Cal Ripken baseball

[hblair]

We got beat again last night. Tough loss for me and the team. Rip, how many pitchers do you guys have? What kind of quality?

Pitching is hurting us right now. Trying to figure out what works best. We have a 2nd year lefty who has no problem throwing strikes, but they're soft. Then we have another 2nd year boy who can throw hard strikes, but if somebody gets a hit or the other team gets momentum he gets rattled. My son is a 2nd year kid, he throws the hardest but has probs with control. We also have a 1st year kid who throws hard and has some marginal  probs w/ control.

last night I started my son, he was throwing well to start with and then started to lose the strike zone. He was just alittle high. I was thinking he'd get into a rythm, but I had to pull him in the 2nd, put the lefty in throwing rainbows and he struck em out left and right. I was thinking they'd tee off on him. The damage was already done.

We're not hitting worth a crap.

These last two teams have kids (10 yr old) who bring the heat. My kids are intimidated by it.

And I got some kids who don't care. There'll be some running today at practice.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by hblair
We got beat again last night. Tough loss for me and the team. Rip, how many pitchers do you guys have? What kind of quality?
 

We have 4 pitchers (3 starters, 1 closer) 3 are RH and 1 LH. The coach learned a lesson with his son, pull him soon when the arm goes south.  My son is solid for about 25-35 pitches, 60% strikes when practicing...after that his arm goes south. He needs his strength to build up.

At this age, infield fielding and pitching is where its at.

Originally posted by hblair

These last two teams have kids (10 yr old) who bring the heat. My kids are intimidated by it.

And I got some kids who don't care. There'll be some running today at practice.

Hblair, take your "intimidated" batters and do a drill call "Hit me".  Sit on a chair about 6 feet away and pitch underhand at their shoulders, waists, legs, while they stand in a bat stance. They don't swing, they just learn to take the hit by flexing their body hard, or moving without moving their feet. It works believe it or not.

If you have kids who let balls go through their legs, have them put their baseball caps in their teeth, by the bill, upside down, then hit some grounders to them. They're forced to look down at the ball into the glove, and it makes it fun for them too.

It is all about having fun. We make our kids run when they don't pay attention in practice or warm up.  Most pay attention now.

[midnight Target]

I guess I can coach the grandkids in a few years.

[Toad]

Originally posted by hblair
Wow, nobody in the o'club has any little leaguers?
 

Been there, done that.

The one thing that made my team improve the most was this:

I got this book: Baseball : Play the Winning Way (Sports Illustrated) (Paperback) by Jerry Kindall

because in the back it has about 16 plays all diagrammed out for every situation (runner on first and second, less than two outs, ball hit to right field).

It shows where each player has to move when the ball is hit to a particular area.

I copied those plays and gave them to the kids. Preseaon, during winter, we studied them, we gave written tests. If they wanted to play first base, they had to KNOW what the first baseman did in all those situations.

When we practiced, we ran through all those situations. Coaches were checking to see that each kid moved to the right place to make the play. Corrected as necessary.

When the season opened we were WAY ahead of the competition. I took over a last place team and finished 2nd with them. The team that finished first just had the horses. Those kids looked like they'd been in 5th grade about six years. They were taller than me, some of them. We couldn't match their pitching. They took us 2 of 3 in regular season play but we lost the two by a combined total of 3 runs. Our offense was average but our defense was WAY above average.. simply because the kids KNEW where to throw the ball and someone was there to catch it.

Trust me, the kids can learn this. The sooner they do, the better you will be. Also, it kind of shuts the parents up on two fronts. If they ask why Billy doesn't play second, you can show them that Billy scored an overall 40% on the tests and his play also shows he doesn't know the job. Second, if a parent wants to Coach from the stands, you can give them the playbook and the tests. Tell them if they score 85% they can help at practice.  

Enjoy... those years go quickly.

[hblair]

Thanks for the pointers guys. Our seasons taken a downward turn. Seems all the marginal teams are starting to hit, and we stopped about a week ago.  We're going back to the tee next practice. Big game thursday night. Of course it'd be raining today.

[Reschke]

One thing that helped my son is he asked if he could take some hitting lessons. He has been going since September and loves every Wednesday afternoon simply because it him and his coach for one and a half hour. This guy hates pitching machines and uses other kids he is teaching pitching to as the pitcher. My son has been hitting off of high school kids who are throwing up to 80mph and loves standing in there. When he started playing last year he was a lazy hitter but now hits doubles and a few triples frequently.

Toad thanks for the information on that book. Our head coach does similar things only he puts the kids in the situations in practice and then tells them how to play it. Each kid gets a shot at the positions on the infield and outfield.

At any rate the kids are now 7-1 and had a slow start on Saturday morning (it was cold here for late April). They allowed the other team to stay in the game and then in the bottom of the 4th put the game out of reach with 8 runs in an at bat and no time left in the game. As I said earlier they play 5 innings or 1.5 hours whichever comes first.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by hblair
Thanks for the pointers guys. Our seasons taken a downward turn. Seems all the marginal teams are starting to hit, and we stopped about a week ago.  We're going back to the tee next practice. Big game thursday night. Of course it'd be raining today.

No big deal, Blair. Make it fun for them, even if they are losing. Its all about fun at this age.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Reschke
One thing that helped my son is he asked if he could take some hitting lessons. He has been going since September and loves every Wednesday afternoon simply because it him and his coach for one and a half hour. This guy hates pitching machines and uses other kids he is teaching pitching to as the pitcher. My son has been hitting off of high school kids who are throwing up to 80mph and loves standing in there. When he started playing last year he was a lazy hitter but now hits doubles and a few triples frequently.
 

Private lessons are worth their weight in gold IMO. My oldest has had private lessons for the past 2 years, for the 3 months leading up to the season(Dec. Jan. and Feb) for the last 2 years, in what is called "Big Little Leauge" (BLL) They are a nation wide outfit. You can find them in your local area with local jocks working for them. Excellent program.  Spendy, but worth it. The kids get a head start 2 months before any practice, and good pointers and tips.  I think we end up paying $125 per month for 3 months. That includes 6 lessons (1 hour long) per month. No more than 4 kids to a coach.

If you want 1 on 1 private lessons, it costs about $35 for a half hour. Worth it if your kid plays Pitcher, catcher or 1st base.

[Toad]

Originally posted by Reschke
Toad thanks for the information on that book. Our head coach does similar things only he puts the kids in the situations in practice and then tells them how to play it.  

I think our best move was holding "practice" one night a week in January, February and early march. We taught baseball as if it were a school course. We had chalk boards, the printed out plays and the tests. We had classes on hitting, pitching, fielding, etc.  The kids got "assignments" for the next week and knew which plays we would discuss and test. We also did calistentics and jogging in the building; we tested them on that too.

It built a lot of confidence and a lot of pride.

When we hit the field, we didn't have to explain the play. We'd just put runners on the appropriate bases and yell "One out, runner on first and second, ball hit to center field", give it a 15 second delay so they could think about it and hit the ball. Our motto was "Everybody moves".

If they made mistakes, we didn't chew them but we pointed out the team's success depended on them knowing and doing their job.

I will tell you the thing of which I am most proud. We had A, B and C division teams. Mine was C division.. the kids no one else really wanted. We used this system three years.

There were five teams in the league in our high school area. Two A's, two B's and my C team. When tryouts came for the freshman high scool team, my C team put more players on the high school squad than any other team. We had six players playing freshman ball. Both A teams together didn't have six total.

The difference was that our kids knew the game. The others had above average talent but it was untrained talent. We had average talent but made the most of it.

Good luck and like Rip said... have fun.

[myelo]

Originally posted by hblair
Wow, nobody in the o'club has any little leaguers?  

I used to umpire a lot, mostly PONY leagues. I’m thinking about getting back into it when my kids get a little older.

Maybe I’ll find our where Rip’s team plays and toss him a few times.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by myelo
I used to umpire a lot, mostly PONY leagues. I’m thinking about getting back into it when my kids get a little older.

Maybe I’ll find our where Rip’s team plays and toss him a few times.

I'm the guy with a Canon G6 and telephoto lens strapped on his back, coaching 3rd base!

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=7068961&uid=2726312&members=1

[midnight Target]

Used to make extra money when I was in college Umpiring baseball, Reffing basketball and peewee football.

Baseball was by far the most difficult game to officiate. I am always impressed by the big league umps and how often they get it right.

[hblair]

Toad, you my friend are one organized fella. Did you know who your team was gonna be in January? That would be nice, I'd try to get organized early then. In babe ruth, we have a draft. The managers and 1st and 2nd coaches kids are protected. All the other ones are draftable. We draw straws to see who chosses first in first round, the following rounds are random. What i'm trying to say is there's no way you know whos gonna be on your team until the draft (about 3-4 weeks before season starts)

I kinda dropped the ball looking back on it. I didn't use discipline on my kids right outa the gate like the two teams ahead of me. Discipline meaning running. Baseball in hokes bluff is very competitive. (hokes bluff is actually where i live) our high school is in the state playoffs again this year. They won the last two years. The manager of the team in first place in our league is really into baseball. He pitched in college. His cousin pitched in the majors for several teams. The darn ball park is named after their family. And his son brings the heat. He's only ten years old lol. And the way the schedule is, he's rested every time we play them. which means if the game gets close, we'll be seeing him on the mound.

But we're not hitting like we have to.
Perhaps I should give them all an energy drink before the game. Maybe a win one for the gipper speech. I already told em I was taking them to a braves game. That didn't work

[hblair]

Rip, I like your pictures man. I'll try to get my wife to take some of us playing.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by hblair
Rip, I like your pictures man. I'll try to get my wife to take some of us playing.

Please do!

I've taken over 500 pics so far in 6 games. Those were just samples from our Jamboree day. Thanks, Blair.

Oh, hey we had a game last night, our pitchers threw an excellent game! 11-1 final, game was called in the bottom of the 5th. We're 5-1 now, with all but two being 9 year olds.  Young team, well coached by Rick Sausa, an ex-ball boy for the Oakland Athletics. (I'm just an ass-istant)