of where we will really end up slotting people.
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Old 04-15-2006, 04:58 PM   #16
Barkeep49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MIJB#19
Wow, you have much more to do with your kids group than I have to do. Good luck!
Thanks for the good wishes. What do you mean so much more to do?

Izulde: I hope you find the chart above interesting, especially to compare it to what happens on Tuesday.

Vince thanks for the continued reading and good wishes. Hopefully that luck will pay off for us soon.
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Old 04-15-2006, 05:13 PM   #17
Vince
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While I'm impressed that the league wants to make sure everyone gets a chance...isn't it going to be sort of difficult for the kids to learn a position? Each position has tons of different nuances, and if a kid is only playing an inning at a time at a certain position, it's going to be a pain to try to teach a kid to, say, turn a double play at 2B as opposed to at SS. Or to teach a kid when to cheat up in case of a bunt while playing 3B. Or for a 1B to know when to abandon a ground ball to their right to cover the bag.

When I was in little league, I was pretty much a 2nd baseman/Short Stop/Very Rarely a pitcher. Once I started moving up, I got moved to 3B, and eventually to the OF, but I never played 1B or C, and I played the same position usually throughout an entire year.
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Old 04-15-2006, 05:38 PM   #18
Barkeep49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vince
While I'm impressed that the league wants to make sure everyone gets a chance...isn't it going to be sort of difficult for the kids to learn a position? Each position has tons of different nuances, and if a kid is only playing an inning at a time at a certain position, it's going to be a pain to try to teach a kid to, say, turn a double play at 2B as opposed to at SS. Or to teach a kid when to cheat up in case of a bunt while playing 3B. Or for a 1B to know when to abandon a ground ball to their right to cover the bag.

When I was in little league, I was pretty much a 2nd baseman/Short Stop/Very Rarely a pitcher. Once I started moving up, I got moved to 3B, and eventually to the OF, but I never played 1B or C, and I played the same position usually throughout an entire year.
Great question. Pretty soon Steve and I will decide on a kid's infield position. For most it'll be either 2B or 3B. They will then get 1 or 2 innings a game at that position. Can they in that time learn a lot of the nuances? Not really, but they can get a solid grasp of the fundamentals.

Frankly, advanced instruction is left to the travel teams. I can really help a pitcher, whether he's on travel or not, improve and same for a catcher. Beyond that, I wouldn't say a kid will really learn mastery through house league play, but I also don't think that's the intention of the league.

So basically what I'm saying is you have a valid point, it's just that the league doesn't care about it.
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Old 04-15-2006, 05:43 PM   #19
Barkeep49
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DOLA -- I think my intially post might give the impression that a kid doesn't really learn a position. I think I might have understated what we can do. While a kid won't have all of the nuinsances down, they will, for instance, learn about where to throw the ball at "their" position in any game situation. And they do get more specific things, like when a 2B should be covering a bag. So while they might not reach mastery level they do get broad exposure to a lot of concepts that you would need to be successful at that position.

Last edited by Barkeep49 : 04-15-2006 at 05:43 PM.
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Old 04-16-2006, 05:32 AM   #20
MIJB#19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Barkeep49
Thanks for the good wishes. What do you mean so much more to do?
Well, I ment calling up parents to find the kids, more than one training session per week...

I just train the kids once a week and coach they once per month at a tournament. I can't remember having been so busy with it as what it sounds like you are spending time on that team. EDIT: In volleyball.



What I like about the field chart is that you leave all the kids off the field at some point and (I guess) only use the better kids one inning more than the rest. I think that's good for the team spirit. Sure, the kids will complain about being sidelined, but when they notice somebody isn't sidelined ever, you'll be getting more trouble keeping them do what yoiu want them to do.
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Old 04-16-2006, 10:59 AM   #21
Barkeep49
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Join Date: Jan 2001
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MIJB#19
Well, I ment calling up parents to find the kids, more than one training session per week...

I just train the kids once a week and coach they once per month at a tournament. I can't remember having been so busy with it as what it sounds like you are spending time on that team. EDIT: In volleyball.



What I like about the field chart is that you leave all the kids off the field at some point and (I guess) only use the better kids one inning more than the rest. I think that's good for the team spirit. Sure, the kids will complain about being sidelined, but when they notice somebody isn't sidelined ever, you'll be getting more trouble keeping them do what yoiu want them to do.
I would say I spend about 8 hours or so a week on Little League, MIJB. So it's not a ton of time, but it isn't a small investment either, I guess.

A lot of fairness rules are mandated by the league, but Steve and I go out of our way to be fair anyway. For instance, this year there is a new rule stating a kid has to play the infield in the first 3 innings, something Steve and I already did. The logic behind this is that some teams were having their poor kids play in the 5th and 6th innings, which due to time constraints, were often not played. Not only do we think this is the right thing to do by each individual kid, but also helps set the right tone for creating a team.
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Old 04-16-2006, 12:17 PM   #22
astrosfan64
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This is a great dynasty.
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Old 04-16-2006, 12:50 PM   #23
Barkeep49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astrosfan64
This is a great dynasty.
Thanks. I really appreciate that. I hope you will continue to enjoy it.
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Old 04-18-2006, 08:59 PM   #24
Barkeep49
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So we lost and since I have tomorrow off I'm going to save my writeup for then as I just drank half a bottle of wine in about 30 minutes and so I figure I should wait until I've got a clearer head.
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Old 04-18-2006, 10:46 PM   #25
Izulde
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Tough luck starting off with two losses. I remember my first game coaching youth soccer we got hammered 8-0 and I found myself wondering if I was cut out for it. I don't know if you're having some of the same doubts, but if you are, I can tell you that if you stick with it, things can turn around. It certainly did with the squad I coached.

Here's a suggestion regarding BS2: JM is clearly your top C and has a rapport with TG, but since it appears BS2 shows potential and is just raw right now, maybe you could work him with some of the other pitchers to try and find a matchup there too.

The biggest thing with kids who show potential but are raw is confidence. I had a girl who had the height, range, and some experience to play goalie. But she lacked the confidence, so what I did was to split games half and half between her and the girl who was our top goalie at the start of the season, except in cases where there was a shutout going at halftime. Then I refused to switch goalies.

As time went on and she played more often, her natural potential kicked in and by the end of the year, she'd moved up to our starting goalie spot and performed brilliantly to the level that she became one of the strengths of our team at a position that was pretty weak to start the year. As a nice bonus, her mom told mine in private that her self-confidence in all areas had shot through the roof because of the faith I showed in her.

Now I'm not saying the same thing will happen with BS2. I'm just adding in a small bit of advice for you to consider.
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Old 04-19-2006, 09:58 AM   #26
Barkeep49
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Score
So we got shellacked. Final score was 16-3 including 6 runs in the last inning. Glad they got those insurance runs cause we were a real threat considering you can’t score more then 7 in an inning. It’s frankly not worth doing an inning by inning breakdown so you’re going to get the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good
JF is the real deal. She hit the only ball into the outfield, though it was just barely in the outfield, which not so coincidentally was also our only hit. She was also consistently where she needed to be no matter which position she was at, has pretty good speed, and handled, flawlessly, a nasty one hop groundball while at second base.

Despite getting pounded from the first inning on, we basically played the same level all game long; it was a level we’d never win a ballgame with, but it was the same level. At no point were fielders moping or not paying attention.

JM did an excellent job of countering the ridiculous efforts when catching. Basically every time they got a runner to 3rd base, which was often thanks to all of the wild pitches, he held them on.

BS1 is very coachable. When Steve or I explained something to him about fielding, he would remember to do it the next time. I also worked with him on pitching for about 10 minutes before the game and he later threw during a time when he was not scheduled to be in the field to supposedly good results.

KS might be able to play 1st base. This was unexpected really, since he can’t really field ground balls, and is only so-so with flyballs, but looked very solid at his inning there.

The Bad

Steve is an inconsistent base coach. I had forgotten this from last season, but he doesn’t remind his runners to consistently do what they’re supposed to do. So we had a situation where a ball was hit with 2 outs and EG just stood by Steve at 1st base rather then running on contact.

BS2 cannot play 1st base. On the nicely fielded play that JF made he botched an easy throw and then stood around rather then getting the ball, allowing runners to advance. I wouldn’t judge him on one play too harshly, if it weren’t for the fact that he can’t catch either. His catching really belongs in The Ugly. While he is very good at many important catcher skills, like getting the mask off quickly, or throwing it to a base, he’s not so good at the most important of catching skills: catching and blocking the ball. And by not so good I mean terrible. If your catcher isn’t catching the ball you’re not going to get strikes you would get otherwise. Not to mention the havoc it caused on the base paths. Steve and I agree that he needs lot so of work at catcher before he gets more chances. And we’re going to work with him, but our seeming surplus of catchers have turned out not to be so.

This means we are left with-out a #2 catcher. What this means for us is that TG and ES are going to have to step up, or rather behind, the plate. ES has already expressed interest, and caught a pretty good inning in our first game, but TG might need a little coaxing. In fact, I am thinking we might not so much ask him about it, as assign it to him at the next game. Steve and I will have to talk this over.

ES just doesn’t have the arm strength right now to pitch 2 innings. Hopefully he’ll build this up, but when we essentially had to call on him to do this in the game he really struggled during that second inning, even against easier batters.

Our hitting. I mentioned earlier that we didn’t hit it out of the infield except for JF. The good news is that we are hitting the ball, as opposed to striking out. The bad news is that we’re going to need a lot of work on our hitting, and I am not sure I have the chops to be a good hitting coach. I will be doing my best, however, as we work on hitting it past the pitcher.

The Ugly

Our pitching. PW was a huge disappointment walking 4 of his first 5 batters, meaning he had to be yanked. TG came in and did a good job that inning and a terrific job the next giving us a 1, 2, 3 inning, our first I believe of the season. EG was our next pitcher as it was going to be the “bottom” of their lineup (I put it in quotes as it was actually the top of the lineup except because of our continuous batting order it was the worse players). He then proceeds to walk the first four batters he faced and so we had to yank him. It was as bad as I was expecting. At this point I call ES in for relief and he gets us out of the inning. However, the wheels fall off in the 4th and he has a couple of bad luck fielding and gets hammered at bat with the other team batting around all 11 players before we can retire the side. I had to really juggle the pitching order here especially with PW being unable to make it out of his inning. The only person who consistently was throwing strikes was TG, with ES doing it during the 3rd, but not 4th inning. I just don’t know where we’re going to get six innings each game. AK will get another chance to pitch on Saturday I would expect, but I don’t think he can throw 2 innings. So we will use TG for 2, ES for 1, AK for 1 and then what? Likely JS for 1 and then we’re looking at either PW or BS1. Thank goodness we don’t have that extra game each week is all I can say at this point.

Little Mistakes. The other team just ran us ragged. Every little thing they were taking an extra base. The catcher would catch the ball and they would take off stealing. People weren’t where they needed to be. Now the good thing is that we got better as the game went on. We had more people running the ball in rather then throwing at the end which is good. Granted they were getting on base but it seemed like every walk was turning into a run because of how they were running. Our fundamentals just plain sucked and I frankly think that was on me and Steve. We will be working on it at practice, that’s for sure.

The other team’s sportsmanship. They needless ran up the score. They taunted us from the basepaths and from the bench. When it became clear that we were in the 4th and last inning the coach continued to run up the score. I talked to him about it and he gave me some lame excuse about how is team was destroyed on Saturday and went home with their heads down, yadda yadda yadda. I made my point to him which is all that could really be done in the situation.

Where we go from here

Our plan for practice is two fold.

1. We want to teach bunting. This has been a priority with us for a while and it’s time we hunker down and do it.

2. Work on fielding. Boy do we need the work.

I will go into greater depth about what we do after tonight’s practice. Clearly we also need to work on hitting, which Steve is going to do while I’m doing small group bunting instruction, but I would like not to be embarrassed at our game and so fielding will be the priority at the practice.
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Old 04-19-2006, 10:03 AM   #27
Barkeep49
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
Quote:
Originally Posted by Izulde
Tough luck starting off with two losses. I remember my first game coaching youth soccer we got hammered 8-0 and I found myself wondering if I was cut out for it. I don't know if you're having some of the same doubts, but if you are, I can tell you that if you stick with it, things can turn around. It certainly did with the squad I coached.

As I talked about in the post above, I worry about my ability to help the team hit better. The other parts of the game, such as strategy, and defense, and positioning, I know I am a good coach and so I will not get down on myself.

Quote:
Here's a suggestion regarding BS2: JM is clearly your top C and has a rapport with TG, but since it appears BS2 shows potential and is just raw right now, maybe you could work him with some of the other pitchers to try and find a matchup there too.

That's what our plan was, but frankly he's very raw at this point. We will definitely be working with him, and matching him up with PW last game was intended to help him build confidence, though it didn't work that way.

Quote:
The biggest thing with kids who show potential but are raw is confidence. I had a girl who had the height, range, and some experience to play goalie. But she lacked the confidence, so what I did was to split games half and half between her and the girl who was our top goalie at the start of the season, except in cases where there was a shutout going at halftime. Then I refused to switch goalies.

As time went on and she played more often, her natural potential kicked in and by the end of the year, she'd moved up to our starting goalie spot and performed brilliantly to the level that she became one of the strengths of our team at a position that was pretty weak to start the year. As a nice bonus, her mom told mine in private that her self-confidence in all areas had shot through the roof because of the faith I showed in her.

Now I'm not saying the same thing will happen with BS2. I'm just adding in a small bit of advice for you to consider.
That's a great story. Congrats on your success with her and I appreciate the kind words. One thing I didn't talk about in the game post was how they left the field; they left the field with their head's up. Steve gave a nice post-game speech about "if it was easy everybody would do it". Steve felt that they left with their head's up because they didn't care. I felt it was because we stayed positive and have created a good atmosphere.
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Old 04-19-2006, 10:44 AM   #28
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I just caught up on this, great read and a good idea for a dynasty. I'd considered doing this for my son's soccer team but the season is already over halfway over. Perhaps in the fall
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Old 04-19-2006, 11:32 AM   #29
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The Missing Pitcher
So as I went to get gas I came up with who might be the missing pitcher: JF. I know she pitches in softball and so far she has done everything I would expect of her. Now obviously pitching in softball and baseball are very different questions, but perhaps she is the missing ingriedent. With her missing practice so much we haven't seen her pitch. I think I will have her pitch some to JM today at practice today to see if she could join our regular rotation, which would be excellent news.
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Old 04-19-2006, 03:13 PM   #30
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Excellent idea on JF. Hopefully it pans out!

FWIW, I'd be more inclined to agree with you than with Steve about the team morale. It seems like these kids have a passion for the game and are for the most part willing to listen to you guys about things.

Too bad about BS2. Since the game didn't last to the 5th inning, I'm presuming FO didn't get to catch. Maybe you could give him some pointers on things he could work on as far as catching goes outside of practice? Nothing too complex of course, but if he has the desire to play and the work ethic to make it happen (which I don't know if he has or not obviously), then he might develop as the season goes by and become your #2 catcher.
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Old 04-19-2006, 11:05 PM   #31
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Before Practice
ES is the first one to arrive. As he’s playing catch with Steve, I tell him “Congratulations.” He looks at me puzzled. It’s at this point that I tell him he’s now our #2 catcher. You can see he’s surprised. Steve asks him if he likes to catch and he says that he does in house league. Which is a good thing cause if he was unhappy about it and still had to do it, that wouldn’t be a great situation.

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

BS1 arrives fairly early on and I pull him aside to work on his pitching mechanics. I did a little internet research and came up with a couple of drills for him to try so as to improve his mechanics. What we did today was when he lifts the leg up, I had him hold it for 3 seconds, and then to follow through. The idea being twofold: 1. Help him practice his balance as it is off while he pitches and 2. Give him a second (well actually 3) to think about what he’s going to do with that front foot when he plants it, as he does all sorts of weird things with it. We did this about 20 times before practice. What I love about BS1 is how eager he is to receive coaching. Sadly, despite his eagerness his mechanics are still very poor. As long as he’s still an eager student he’ll get 1 on 1 time to work on his pitching, but he will not be seeing the mound, except in an emergency, anytime soon.

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

The Practice
We start the practice missing KS, which we expected as he has tennis on Wednesdays, JF, AK, and BS2. We gather the team around as Steve and I want to talk about the first couple of games for a moment. As we do so JF and AK come in. I take this opportunity to do that education 101 staple “the compliment sandwich”. I start off saying how happy I was with the hustle on the base paths, talk about how embarrassed I was at our fielding execution, and then end with congratulating them on getting up there and swinging at the ball. Steve then sends a bit of a mixed message as he talks about how he hates to lose. I frankly am not a fan of this tact, as discussed earlier, but I wasn’t surprised to hear it.
This seems like as good of a time as any to reflect on the general perceptions of us as coaches. Last year I was listed as the “head coach” because that’s how they made us fill out the forms and so I got 95% of the phone calls and emails about scheduling and general questions/complaints, which was to be expected. I was curious to see how it would play out this year. And so far it seems like I am still going to get the calls and questions. I had, for instance, 1 parent and 1 kid call me today. I have to admit the fact that a player called me surprises me some as Steve is bar far the “cooler” of the two of us. Last year we clearly had different sort of relationships with the kids, and it is shaping up to be so again this year. These relationships, while different, are also complementing so I view it as a good thing that I’m more of the “dad” and he’s more of the “older brother”. Both of us get respect, it’s just in different ways. I really like that we are co-coaches as I don’t feel secure enough about everything we do to be a Head Coach, not to mention I think if I had an Assistant Coach who was a parent without Steve, he would attempt to run all over me. But when things like figuring out what we need to do at practice or creating a lineup, I find that I pretty much say what I want and that’s what ends up happening. On the one hand I like that, on the other I don’t want Steve to feel like I’m bossing him around. So far there has been zero tension about this that I have perceived so I think we’re doing a pretty good job of maintaining the balance.

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

Following that we repeated the game we did on the first day where they hit the ball and then have to try and reach as many bases as possible. We had exactly 5 people on each team so there was enough for each of the infield positions plus a catcher, which for this game worked perfectly. I threw some nice lobs in, both so the kids could hit and so they couldn’t hit it too far considering our lack of outfielders. The fielding and throwing was pretty crisp all things considered. JF once again got the best hit and was the only person to get 8 bases, or two full circuits around. I got BS1 some time at first base as I think he would do well there but has told me how he doesn’t want the pressure. Steve and I had planned for him to work with BS2 at this point, but BS2 was not there, and he did not call, which is disappointing.

Our time on the field was over and so we went into the deep outfield. At that point we went over the basics of how to bunt. I was all over this as when I played I sucked at hitting, but I was an unbelievable bunter. In case you are wondering, I decided to keep it simple and teach them simply how to move their hand up on the batting grip, as opposed to actually trying to grasp the bat itself with your hand. A few kids knew how to do this already and I told them that it was fine if they did it, but if a kid did not feel 100% confident doing so they were to do the method I was showing, simply because doing the other way wrong is a recipe for broken hands, something AK was all too happy to ask about. After about 5 minutes of my demonstrating and having them practice the bunting move in a line together, we split into two groups with one group staying with me to bunt and the other going with Steve to hit off the tee. I didn’t really get a report from Steve about how the Tee went. As for what I saw, sadly, our best bunters seem to be ES and TG, the two kids who I am LEAST likely to tell to bunt. ES is a lefty and laid down a couple of great drag bunts, without my even having given instruction, so perhaps if he’s leading off an inning we’ll give him the green light to try a bunt if he wants. Additionally, if TG can hit a deep one early in a game we can have him show bunt next time at bat so as to force the infield not to play him back. BS1 did an excellent job of getting out of the box quickly as perhaps we’ll give him a go. I had thought JF with her softball experience would be an old hat at bunting, but this proved not to be so. She is raw, but should make a good bunter. A big focus of mine during bunting was KS. His batting is not so great, but he’s one of the fastest kids on the team so if we can get him to be an OK bunter he’ll be on base far more then he would otherwise. I made sure he had extra throws during this time and also told him we were going to practice again before the game. He has a lot of work to do, but the payoff would be great especially considering his place in the batting order.

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

After Practice

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

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

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

Previewing Saturday’s game

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

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

On the pitching side of the equation will be TG for 2 innings, AK for 1, JF for 1, JS for 1 and ES for 1. I threw out two possibilities on how to use TG. I said we could either pitch him the 1st and 2nd OR have him be scheduled to pitch the 5th and 6th with us understanding that he would likely pitch before then and giving us the chance to use him if we have to yank a kid and it looks, as we expect, that the game will not go the full 6 innings. We didn’t really get a chance to reach a decision before the kids started arriving. Besides TG I don’t think any of our kids have the arm strength to pitch 2 and I said to Steve that if we need another pitcher besides those 5 we would have to pitch either BS1 or PW. In reality it would likely be PW as I really want to hold BS1 until we’ve had more chances to work together. But the thought of having to use PW after his performance yesterday is not confidence inspiring.

I’m sort of surprised our practice here has produced the longest post yet, but there you have it. Thanks again for reading along and I really appreciate all of the comments that have been made.
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Old 04-19-2006, 11:08 PM   #32
Barkeep49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Izulde
Excellent idea on JF. Hopefully it pans out!

FWIW, I'd be more inclined to agree with you than with Steve about the team morale. It seems like these kids have a passion for the game and are for the most part willing to listen to you guys about things.
I agree. I have been very happy with how willing they are to let us be the coaches, even people like TG and ES who have had extensive travel experience. My discussing pitching strategy with TG today I know has challenged him in a good way, as I don't think he's really been challenged yet to think beyond just "throw them fast strikes to get him out" much and his dad, an important guy to keep happy, will like it too.

Quote:
Too bad about BS2. Since the game didn't last to the 5th inning, I'm presuming FO didn't get to catch. Maybe you could give him some pointers on things he could work on as far as catching goes outside of practice? Nothing too complex of course, but if he has the desire to play and the work ethic to make it happen (which I don't know if he has or not obviously), then he might develop as the season goes by and become your #2 catcher.
That's actually a very good idea about FO and I'm sorry I A) Hadn't thought of it myself and B)Read it before the practice. Thanks for the idea!
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Old 04-20-2006, 07:30 PM   #33
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I think your practice post was very good. It's nice to see some insight asto the "chemistry" of the team.
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Old 04-20-2006, 10:37 PM   #34
Barkeep49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RPI-Fan
I think your practice post was very good. It's nice to see some insight asto the "chemistry" of the team.
I appreciate the complement and am glad you liked the look into chemistry.
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Old 04-23-2006, 03:35 PM   #35
Barkeep49
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Setting the Line-Up
Steve and I met around 2 hours before the game. Originally we were going to go right to breakfast but I suggested we do the lineups on the computer, as we normally do, and then grab breakfast. Steve agreed we had ample time to do it this way and so we sat down and hammered things out. The important parts:

*We decide to have TG scheduled to pitch the 5th and 6th leaving him in reserve for when we feel it would be best to use him
*Steve had made a push to still use BS2 as a catcher, arguing that we didn’t really have choices. Whether or not to use BS2, despite his poor form and missing of practice, was decided when Steve was reminded I had talked to TG about catching an inning and had been OK with it. So we decided not to use BS2 as a catcher. Furthermore, when doing the schedule one person would have to sit twice. This person was to be BS2. Steve and I agreed as a general practice if somebody misses a game or practice without telling us, that this will be the consequence.
*The pitching/catching batteries are tentatively set to be: ES/JM, AK/TG, JS/ES, PW/ES, TG/JM, & TG/JM. When using ES as a catcher we agreed that using him as a pitcher before having him catch was important and so it is likely that ES will start many games for us. AK was given the second inning as we’d promised he’d pitch and so we wanted to do it early to send the right message. Deciding between PW and BS1 was a coin flip. I made the call to use PW as I have been working with BS1 and would like to have him be in good form before he throws again, with him knowing that’s the goal.

Pre-Game

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

The players slowly trickle in with only TG, BS1, PW, and JM being on time, however almost all of the players were there by a quarter to, so it’s a define improvement. I think if Steve and I keep stressing the importance this rate will go up.

When BS1 arrives I immediately pull him aside and start working with him on the 3 second delay rotation. And there’s been a huge difference. I ask him if he’s been practicing, and he claims not, so I’m not sure why it’s suddenly clicking, but it did. After doing this about 6 times in a row successfully I setup as catcher and have him throw to me. Out of the 10 pitches I had him throw he had the proper footwork for 8 of them. It was just a huge improvement. If he’s able to do this again on Tuesday at practice we can start to work on his actual throwing mechanics. Very exciting. BS1 was sitting out during the second inning and he asked if we could do some more practice. I told him I had to focus on the game, but loved his work ethic.

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

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

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

With KS not being there, JS is the first up. He walks. TG is then hit by a pitch, which brings ES up. Es promptly rockets the ball into the gap in right center scoring JS and TG for a nice double. BS2 strikes out, JM gets a solid infield hit, but PW and BS1 both ground out to the pitcher to end the inning. Still 3-2 is just fine.

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

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

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

Things do look a little better when ES and BS2 are hit by pitches. We manage to get both of them home, but it’s basically by trading a run for an out, which when considering how far we’re down is not the goal. During this inning I look at my watch and we’re rapidly approaching the 1 hour mark. Steve and I discuss, and basically he leaves it up to me to decide whether or not it’s time to bring TG in. I decide it is. Just as the inning ends I find out that EG has to leave. Did EG tell either of us he was leaving early? Of course not. This now means that we have no one sitting on the bench. I scramble a little to get people in reasonable positions and basically use the 5th inning lineup positions in the 4th inning.

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

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

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

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

They have yet another new pitcher up there and it’s yet another guy we can hit. And we come out and do our thing. PW and JM get on base on walks. BS grounds one to the pitcher. FO then comes up and has what is, without an exaggeration, a 10 pitch at bat. In the end he gets a single. The right fielder, a travel player, tries to get the out at first but instead throws the ball out away, not to mention FO would have been safe anyway. The ump then makes a bad call in our favor. JM had advanced to third on the hit, and PW to second. Once the ball was overthrown, JM should have gotten home and PW 3rd, but instead as we had them running anyway, the ump gives PW home on the overthrow. AK walks to give us runners on first and second. The momentum is clearly on our side. The pitcher is tiring. We’re about to hit the best part of our lineup. JS works a couple of pitches and then hits a ball to the first basemen. And AK, instead of running to second, goes back to first. Bam before you know it, there’s a double play and the game’s over. Evidently JS said something not too nice to AK at this point that I did not hear. I did hear BS1 start to say something and immediately put the kibosh on that. It was an incredibly dumb play, but we don’t need the already least popular kid on the team being further ostracized because of it.

Post Game and Looking Forward

We give a pretty good post game speech. I talk about how we are all feeling so rotten because we played so well and we left so much on the field and other things along these general lines. BS1 gets the game ball for an amazing catch he made at short during the 5th. It was going to go to AK but we had to make a last minute change based on the last play of the game.

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

All-in-all, it was our best game. We are still having lots of trouble having a big inning and preventing the other team from taking what should be a 1 or 2 run inning and making it into a 4 or 5 run inning. At practice on Tuesday we will once again be focusing on groundballs, do a drill to promote situational awareness, and some sort of nebulous team building exercise that Steve and I need to find to make sure we continue to bond as a team in response to the dynamic that manifested itself at the end of the game. JM told me that he felt AK was better this game, and I agree, so it’s too bad we had that one moment at the end which unraveled things a bit. While we still lost I was heartened at the progress we made. We play the Orioles on Wednesday a team I have heard nothing about so I have no idea as to what kind of opposition they’ll be. If we can play another good game though I will be very happy, especially if we can show more improvement after the practice.
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Old 04-23-2006, 04:25 PM   #36
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Sounds like you guys are making the best of a couple of pretty bad situations -- tough when kids aren't showing up and are leaving early without letting you know. And keeping things civil between AK and the rest of the team seems like it might be difficult. Keep up the good work though!
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Old 04-24-2006, 04:45 PM   #37
Barkeep49
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Originally Posted by Vince
Sounds like you guys are making the best of a couple of pretty bad situations -- tough when kids aren't showing up and are leaving early without letting you know. And keeping things civil between AK and the rest of the team seems like it might be difficult. Keep up the good work though!
Yeah both the situations are rough. I honestly am pretty understanding about kids having other commitments, it's the fact that they do it without telling us that drives me nutty.
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Old 04-24-2006, 05:29 PM   #38
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Yeah both the situations are rough. I honestly am pretty understanding about kids having other commitments, it's the fact that they do it without telling us that drives me nutty.

Can't say I'm surprised. A couple years ago I played on a U19 soccer team, which had more talent than our high school varsity team. Yet not only was there no committment, but we never had any clue how many people and who would show up. It was really embarassing, but I guess it's what you have to expect out of rec leagues.
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Old 04-25-2006, 06:15 PM   #39
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Originally Posted by RPI-Fan
Can't say I'm surprised. A couple years ago I played on a U19 soccer team, which had more talent than our high school varsity team. Yet not only was there no committment, but we never had any clue how many people and who would show up. It was really embarassing, but I guess it's what you have to expect out of rec leagues.
That sounds even more serious then this so I can only imagine your frustration. Having coached only non-school teams in both baseball and basketball ranging from 5th through High School this is the first time I've dealt with such a high level of unknown absenteeism. Perhaps I've just been lucky before.
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Old 04-25-2006, 06:17 PM   #40
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Rained Out

So starting last night and then continuing until about 11 o'clock this morning we had pretty crummy weather here with a fair amount of rain. They cancel practice. At which point the sun comes out and since I work about 50 feet from the field, I went and checked it, and sure enough it was dry enough for a practice. Oh well a missed opportunity. On a negative note we learned that JS will not be at tomorrow's game which hurts us again in the pitching department.
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Old 04-25-2006, 06:19 PM   #41
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Originally Posted by Barkeep49
That sounds even more serious then this so I can only imagine your frustration. Having coached only non-school teams in both baseball and basketball ranging from 5th through High School this is the first time I've dealt with such a high level of unknown absenteeism. Perhaps I've just been lucky before.

You have been. I had the same problem throughout the year. Girls wouldn't show up to practice and not let me know why or they'd miss games without telling me and I'd have to change my lineup around about two minutes before lineups at midfield.

After a few times of this, I just started automatically writing in backup plans when figuring out the starters for the week's game. Not sure if you and Steve have been doing that, but it may help, especially if you can figure out what players are most likely to no-show without forewarning.
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Old 04-27-2006, 05:56 PM   #42
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Was hoping to have the chance to type the update tonight at work but that doesn't look like it's going to materalize. Should have it up tomorrow morning. With us having a late game yesterday and my being very busy today just haven't had the time.

The good news is that it's mostly good news.
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Old 04-28-2006, 09:47 AM   #43
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Before the Game
As we had the 7:30 game Steve and I figured we would go to his early, whip out the lineups and then go to dinner before getting to the field nice and early.

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

Well at this point the entire lineup needs to be redone and it leaves us a pitcher short. For simplicities sake we decide to just assume JS will not be there, which is what was indicated as most likely when we found out Monday about the death. We put together a lineup. And it’s painful. I won’t lie. We end up feeling forced to give BS2 an inning at catching. As of now Steve and I agree that we do not want TG or ES to catch until after they have pitched which means early inning pitches for them. In order to solve the inning of pitching we were hoping AK to do we end up giving JF two innings. I’m still not sure what made us think this was a good move.

We end up with the following pitchers:
TG, TG, ES, JF, JF, PW

Steve and I go to dinner and have some great pizza. We then drive to the field getting us there about 40 minutes before our game, and about halfway through the preceding game on the field. Just as we are pulling up to the parking lot Steve’s phone rings. It’s a local phone number we don’t recognize. Trouble. It’s BS1 on the line. Now I only heard 1 side of the conversation but it must have gone something like this.

BS1: I am not coming to today’s game
Steve: Why not buddy?
BS1: Well I can’t find any of my uniform and my parents are out of town so I can’t ask them where it is.
Steve: (exhaling) Well do you have a way to get to the game?
BS1: Yes
Steve: Well then you should come and we’ll sort out the uniform issue at the game
BS1: You’re sure?
Steve: Yes. Just come. We’ll see you at the game.

He hangs up and explains. Now BS1 is by no shakes an all-star player. But on our team? He’s one of our more consistent fielders and serviceable at the plate. We could really use him. Not to mention if he is does not show that means we have exactly 9 players and so if there is the expected unexpected no show we’re playing with 8 players. Anyhow crisis averted.

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

Our first player arrives about 30 minutes early and all but 2 of the players are actually there, except 1, 20 minutes before the game. It was great. Just as the first player arrives we get a call. It’s from JS and he WILL be at the game. As Steve takes the players to warm up, I immediately start to redo our lineups. Best of all it means that JF will not have to pitch two innings.

In the end we endup with the following Pitcher/Catch combos:
TG/JM, TG/JM, ES/TG, JF/JM, JS/ES, PW/ES

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

The Game
We’re the visiting team. TG is leading off so we hope to get right on the board. TG starts off with a walk and steals second. ES grounds out, advancing TG to 3rd. Now we have BS2. Steve and I had talked to him about getting up there and swinging at the first couple of pitches, as he’s been pretty much watching these and finding himself behind in the count, and sure enough he does this. On a 2-2 count he makes contact, only the second or third time all season, and hits it hard to short. Steve sends TG home. Now this was a questionable decision. TG, however, did not help the matter by hesitating and then not appearing to run full out. Anyhow the SS makes a nice play, and the catcher, who we find out later catches for the travel team, makes a perfect catch and tag and TG is out. BS2 ends up stealing second on the first pitch which lets me talk to TG in the dugout (I’m coaching 1st this inning). He tells me he disagreed with the decision to send him. I said did that disagreement mean he didn’t go as quickly and as hard as he should have. He says he doesn’t know, and I believe him, but it gives me a chance to reinforce the importance of listening to us, and if we make the wrong decision it’s not his fault and no one will be mad. It’s all done in a very neutral/upbeat way, so it SHOULD have had a baring on what will happen later. Anyhow JM strikes out to end the first.

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

We can’t get anything going in the second, despite getting BS1 to 3rd with 1 out. TG has little problem in the bottom half and it remains 0-0 in a pretty well played ball game.

In the third JS leads off with a walk. And then we start to pound the ball. TG hits a double, ES hits a 2 run single, JM absolutely KILLS a ball into LF for a double. BS gets a single and we end up with 5 legitimately earned runs.

As the bottom half starts, with a couple of singles to the better part of the order, I comment to Steve that ES seems like he’s never going to have an easy inning. Anyhow the bases get loaded on a ES walk. Now before we now it, the bases are loaded. When the first base runner got on, Steve and I both told TG: DO NOT THROW UNLESS WE TELL YOU TO. Anyhow the bases are loaded. The kid on first is a slower player. After the second pitch he goes a little too far and TG looks him back and when he kind of walks back to the bag TG makes a throw. PW is playing first and while he was on the bag he was not expecting a throw, which might have been OK, if it were not the fact that TG makes a terrible throw that ends up sailing well over his head. TWO runs score and it’s only a nice throw by JF to JM that holds the last, slow, runner at 3rd. The run ends up scoring on a single to 3rd, but overall ES does a nice job of pitching out of trouble, striking out two. BS2 also makes a great diving catch on a popup at 3rd.

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

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

This is JF’s inning to pitch. However, as BS1 is sitting out, I had told him we were going to work on his on his pitching. So we go out of the dugout. He tells me he has been practicing and it’s true. He’s looking really good. Not only is he maintaining his arm balance but his arm mechanics are looking better then before. Now I am only half paying attention to the game at this point so I don’t really know what’s happening. I do hear a couple balls hit and from what Steve’s saying I know it’s not going well. After what sounds like a particularly disastrous play, I explain to BS1 that I need to go see what’s happening. Steve later tells me that EG booted a ball at second base and then stood there instead of trying to either get the ball, or cover 1st, for KS who evidently was attempting to recover the ball. The first play I see is a ball hit to short. JS, our SS, positions himself well, but then like a bat out of hell, EG comes and grabs the ball, WAY on the SS side of second base, muffs it and the runner ends up safe. Later on KS misses a throw that pops out of his glove. A kid hits a hard hit ball to third and BS2 ends up throwing the ball so far into right field that it ends up being a “grand slam”. It was ugly. JF neglects to record an out. We are saved only by the seven run cap on an inning. Her mechanics are in need of work, because she kept aiming the ball rather then throwing it, but she is a pretty gifted player so I hope that it will be an easy fix. Regardless, by the sheer necessity of what we are dealing with she is going to get more innings.

Anyhow instead of being up by 2 we are now down by 5. I had been noticing some bad dynamics going on the bench when I had been coaching first. Further, BS1 had made a comment to me. JM, I think, has been crossing the line from player to coach on occasion. What he’s saying isn’t ever wrong, but I don’t think the team is responding well to hearing it from him. So I have BS2’s father coach first base, while I stay in the dugout. Last year since we had 3 coaches we rotated who was coaching bases and in the dugout and I have realized how valuable this time was. As such I have decided that I will make this a semi-regular habit for me and am encouraging Steve to do the same. ES starts off by striking out, BS2 then draws a walk and steals second. BS2 does not know how to slide and could have really hurt himself the way he slid into second here, so I think we will work on sliding at our next practice. JM grounds out to the pitcher. PW walks. Both advance a base when there is a passed ball. BS1 then hits a triple into the gap in right center. Sadly FO records his first strikeout of the year to end the game.

And we lose 10-7.

Post Game Analysis and Looking Forward

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

Steve noticed that BS2 was showboating and so he’s going to have to talk to him about that.

Our game tomorrow is against the Braves who have been just killing everyone in the league. I don’t know what happened Wednesday but going into that game they had hit at least 1 homerun and had reached the 7 run cap in each game. They appear to be a dominating team. I think as such that we should use it as a learning experience. Try and see if AK can pitch two innings. See how PW and BS1 would pitch against real batters, etc. Steve would rather not take this development of people approach and instead would like to really try and throw our best possible pitchers against them. So we’ll see what we end up doing.

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

There is no doubt we’re getting loads better with each game and so it’s sad that we didn’t win this one and are going to face such an uphill climb in the next game.
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Old 04-28-2006, 10:35 AM   #44
Radii
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Originally Posted by Barkeep49
When I ask why she starts to babble a little before it is discovered that AK had baseball taken away as a punishment for misbehavior. Steve and I were not happy with this. Steve grew especially livid when he learned that she could have called use earlier in the day. We both agree that penalizing the whole team, as this does, when there are a myriad of options open to a parent for discipline is unfortunate.

UGH, I hate that. We have a rule in our family that no matter what's going on at home, it all ends when we step on the soccer field(espicially important since I help to coach my son). The team concept is extremely important to teach and I really disagree with taking away team games or practices as part of a punishment.

Quote:
I think as such that we should use it as a learning experience. Try and see if AK can pitch two innings. See how PW and BS1 would pitch against real batters, etc. Steve would rather not take this development of people approach and instead would like to really try and throw our best possible pitchers against them. So we’ll see what we end up doing.

I'm sure you've thought about this, but the one comment i'd make about using a game against a great team as a learning experience is that if you have kids that are coming along and working hard to improve their pitching skills, and the first time you put them out there its in a situation where you know they're going to get killed, you risk hurting their confidence and motivation to continue working so hard to improve.


Great stuff, hopefully a win will come after this next tough game.
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Old 04-28-2006, 04:48 PM   #45
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Originally Posted by Barkeep49
We basically dominated and were it not for the seven run inning we’d have won.

I know what you mean, but this line still made me laugh . Good luck.
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Old 04-28-2006, 11:02 PM   #46
Barkeep49
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Scouting Report
So tonight at the youth center I work at, one of the kids from the Braves, our opponent tomorrow was there. I pumped him, mercelessly for info. Turns out that he's the one that has homered in every game, (I had just hear that the team had done it), including a grand slam on Wednesday. Also turns out that he really likes high pitches.
So that was my scouting report.
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Old 04-28-2006, 11:04 PM   #47
Barkeep49
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Originally Posted by Radii
UGH, I hate that. We have a rule in our family that no matter what's going on at home, it all ends when we step on the soccer field(espicially important since I help to coach my son). The team concept is extremely important to teach and I really disagree with taking away team games or practices as part of a punishment.
Most people feel that this was not handled well by the parents. But what can you do?

Quote:
I'm sure you've thought about this, but the one comment i'd make about using a game against a great team as a learning experience is that if you have kids that are coming along and working hard to improve their pitching skills, and the first time you put them out there its in a situation where you know they're going to get killed, you risk hurting their confidence and motivation to continue working so hard to improve.
Of course I have thought about this. The question is what puts our team in the best position to win and I'm not sure what the answer is here.
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Old 04-28-2006, 11:04 PM   #48
Barkeep49
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Originally Posted by Logan
I know what you mean, but this line still made me laugh . Good luck.
Yes it is funny, I'll give you that .
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Old 04-29-2006, 12:43 AM   #49
Izulde
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Originally Posted by Barkeep49
Scouting Report
So tonight at the youth center I work at, one of the kids from the Braves, our opponent tomorrow was there. I pumped him, mercelessly for info. Turns out that he's the one that has homered in every game, (I had just hear that the team had done it), including a grand slam on Wednesday. Also turns out that he really likes high pitches.
So that was my scouting report.

Go low. Brilliant usage of scouting, by the way. I applaud your efforts.
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Old 04-29-2006, 08:10 AM   #50
Barkeep49
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Go low. Brilliant usage of scouting, by the way. I applaud your efforts.
I do agree it's not, perhaps, the most normal way of scouting but I did make sure he knew right off the bat that we were playing him today. It's funny what 12 year olds will tell you when asked .
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