Short Interlude for Baseball Update

Here's a quick update to the BrainyBoy baseball situation. We missed his game last night (Thursday) so called him from Pop Century this morning to check up on how it went.

He played outfield for 2 innings, and third base for 2 innings. According to him nothing was hit his way, but he tagged a man out leading off of third. Good for him! More progress, hopefully, in impressing his coach.

I'm encouraged.

Thank you to all those who offered helpful suggestions - they're appreciated.

One of THOSE Parents

I have a dilemma.

A couple years back I suddenly became on of THOSE parents - you know the ones, that argue with the umps at a Little League baseball game because a call didn't go my son's way?

That's almost the Cardinal Sin of Little League - a parent interfering with the flow of the game, especially because of some real or imagined slight against their child. Of course my reasons were perfectly valid and just, at least to me.

But that's not the point. The point is I'm considering committing the REAL Cardinal Sin of Little League, which is interfering with the coach regarding playing time for Brainyboy, and more precisely where he plays.

BB plays what they call, "Fall Ball", which is less intense, less competitive than the leagues that play in the spring, which should allow more participation and greater opportunities for the kids to learn about the game of baseball. It should either prepare them for the more competitive leagues, or at least instill in them a love and enjoyment of the game.

In my humble, parental opinion, BB is not being given a fair shake.

Now, he's not the greatest player in the world I admit. There are a number of kids on the team who are more skilled both at baseball in particular and athletics in general. But he's improved this year dramatically and has succeeded way beyond my expectations. I'm really proud of his progress, and have told him so several times.

Yet while the coach allows a brand-new player, another boy on the team, to play 2nd base the whole game last night, BB is stuck in Right Field. And every game before that he's been stuck in Left Field. He's played 3rd for one inning (making an unassisted double play, I might add) and 1st base one inning (picking a runner off the base), but in 7 games all other times it's been in the field.

Now, typically Little League teams are pretty static - you play one position and generally stick there most of the season. But this league moves kids around - you might have an inning where the entire infield has shifted around. So there's huge precedence for it.

Last night he was highly upset at not being given a chance to play infield, even for a couple innings, in situations and positions in which he's excelled and done everything the coach's asked in the past.

So that's my dilemma - do I speak to the coach, ask him why he's not playing BB in other positions, try to use some influence to get him to move him around some more?

Just that is not that big a deal. You see, earlier in the season I sent the coach an email suggesting that BB might be ideally suited for 1sy Base (just like his old man). The coach obliged for that one inning - BB did a fantastic job - and that was it.

So a subsequent email or conversation would seem to me to be excessive parental griping and tampering. At least that's how I might consider it, were I the coach.

Now, my dad coached me and my brother in baseball and continued coaching Little League for a long time. He's told me many stories about kids who had no talent that believed they could pitch, and how they and their parents would lobby him to "Put The Kid In". These situations are ridiculous, because it should be obvious to some people that their kid's skills has a limit. But it doesn't apply in this situation because the skills are there, the heart is there - he's just being completely overlooked.

What do I do?

UPDATE (09/27/07): I decided not to say anything to the coach, and let matters play out as they will. I urged BrainyBoy to mention something himself about wanting to play the infield, but he vigorously refused. He's become somewhat jaded about the process himself. We'll just wait and see what happens.

He has a game tonight, but we won't be there as we'll almost be in the air at the time, plus we'll miss his games next week which is disappointing. There's not much more I enjoy than watching my son play baseball...

Big Shot

Last night at the baseball game, Brainyboy not only got two nice hits - a single that was dropped by the left fielder and a clean double to right-center - he made an unassisted double play in the field at third base...

It was the first inning, our pitcher was having troubles and several kids from the other team had walked and subsequently scored. I believe we were down 4-0 already in the top of the first. At this point of the game, there was man on third taking a lead toward home. The first player to actually hit for their team smacked a line drive toward third base, Brainyboy reached out and snagged it, then alertly ran over and stepped on the bag before the runner could get back. Double play!

I love that kid ;)

Blogger Block

What to write?

I'd love to dive into the issues of the day but I don't have time to do a lot of research on linking, justification, fact-finding, all that. So here are just a few salient points and opinions that float about my head. If something doesn't make sense, just ask and I'll try to clarify.

Please, feel free to comment or discuss anything that strikes your fancy. I want to talk :)

• Gauntlet, Gauntlet II and Gauntlet Legends may just be the best trio of arcade video games ever created. And the trio were designed over a span of about 15 years. Discuss.
  
  
• I apologize if this offends anyone, but the idea of pulling our troops out of Iraq is ludicrous. The chaos that would result is unacceptable, and would result in a much larger net problem than staying and trying to fix the problem.
  
  
• In a related vein, there's no way to accurately get an idea whether the "surge" is working or not, because almost each and every report you see is biased one way or another. And the idea a US Senator (Biden) purports to know more than the General in charge is asinine.
  
  
• Ok, enough about foreign policy. I wish I had enough free time to be able to watchblog about the News Sentinel's trial vs. Knox County goverment. Rich, Russ...how do you guys find the time?
  
  
• It's a happy, happy day when Michigan and Notre Dame are 0-2. I almost thought Miami was 0-2 as well after they got pasted by Oklahoma but they're 1-1, so I have nowhere to talk. It's also nice when Georgia gets beat. Tennessee looked better vs Southern Miss than most people give them credit for. I've picked them too many times vs Florida and been disappointed to pick them this time. But I'll be happy to be surprised. Florida 24-10.
  
  
• Bob Kesling, radio announcer for UT Football, is simply terrible. I'm sure he's a nice guy, and is a knowledgeable sportscaster as well as competent basketball announcer, but he has no real skill to call a football game. He was good as a sideline reporter for Jefferson Sports on TV, but that's it. It's embarrassing. I had a whole huge post about this but decided not to post it, because I don't want to hurt somebody's feelings that I don't even know. And I don't want Smokey to visit my house in the dead of night...
  
  
• Tink turns 8 in a couple weeks. Brainyboy's playing Little League baseball. Just catching everyone up.
  
  
• My shoulder hurts, my wrists hurt, my back hurts, my side hurts, and sometimes my pride hurts. Did I miss anything?
  
  
• Why do I not seem to be able to write like I used to on this site? I used to be able to do some nice, long posts about my life I was proud of. That hasn't happened in a while. I wonder why?
  

The HEAT, the HEAT!!!

Actually, it's not too bad today. Signed Brainyboy up for fall baseball at Rocky Hills and drove there and back with the windows down. Sure, it's warm but the humidity's not too bad and before noon the main waves of thermal energy haven't reached their peak yet.

I just like being out and about on a Saturday, and not cooped up in an office.

What's In Your Wallet?

Two tickets to a Tennessee Smokies game? $17


A set of 2007 Tennessee Smokies baseball cards, drinks, nachos and asstd. ballpark food? $25


Smokies coming from two runs down in the bottom of the ninth to win it on a wild pitch? Worth twice the price of admission.


Double-high-fiving your son when the winning run scores, looking at his face and knowing that these are the moments you absolutely cherish?

Priceless