Cal Ripken baseball

[Toad]

Originally posted by hblair
Toad, you my friend are one organized fella. Did you know who your team was gonna be in January?

Yes. In our system you are on a team until you quit, the team disbands or the coach makes you quit for a very few specifically allowed reasons.

My son was on a "B" team through 5th grade. I made him quit that team. Short version: We made it to the playoffs that year. The head coach deliberately "threw" the semi-final. He wanted to go to a tournament the next day, so he pitched our #5 pitcher and put our reserves in as starters...in the semi-final.

That's not what put me over the top, however. After the game he called the team together and gave them the post game speech. He told them (in the short version):

Good game. We lost and now the season is over. Some of us are going to a tournament tomorrow but some of you don't deserve to go and won't be playing with us. The ones who are not going are Tommy, Joey, Billy and Sam. We'll see you next year."

You can imagine what this did to Tommy, Joey, Billy and Sam and their respective parents. Anger and tears do not begin to describe it.

At that point, I stepped out in front (I was an assistant coach) and said: "Ladies and gentlemen. I don't approve of this and I will not have any part of it. This is no longer a team. I will no longer help coach and my son will not play for this group next year, nor are we going to the tournament. I will start a new team next year and any of you are welcome to join".

I got my boy and five others off that team. I got nine more from other teams, mostly the unhappy kids that never got to play.

It's a long story but we studied hard, praticed harder. Every kid had an infield AND an outfield position and I kept records to make sure every kid was getting about the same number of innings and at bats through the year. I went to outside tournaments and let me non-starters start in those. Everyone "got their chance" to show their stuff. Yes, we usually lost the tournaments but we nearly won our division and we went to the quarterfinals in the tourney against the "A" and "B" teams.

In short, I was on a crusade to show that most of these kids can play decent ball if they are TAUGHT to play ball.

Most of the upper division teams ran on pure talent. Their kids were not taught baseball.

My greatest satisfaction came when the Freshman team was picked. The son of the guy who said "some of you don't deserve to go" didn't make the team. Only two kids on his (by then)"A" team made it.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Toad
Yes. In our system you are on a team until you quit, the team disbands or the coach makes you quit for a very few specifically allowed reasons.

My son was on a "B" team through 5th grade. I made him quit that team. Short version: We made it to the playoffs that year. The head coach deliberately "threw" the semi-final. He wanted to go to a tournament the next day, so he pitched our #5 pitcher and put our reserves in as starters...in the semi-final.

That's not what put me over the top, however. After the game he called the team together and gave them the post game speech. He told them (in the short version):

Good game. We lost and now the season is over. Some of us are going to a tournament tomorrow but some of you don't deserve to go and won't be playing with us. The ones who are not going are Tommy, Joey, Billy and Sam. We'll see you next year."

You can imagine what this did to Tommy, Joey, Billy and Sam and their respective parents. Anger and tears do not begin to describe it.

At that point, I stepped out in front (I was an assistant coach) and said: "Ladies and gentlemen. I don't approve of this and I will not have any part of it. This is no longer a team. I will no longer help coach and my son will not play for this group next year, nor are we going to the tournament. I will start a new team next year and any of you are welcome to join".

I got my boy and five others off that team. I got nine more from other teams, mostly the unhappy kids that never got to play.

It's a long story but we studied hard, praticed harder. Every kid had an infield AND an outfield position and I kept records to make sure every kid was getting about the same number of innings and at bats through the year. I went to outside tournaments and let me non-starters start in those. Everyone "got their chance" to show their stuff. Yes, we usually lost the tournaments but we nearly won our division and we went to the quarterfinals in the tourney against the "A" and "B" teams.

In short, I was on a crusade to show that most of these kids can play decent ball if they are TAUGHT to play ball.

Most of the upper division teams ran on pure talent. Their kids were not taught baseball.

My greatest satisfaction came when the Freshman team was picked. The son of the guy who said "some of you don't deserve to go" didn't make the team. Only two kids on his (by then)"A" team made it.

Toad, politics at this level of sports is a joke!  We had a situation this year in little league:

Players are picked like a lottery system and location of where you live.  Fine. Just happens that the head of the Little League commission here in Sumner has the same team he plans to play fall ball with. Oh, and none of the kids live near him.  He built himself a dream team. I've known most of the kids on his team for the better part of 4 years now in various sports, 90% are excellent little natural athletes.  Well, like your fella, Toad, this guy hasn't spent quality time teaching his team the "Chess game" behind baseball.  Guess what, "Dream Team" is 2-6 now.  We get to play them twice, and its going to be a pleasure to whoop 'em.

I'm going to Cal Ripken league next year...at least the players try out, and are drafted. That way you don't have just one or two "Stacked" teams by someone in authority within the Little league system.

[Reschke]

Well we sure did hang one out to dry tonight. The kids showed up but you could tell from the get go that they were not ready. Poor defense and we gave up 8 runs to a good solid club coached by a guy I truly respect. We didn't focus on defense or offense but tomorrow is a practice day and then we have the late game on Saturday afternoon at 5:45. This loss makes the kids 7-2 for the season and hanging out in 2nd place in our league now to a lesser team that hasn't played anyone but we drummed them when we played them early on.

Here where I live baseball is the thing kids do all the time. In Vestavia they have won many 6A high school state championships and have been the National Champion a few times also (IIRC). There is a similar situation to the one Rip is describing. The coach called up all the "National League All-Stars" from last summer and asked if they wanted to play in a Sunday afternoon "All Star Tournament" well it was the cause for some great discussions around the ball park.

My wife takes a bunch of pictures of our kids playing and I will try to get them scanned in so you guys can see the boys in action. I hope we can get a video done this year as well.

Rip weren't you going to do a football video last year? If so I will see if I can get a copy of the DVD we made the last two years and send you one. This past years DVD was awesome and was done by two mom's on the football team.

[hblair]

Sounds like you guys are doing well reschke. We're still in a slump. Kids played well last night. we had a big defensive play...other team had a runner on second, their batter hits one on to the wall in centerfield. Centerfielder to cut off man, cut off man to 2nd base, 2nd base to home, perfect throws, catcher catches the ball and swings around tagging the lead runner on the top of his helmet just as he slides by into home. out! great play by all involved.

We were down 10-3 in the third. They were hitting the ball like crazy. wasn't looking good. We were able to get a single and some walks, loaded up the bases. my son kyle gets up to bat. hard grounder goes thru the gap to the left field wall. they all score. in the park grand slam lol. We ended up losing 12-9. tough loss for our boys, they played their hearts out.

this is my first year managing, next year I will be much more prepared.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Reschke

Rip weren't you going to do a football video last year? If so I will see if I can get a copy of the DVD we made the last two years and send you one. This past years DVD was awesome and was done by two mom's on the football team.

I did a baseball video for the team last year. I'm doing one this year too. I'd be glad to exchange! I'm always looking for ways to improve them. Maybe we can learn from each other....

Anyway, all my "Movies" have primarily still photos, with some video editted in.  When the season is finished, we'll exchange addresses.

Cheers guys! I'm outta here for some fishing for 3 days...

[hblair]

Here's some terrible pics my wife took last night. Remind me to never let her near the camera again. Sorry for the size. I was too lazy to resize them...

My son kyle up to bat with a runner on first...


My son dylan flashing the peace sign to the adoring fans before he gets up to bat...


Kids doing what they do best...


post game talk. i told the boys we were going to see the braves play. Now I have to figure out how I'm gonna pay for it lol

[Reschke]

Well we won last night but got blasted the night before in a make up game. We finally played some defense and won the game 10-6 but the night before we lost 18-12 and only because they couldn't remember to throw the ball and keep their gloves down in the dirt to stop the ball.

We probably have the best hitting team in our league and could be undefeated if we played defense. Because we rarely have strike outs and almost every kids gets on base two or three times a game with good hits and scores runners. BUT we just have to play defense.

[sling322]

Ya know...I see the names on the backs of their jerseys and I have to chuckle.  Chase, Dakota, Logan, Tristan, Blake....why do parents have to come up with all these tricked up names?  Your team sounds like its full of soap opera characters.  

[Reschke]

Well tonight the boys just cranked out a 22-9 win and the other team got their 9 runs in the last two innings when we shuffled our entire infield into the outfield to let our outfielders get some infield game experience. Our kids were on fire with their bats tonight. We had 9 triples with at least 2 kids on base. My son and one other kid were off tonight bad. However the other kids picked up the slack in the bottom of the line up. We have our best four leading off but then we have a mixture of good hitters with kids who just get on base in the other 8 slots. We have three more games left and are tied for first in the league now with a team we have beaten twice. Looks like its going down to the wire to see who gets the 1st round bye in the playoffs.

[Ripsnort]

My 9 yr. old was told by the coach tonight that he will be the starting pitcher and pitch the whole game tomorrow. (He's normally the closer). This could be scarey, or could be sweet...depending on which "arm" shows up.

Hblair, Reschke,either of you got boys that play tackle football? Any tips?  My oldest begged for months to sign up, we got him signed up Sat. $150 not including stuff like Body Armour, etc. (Equip. rental is included though).

No wonder the avg. family is 2, it gets damned expensive to keep them busy year around!

Practice begins Aug. 1st, 5 days a week, 2 hour practices until the season starts, then 3 days a week practice.

[SkyLab]

I just found this thread.

Better late then never!

I coach my daughters little league softball team.

8-11 year old girls.

These girls can play!

We are 7-0 this season so far and it has been a blast.

It's just great to see the kids learn the game as the season progresses.

It’s great to see them grow to love the game.

Its great being out in the sun watching them play!

I like to think that I am helping to pass on a tradition.

[Reschke]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Hblair, Reschke,either of you got boys that play tackle football? Any tips?  My oldest begged for months to sign up, we got him signed up Sat. $150 not including stuff like Body Armour, etc. (Equip. rental is included though).

No wonder the avg. family is 2, it gets damned expensive to keep them busy year around!

Practice begins Aug. 1st, 5 days a week, 2 hour practices until the season starts, then 3 days a week practice.

Yep Rip my oldest plays and has since he was almost 7. He will be 9 this season. He loves football and baseball and we work on different stuff all the time. What sort of stuff are you looking for? One suggestion I would have is to purchase his own helmet. As a former player (peewee - college) this was the one thing I insist on for my son and others as well. As of now the best helmet on the market for youth or anyone else is this one here.

 

That one has no facemask but you can get the one with the facemask for $149 plus shipping. I am buying a bunch of them for our football team this season at parents requests. If you want me to check I may be able to get you a little better deal on the helmet. Let me know and I will ask the guy. But if you don't know the color you need it may be better to hold off since all of ours are going to be Red with Blue or Gray facemasks.

How old is the oldest son Rip? I have a bunch of drills you could run him through to get him in the right mind set for it this season. After all practice starts in just a few weeks once you think about it.

Here we only have four organized practices a week until the season starts then we scale back to two with a game. Of course Sunday afternoons are the days when you can get all the kids together for a little "touch football" out on the practice field.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Reschke
Yep Rip my oldest plays and has since he was almost 7. He will be 9 this season. He loves football and baseball and we work on different stuff all the time. What sort of stuff are you looking for? One suggestion I would have is to purchase his own helmet. As a former player (peewee - college) this was the one thing I insist on for my son and others as well. As of now the best helmet on the market for youth or anyone else is this one here.

 

That one has no facemask but you can get the one with the facemask for $149 plus shipping. I am buying a bunch of them for our football team this season at parents requests. If you want me to check I may be able to get you a little better deal on the helmet. Let me know and I will ask the guy. But if you don't know the color you need it may be better to hold off since all of ours are going to be Red with Blue or Gray facemasks.

How old is the oldest son Rip? I have a bunch of drills you could run him through to get him in the right mind set for it this season. After all practice starts in just a few weeks once you think about it.

Here we only have four organized practices a week until the season starts then we scale back to two with a game. Of course Sunday afternoons are the days when you can get all the kids together for a little "touch football" out on the practice field.

Thanks for the info Reschke. My oldest is 9, this is his first year playing.  I do not know the color yet and won't until July 24th when we meet with the coaches and get our equipment.  Appreciate the offer though.  

I was looking for any high level tips..."Keep the head up all times", etc. I dunno..its new to us.  I never played. I'll hold off on the drills for now, he knows he's going to train hard, he's prepared mentally for it.

[Reschke]

Cool that will give me a little time to put some stuff together for you. We put together a huge handout booklet for the kids and parents explaining everything last year. It even went into the basics about offensive and defensive setups so the kids were that much farther ahead than starting from scratch on day one of practice.

[midnight Target]

My Uncle was a football coach (HS and College). He was adamantly against peewee football. He thought it was much too dangerous for younger kids.

I was forbidden to play until high school. I just wonder if he was right. Do you see many injuries in Peewees nowadays?