Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: hblair on March 11, 2005, 12:10:08 PM
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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.:lol
Anybody spending time on the diamond this spring?
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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.
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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 (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144776)...we wants ta see RX7 pics man. Give'em!
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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.;)
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I went to that link and saw no rx-7 pics SOB. Where they be?
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Hehehe, waiting for paint, I guess.
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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.
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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. :lol
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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.:lol
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I guess I can coach the grandkids in a few years. :)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. :)
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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. :)
:lol :p 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
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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.
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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 :)
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Rip, I like your pictures man. I'll try to get my wife to take some of us playing. :)
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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)
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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.
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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. :D 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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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...
(http://www.blairautobody.com/baseball/000_0176.JPG)
My son dylan flashing the peace sign to the adoring fans before he gets up to bat...
(http://www.blairautobody.com/baseball/000_0179.JPG)
Kids doing what they do best...
(http://www.blairautobody.com/baseball/000_0186.JPG)
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
(http://www.blairautobody.com/baseball/000_0188.JPG)
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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.
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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. ;)
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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.
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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.:eek:
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.
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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.
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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. (http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/sm-schutt-dna-youth-football-helmet-with-chin-strap-face--pi-1984344.html)
(http://dsp.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/p1951656reg.jpg)
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.
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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. (http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/sm-schutt-dna-youth-football-helmet-with-chin-strap-face--pi-1984344.html)
(http://dsp.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/p1951656reg.jpg)
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.
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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.
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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?
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Originally posted by 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?
Honestly through two seasons in our community there have been four injuries requiring kids going to the hospital. One was a kid who had no business being on the team and had a vertebrae fractured because he was standing around on a kick off return team. The other three were two cleanly broken bones in the radius and ulna (lower arm) and one fractured humerus (upper arm). The humerus fracture was out for 4 weeks before being cleared by the doctor. The neck and lower arms were out for the season. The two lower arm breaks were freak accidents diving for fumbles.
I played peewee football and all the way through college. I never got seriously injured until college when I broke both collar bones in a game and played the rest of the game. The the next season I destroyed my right knee; (complete ACL rebuild with a cadaver (allograft) tendon and Gore-Tex LAD (ligament assisting device). The the next two seasons were my left ankle getting destroyed (more torn ligaments and bone spurs) and that was the end of my hopes for Pro football.
I am of the opposite opinion though on injuries in football at peewee levels. These kids rarely hit hard enough to break an egg and they have padding basically from the top of their heads to their toes. Plus if they stay in their weight class (My son moves up to 85lbs this coming season.) then you stay in the same group all the way through at the same skill level and mostly the same strength level. Which does change once they move into middle school.
The biggest hurdle I have had as a coach (I too have coached from peewee through college) is that as an older kid comes up they need to be retaught after coming up through bad coaching in peewee. That is the much larger issue because it is bad coaching that can setup a child for serious injuries. If you teach them and drill them enough on the proper way to play then it becomes second nature that they never forget.
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Post-results of G-Man's starting role as the pitcher.
He went 4 innings throwing a shut out, 7 strike outs, score was 10-0 when the coach put in the "second string" players (with a big lead) in the infield. The other team proceeded to scored 12 runs over the next 2 innings (a few walks by my son) and no support defensively...we could have won that game with a couple of simple defensive plays but the supporting cast was not supporting! Ended up in a tie, 12-12. Either way, he played one helluva game! He's the only pitcher this year to go the entire 6 innings. (We play 4 games this week so coach had to play him the whole game)
Meanwhile, his Xbox and computer both have gathered dust....the kid loves sports.
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I've finished our Seasons little league movie. Still pics mixed with music. I prefer still pics to moving pictures because they capture expressions of the players better.
This is a 320 res version to minimize download size. It looks much better in its full screen TV version but the download time would be longer. Let me know what you think, its 8 min long and 9 meg.
http://home.comcast.net/~ripsnort60/baseball2005_web.wmv
We finish the season today, (make up game) If we win, we'll finish with a record of 10-5-1.
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Originally posted by 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?
I wouldn't let my older son play until 7th grade and I only let him play then because there was a revolt by mom & son brewing. I caved. He went on to play D-1 on a scholarship.
I caved earlier on my #2 son. The precedent was established and he and his mom were eager for it. That kid started in 4th grade. He made the high school team and that's as far as he went even though he probably had more talent than his brother.
Anyone who tells you "you HAVE to start 'em young" in football is .... wrong.
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Originally posted by Toad
Anyone who tells you "you HAVE to start 'em young" in football is .... wrong.
I agree with what you are saying as well. I have known kids all through my life that were pushed into something and they never progressed even if they were the best athlete/player in any sport. On example that comes to mind is a guy I went to high school with. He was most likely the best natural quarterback that I have ever seen and he never played a down of football past junior high.
The last time I talked to him a few years ago he told me why he kept telling the coaches he had a knee injury was because of his dad always pushing him for football. The guy loved playing it but had to listen to his dad coach from the sidelines. Our head JV coach wouldn't step in and it cost us a player who could have been great. Although he was a better baseball player but never got a chance to play baseball in college because his dad died and he had to go to work to support his family.
I will not push a sport on my son but once he starts he is not allowed to quit. Once he started playing football and baseball all other sports have gone to the back burner. I am sure that will change but thank goodness he hates that communist sport of soccer. :p Seriously I don't mind soccer just as long as they don't take a football field away from the kids that want to play football.
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This past Saturday my oldest son's team won the 8 year old league regular season championship. They beat the other team 18-5 in four innings. They got the first round bye in the league playoffs and play tonight against a team they have already beaten soundly two times. So it should be a good game tonight and if they win they play for the playoff championship tomorrow night.
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Originally posted by Reschke
This past Saturday my oldest son's team won the 8 year old league regular season championship. They beat the other team 18-5 in four innings. They got the first round bye in the league playoffs and play tonight against a team they have already beaten soundly two times. So it should be a good game tonight and if they win they play for the playoff championship tomorrow night.
Thats great! I;m jealous you get your playoffs done in one week. We have only 8 teams in our playoff system. We all play at the most 2 games (if you win, you move on) this week. The championship is next week. Seems to me they did this so the playoff teams can all start their star pitcher. :mad:
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We put 6 teams into the playoffs from a 12 team league. Usually all the "All-Star" teams are picked off the 6 play off teams. Its funny though the All-Star rosters were put up today and out of our 11-4 team only two kids were picked for the B team all stars. This is from a team with only three games in single digits and two of those were losses. We are calculating batting averages for our teams trophies today and our top six hitters all hit over .400 for the season. A couple of them hit over .600 with the lower 6 slots in our lineup hitting somewhere close to .300 (~.280-.290).
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Last night was another win by the little red machine. Those boys came from behind and outscored the other team 18-3 in the last two innings after being down 9-1 going into the bottom of the third. Final score was Reds (my son's team) 19 - Marlins 12. They play the 6th seed tonight for the league playoff championship. That team has beaten them once and we beat them once. It should be a great ball game based on how they both played in the series. Our team lights up the scoreboard and play defense; when they need to; and the other team plays defense first and hits when they need to.
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Well the "Little Red Machine" pulled it out last night in the bottom of the 5th inning and held on to a 1 run lead after being down 12 - 10 in the bottom of the third they scored three runs to take the lead 13 - 12. They held the lead in the bottom of the 5th inning and won the tournament and regular season championship.
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WTG!
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We finished 8-8 overall. Taking the team to see the braves and phillies play tomorrow. Kyle didn't make all stars, even though he was the #1 offensive player on my team. Couple of in the park homers and 1 grand slam.
Any of you guys pick all stars by stats?
The way we do it is the managers each write down 12 kids names on a sheet of paper. The 8 most popular go to the all star team, then the #1 manager picks 4 more. This seems fair from afar, but the coaches picks are usually friends of family, etc. For example Kyle is much better than a couple of the last picks.
Me being the 3rd place manager I get the 9 yr old all star team. Dylan my 9 yr old is on the team. We might do pretty good seeings how there is only 2 other teams in this area fielding a 9 yr old cal ripken team.
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Oh yeah, sounds like you guys are doing great reschke. Nice job man. Out of interest, do you guys work on bunting pickoffs and throwdowns and such?
Rip, nice movie, would like to see more action tho. :) Are those 9-10 yr olds? They don't seem to be corn fed.
;)
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Our league doesn't allow a real bunt in this age but that changes in 9 y/o ball. Our team was the only one working on rundown situations and double plays and it payed off during the season.
Our league website is http://www.vhyb.com and right now they have the "All Stars" posted on there. In our league you have to "apply" to be considered for the all star teams and off our team there were 4 kids (my son and three others)three were selected. My son wasn't selected but after we checked batting averages he was a .700 hitter for the season with 14 doubles and 26 singles and 21 RBI's. This is from a kid who was in the middle of the lineup and the others above him hit over .800. I was on the low side the other day.
The way all stars are selected here is they put all the kids names on the list and each coach votes on the top 9 for each team. Then the head coach selects the other 3 to fill out the 12 person roster. Our coaches are selected by a vote and its purely political since our head coach didn't get to head coach any of the all star teams. Which is a farce since the guy took a team of 12 kids who had not played together before and spanked every team in the league except for two and both of them lost in the playoffs and they didn't get to the tournament championship to get beat by our team.
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Originally posted by hblair
Oh yeah, sounds like you guys are doing great reschke. Nice job man. Out of interest, do you guys work on bunting pickoffs and throwdowns and such?
Rip, nice movie, would like to see more action tho. :) Are those 9-10 yr olds? They don't seem to be corn fed.
;)
We had the youngest team in our AA little league (Sumner district) with 3 of the kids still 8 when they sign ups occurred. We also had 3 kids that had never played organized BB. When the season ended, we only had 2 -10 year olds on the team, yet we managed a winning season! We were eliminated in the first round play-offs in a heartb-breaking 2-1 ball game. The other team managed to score stealing home for the win when one of our closers didn't cover home after the catcher let the ball get away from him :(
All in all, it was a great season, we didn't expect to even break .500 with the kids we had, but our coach was excellent and brought the best out.
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Sounds like you guys did well rip. Especially with such a young team. We start 9 yr old all star practice tomorrow.
I took my blair auto body team to an atltanta braves game saturday. I bought all the kids and coaches tickets, rented a van and the whole deal. Turner fields about 125 miles from here. It was a big deal to the boys. I think they had a great time. I'll try to post some pics later today.
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(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0244.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0245_0001.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0246.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0254.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0255_0001.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0260_0001.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0272.JPG)
(http://www.blairautobody.com/braves/100_0276_0001.JPG)
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Who's the chick in the 6th picture....and is she wearing a skirt?!?!
:eek:
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Great pics Blair, thks for sharing!
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Sling, you're not right man.
I've got the 9 yr. old all stars. They're lookin good. 4 pitchers w/ experience. Cal ripken District tournament starts the week of the 20th. We've been bustin arse. I think we should do well. Rip, Reschke, you guys still sweating on the diamond?
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Aww....c'mon....you're the perv that took the picture in the first place. You cant tell me you didnt see the angle you had in the camera when you clicked the shutter.
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Nope we are done. Plus All Stars down here in my area is basically a popularity/political show between the head coaches. They never select kids who play in the outfield and then try to plug in kids who have played second or short all season into the outfield and they have no clue how to play it. My son was selected for the fourth all star team but the "baseball board" voted it down because it wasn't put together on the night they did the other three teams. Again more political BS.
Next year if he gets selected for all stars he will probably just tell them to shove it because he knows he is better than most of the kids on the all star teams and it will all play out when he gets to middle school and high school. At any rate my son is enjoying his summer and thats all that matters.
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Nice topic!
I took the plunge and was an assistant coach for my sons first year in LL. Was a blast and the kids had fun even though we ended up one rung up from bottom.
Good luck next year guys
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After working hard for 4 weeks with the nine year olds, we had to forfeit our game yesterday because we lacked 1 player. Kids at disneyworld, summer camp, momma mad (we don't let boy play enough to suit her), etc. If we'd had our whole team there, I believe we would have won.
Tough way to get knocked out. I took the team to pizza hut afterwards. After ten minutes of that they had forgotten about baseball. :)
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Originally posted by hblair
After working hard for 4 weeks with the nine year olds, we had to forfeit our game yesterday because we lacked 1 player. Kids at disneyworld, summer camp, momma mad (we don't let boy play enough to suit her), etc. If we'd had our whole team there, I believe we would have won.
Tough way to get knocked out. I took the team to pizza hut afterwards. After ten minutes of that they had forgotten about baseball. :)
We were knocked out first round back in May, a 2-1 heart breaker. We missed the team pizza party because it was a week later and we were in Minnesota.
Good luck next year everyone! Football season starts in this house August 1st, with practice every day, 5 days a week, 2 hours a day! (*I'm driving the Truck Camper so I can eat while the kid practices..:D)