Cal Ripken baseball

[hblair]

I took the big plunge and decided to manage a 9-10 yr old cal ripken division baseball team this year. My oldest son is 10 and my youngest is 9.
we've had 3 practices so far and the infield is lookin pretty darn good. Rarely a dropped ball and the boys are slinging em around with some heat, throwing hard. Been working with the outfield a good bit. Gonna try to avoid those 3-4 run in the field to the fence catastrophes. I think we're gonna have some good pitching. Two 10 yr olds have game experience, I have 2-3 more 10 yr. olds who are capable. And one maybe two 9 yr olds who may pitch.

Boy it's easy to be optimistic when you haven't played anybody yet.

Anybody spending time on the diamond this spring?

[Reschke]

Yep helping coach my 8 year old sons machine pitch team. Next year he moves up the the kid pitch level. So far we have a solid team with a bunch we can rotate out of the outfield into the infield and vice versa.

It should be a good year since most of the team has played football and baseball together for two seasons now. Not counting the fall ball time that happens down here in Vestavia.

[SOB]

Sounds like fun, good luck!  I'm too fat to play baseball, and it's too boring to watch, but I DO have a fish bat.  Does that count?!

Oh, and go here...we wants ta see RX7 pics man.  Give'em!

[hblair]

Yeah, we do the fall ball up here too, My 10 yr old has been in fall ball two years, 9 yr old one. So far I've been able to keep em outa football but kyle (10 yr old) is dying to play. He may start this year. There's just somethin cool about young boys and baseball. I think I enjoy it more than them.

[hblair]

I went to that link and saw no rx-7 pics SOB. Where they be?

[SOB]

Hehehe, waiting for paint, I guess.

[Reschke]

Just won the season opener in a top of the fifth rally with two outs and beat the other team 7-6. We couldn't hit till the top of the fourth when we put 4 runs on the board to go up 4-3 in only 6 hitters. Then we gave up two runs to go down by two and setup the home team (us) in the top of the fifth for the win.

In our league at 7 and 8 year old level they play 5 innings or 1.5 hours (whichever comes first) unless its a tie ball game and its machine pitch which I hate but at least the kids are learning how to field and make the right plays on the diamond.

[hblair]

Sounds great Reschke. We call that rookie league here. And at least you're guaranteed strikes. We have a pre-season tourament that starts this thursday. I'm nervous already lol. being manager is a lot more weight on the ol shoulders than helping, i've come to find out.

[hblair]

We got smoked yesterday 11-0 by the best team in the league. Last time we played em we lost by 1 point. But they pitched their best pitcher the whole time this time. for a ten year old he brings some heat lol. I've got a pitching coach lined up for practice today. If I'd known how tough this team was gonna be I'd have done this to start with. We're 3-2 at this point. 2 losses coming to this team.

Things going ok for you Reschke?

[hblair]

Wow, nobody in the o'club has any little leaguers?
You guys kids playing soccer or what?
I know SOB is a big soccer fan.

What's the world coming to?

[Pei]

Originally posted by hblair

I know SOB is a big soccer fan.

He only likes it when they rip off their shirts and start hugging each other.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by hblair
I took the big plunge and decided to manage a 9-10 yr old cal ripken division baseball team this year. My oldest son is 10 and my youngest is 9.
we've had 3 practices so far and the infield is lookin pretty darn good. Rarely a dropped ball and the boys are slinging em around with some heat, throwing hard. Been working with the outfield a good bit. Gonna try to avoid those 3-4 run in the field to the fence catastrophes. I think we're gonna have some good pitching. Two 10 yr olds have game experience, I have 2-3 more 10 yr. olds who are capable. And one maybe two 9 yr olds who may pitch.

Boy it's easy to be optimistic when you haven't played anybody yet.

Anybody spending time on the diamond this spring?

Working with kids was one of the greatest joys of my life. Great fun.

Having to deal with the parents...
Well thats another story.
Most are pretty decent. But often you get those one or two.

One thing I learned. Rarely is a kid as good, or as bad as their parent thinks they are LOL

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by hblair
We got smoked yesterday 11-0 by the best team in the league. Last time we played em we lost by 1 point. But they pitched their best pitcher the whole time this time. for a ten year old he brings some heat lol. I've got a pitching coach lined up for practice today. If I'd known how tough this team was gonna be I'd have done this to start with. We're 3-2 at this point. 2 losses coming to this team.

Things going ok for you Reschke?

Hi Blair. Long time no see dude!

National little league rules state that a pitcher can only pitch 5 innings, so if this game went into the 6th inning with the same pitcher, than you should file a formal protest.  I realize that the game "win" was most likely registered after 5, but you could nail them for having that pitcher in the 6th inning.(edit: Doh! You're in Cal Ripken ball. Never mind! You might check their rule book though...I carry one to the games)

I'm an assistant coach for our 9-10 year old AA team and also on the little league Board.

Now for alittle proud father moment:
Gordon, my 9 year old son, got the "Game Ball" from the coach after Wednesdays game.  He pitched as a "Closer", the last inning. He struck out 3, and gave up only 1 hit. At bat, he was 3 for 4, 2 singles and a double, with 3 runs batted in.  This little monster is quite the jock.  Nothing like his father was at that same age! He takes his games very seriously. Its sort of scarey, so much that I'm making sure he knows to buy his dad a new BMW when he makes the Major League. ;)Good luck on your season.

[Reschke]

Right now the kids are 5-1 and have been hitting lights out since the first game. We have 12 kids on the roster and just about every time we get up to bat they are batting around. My son bats in what we call our second clean up slot at #9 in the order. The other day we had two kids (they are 8) bounce balls off the fence about a foot under the top of the fence. They bat in the #4 and #5 slots.

They have blasted three teams with at least 15 runs in three innings and gotten the 10 run rule used for their benefit in those games as well.

In those 6 games so far we have had 3 close ones and lost one of them by one run in extra innings. It was a weird game because our kids started out the game with 7 strike outs in 9 batters. We never got a kid on base till the top of the fourth inning and then scored 10 runs to take the lead. Then the kids let the other team tie it up in the bottom of the fifth. The lost it in the bottom of the sixth on a fielding error with two outs and throwing to first instead of third with a runner on second.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Reschke
...Then the kids let the other team tie it up in the bottom of the fifth. The lost it in the bottom of the sixth on a fielding error with two outs and throwing to first instead of third with a runner on second.

Those type of games are heart breakers.  The coach's son walked in 6 batters in the bottom of the 6th for our first loss of the season in the first game. He should of pulled him. I told him after the game to look for Gordon as a closer. We have our closer now. We're 3-1 now.