Baseball Journal

[ajupsman]

I'm trying to make it outside for our first practice. I'll check the field tonight. Last year our games began May 3. The weather is not cooperative.

Same here. Have yet to practice on our baseball field and woke up to 3 inches of snow and temps in the 20's. It was 70 on Monday! Our field was just about dry and now this. We've already postponed 2 games this week and now our game Friday looks doubtful. If we finish this week without a game it will be 4 weeks of practice and no games. Normally we practice 2 weeks, play a couple of scrimmages in week 3 and start the season week 4. Looks like this year we'll be playing our entire 16 game season in 6 weeks. This spring has SUCKED!

 

[cotty16]

We finally played to our potential yesterday and beat Harrison Central 9-3. They made the state semi's last year, so it was a good win. The kids did just about everything right yesterday and hopefully it was a confidence builder.
We are now 2-7, but have been in positions to win 5 of the 7 losses. The kids come everyday ready to work and their attitudes have been great. It's just a matter of getting the ball rolling the right way. In fact, we've had 20 win seasons with kids who drove me absolutely nuts with prima-donna attitudes. This group, if they could get it going, could pan out to be one of my favorites just because of their work ethic.

Still working...

 

[bowhunter1023]

We lost a tough one last night 2-0 to Gallia. They spanked our asses last time 10-0 in 5, so we did well. Both runs were unearned and we still have some mental mistakes going on. Not to mention our bats are COLD. Take one kid out of the lineup and we are hitting .200 as a team. Our junior LF pitched a gem last night. He's a stud athlete (6'1" 185 with a 33" vertical) and his curve was nasty last night. He only gave up 3 hits in a CG and no one hit him hard all night. The Gallia pitcher is headed to Miami of Ohio on a full ride, so what do you do?!?

 

[cotty16]

Yeah, that's a tough one. I have to keep reminding myself that we have been seeing some pretty solid pitching. For example, last Thursday we played Beaver Local. Big lefty k'd 11 of our hitters. Yesterday he k'd 9 against Steubenville Central who was 7-0 going into that game.
On Monday we played Harrison Central in our first meeting of the season. Their kid k'd 9. He had k'd 9 and 10 in two other games.
Our second game of the year against Brooke, their senior lefty mowed us down. He's yet to lose this year. So, it's been a struggle hitting, but we have seen some decent arms thus far.

One positive is, I benched a senior outfielder for a freshman and the freshman has been smacking the ball. He's now our leadoff hitter and has put a spark in the offense the last two games.

 

[Buckmaster]

First outdoor practice on the field begins today at 5pm.
I've been asked for a scrimmage already for Saturday but passed.
My boys will need about 3 solid practices using hardballs before I throw them to the wolves.

 

[cotty16]

First outdoor practice on the field begins today at 5pm.
I've been asked for a scrimmage already for Saturday but passed.
My boys will need about 3 solid practices using hardballs before I throw them to the wolves.

Good move! I see too many guys just worrying about scrimmaging and not going over the little things.

On the youth front, Klay is in Bronco this year (11-12 division) and Kody is in his first year of Pony (13-14 division). Looking forward to an exciting summer from both boys and thankfully there aren't too many days where they play at the same time at different locations. It's always tough to decide where to go when that happens.

 

[Buckmaster]

First outdoor practice went decent. Found out the field is too big for their throwing arms. Anything hit to the left side of the pitchers mound ends up getting bounced to first base.
It appears our biggest challenge will be producing defensive outs. I'll need to try to bring the infield in and offset that will a shallow outfield as well. We'll have a better chance of actually throwing a guy out at first base. Over the years we will grow into our playing field.

The struggles of being little guys (6-7).

 

[bowhunter1023]

My prediction: I get fired tomorrow.

The board is mandating I coach JV tomorrow because I'm the JV coach on paper in order to get me paid. The head coach has never coached baseball, but has dictated every lineup for varsity and JV this year. He's currently adding up starts and innings to see who plays when and how much. He coaches to protect feelings, not to win ball games and reward effort. I have drawn a line in the sand and will stand up for my principles. Last year the head coach let me coach my way and never once gave me a lineup. Never had an issue. He was drafted out of HS by the Marlins and played in the minors. If anyone had the right to micromanage, it was him. I know baseball and my style to to play for blood.

I'm done teaching ball in a pussified PC manner. I'm ready to stand up for what I know is the right way to play HS baseball.

 

[Diablo54]

My prediction: I get fired tomorrow.

The board is mandating I coach JV tomorrow because I'm the JV coach on paper in order to get me paid. The head coach has never coached baseball, but has dictated every lineup for varsity and JV this year. He's currently adding up starts and innings to see who plays when and how much. He coaches to protect feelings, not to win ball games and reward effort. I have drawn a line in the sand and will stand up for my principles. Last year the head coach let me coach my way and never once gave me a lineup. Never had an issue. He was drafted out of HS by the Marlins and played in the minors. If anyone had the right to micromanage, it was him. I know baseball and my style to to play for blood.

I'm done teaching ball in a pussified PC manner. I'm ready to stand up for what I know is the right way to play HS baseball.

Don't back down Jesse. One of the reasons for sports IMO is to learn work ethic. Work hard and get paid. Don't put in the time to be good and you won't play. Hippie asses. It's not tee ball anymore.

 

[ajupsman]

Jesse, stand your ground. Too many tbings today, for kids are pussified. Sports is where life lessons are learned. If they don't like your methods than go coach someplace else and kick their asses every time you play them.

 

[bowhunter1023]

So I was mandated to use his starting lineups on Saturday. They were not egregious personnel wise, but were the most ridiculously arranged lineups I could have imagined. And it really chapped my ass that he forced me to use them. So I rearranged them and told kids if they didn't execute, they were coming out of the game. First game I jerked the only two that didn't need to be out there after the first inning. We won 6-3. The second game, I jerked one kid after the 1st and the other after the 3rd. We won 14-8. I could barely get out of the dugout before I had parents up my ass about their kids not playing. I went 12-7 last year with less talent and never once had a parent give me a hard time. It was unreal.

So last night at 8:30 I find out the other JV coach got laid off and starts a new job today and can no longer travel to JV games. The other coach does not have his paperwork done and can't be with the kids unless someone is there with it. Of course the other coach had his, leaving me and the head coach. So guess who has to travel to all JV away games now? Yep, me. Not only that, because we didn't make cuts, we only travel with 13. Today, the kids I wanted to pitch (freshman who could play varsity) and another kid who should be a full time starter on JV, are not going with us.

I've already left a voicemail for our AD. I'm sick of the nonsense...

 

[5Cent]

So I was mandated to use his starting lineups on Saturday. They were not egregious personnel wise, but were the most ridiculously arranged lineups I could have imagined. And it really chapped my ass that he forced me to use them. So I rearranged them and told kids if they didn't execute, they were coming out of the game. First game I jerked the only two that didn't need to be out there after the first inning. We won 6-3. The second game, I jerked one kid after the 1st and the other after the 3rd. We won 14-8. I could barely get out of the dugout before I had parents up my ass about their kids not playing. I went 12-7 last year with less talent and never once had a parent give me a hard time. It was unreal.

So last night at 8:30 I find out the other JV coach got laid off and starts a new job today and can no longer travel to JV games. The other coach does not have his paperwork done and can't be with the kids unless someone is there with it. Of course the other coach had his, leaving me and the head coach. So guess who has to travel to all JV away games now? Yep, me. Not only that, because we didn't make cuts, we only travel with 13. Today, the kids I wanted to pitch (freshman who could play varsity) and another kid who should be a full time starter on JV, are not going with us.

I've already left a voicemail for our AD. I'm sick of the nonsense...

I hope your season is getting ready to wrap up Jesse, hate hearing this.

 

[cotty16]

I hope your season is getting ready to wrap up Jesse, hate hearing this.

we are only half way done.

 

[5Cent]

We finally played to our potential yesterday and beat Harrison Central 9-3. They made the state semi's last year, so it was a good win. The kids did just about everything right yesterday and hopefully it was a confidence builder.
We are now 2-7, but have been in positions to win 5 of the 7 losses. The kids come everyday ready to work and their attitudes have been great. It's just a matter of getting the ball rolling the right way. In fact, we've had 20 win seasons with kids who drove me absolutely nuts with prima-donna attitudes. This group, if they could get it going, could pan out to be one of my favorites just because of their work ethic.

Still working...

Keep their heads straight Mike and they will see the rewards of their hard work. Sounds like you have quite a bit of talent there!

 

[bowhunter1023]

We won a 1-0 ball game last night with the JV in an hour and 24 minutes. We started a kid fresh off a 1 week suspension for being a knucklehead. He threw a 1 hitter with no walks. His only hit came in the bottom of 7 with 2 outs! He did give up a bloop single in the 6th that we ruled an error since the kid playing second was so far out of position. We had to start people last night and it wasn't fair to score that a hit when had we started our best 9, it would have been caught. In the 5th, we had 1 out with our fastest kid on 3rd and a kid I trust to get a bunt down at the plate. We executed the squeeze perfectly for the only run of the game. It was a good one to be a part of!

The varsity lost 8-0 to a horrible team. Coaching hurt them again. And attitude. They've just mailed it in. Sad to witness...

 

[ajupsman]

After 4 weeks of practice in a gym and on a soccer field we finally got on our field Monday. Of course that was our first game so it was interesting. We lost 5-2 to team we should be better than. They have 3 really good players and not much after that. We just beat ourselves early. 3 unearned runs in the top of the 1st and they got 2 in the 2nd. After that we settled down and played decent defense and pitched well. We are a young team with only 2 seniors so I do expect some growing pains. We did outscore them 2-0 over the last 5 innings even though we didn't hit at all. 3 hits I think. One bright spot was my sophomore pitcher who went the last two innings and K'd all 6 batters he faced including their best 3 hitters. Pretty impressive for his first career varsity mound appearance. We play today on the road against a school one division higher than us. It will be a tough one but I'm going to start the sophomore on the bump. Put him to the test right away. Hopefully we got our first game jitters out of the way.

 

[cotty16]

It's been a rough season. Never had one like this before. The ball just never bounces our way. 13 games left, then the sectional. Still time to right the ship, but we are backed in a corner.

 

[Big_Holla]

My son's Little League team had a scrimmage last night and they did real well. Most of the kids listened and were slowly coming around for a bunch of 9-10 year olds. Allen got to catch for the first time, caught 2 innings and learned real quickly what a passed ball was LOL. We even had him pitch an inning to see if he still had it from fall ball. Had 3K's and only one hit, no runs scored. Love that little guy!!

 

[ajupsman]

Lost 3-0 and got no hit by a guy throwing puss. We just can't hit. Of course you actually have to swing the bat to hit the ball. 22 K's in 2 games and 11 of them looking. In today's game our first 2 guys got walked and my 3,4,5 hitters all struck out looking. Not good. Our defense failed us in the first inning again. My senior rightfielder turned a one hop single in to a triple by diving for the ball. A senior should know better by now. My other senior hasn't done squat in two games either. I'm hoping they turn it around soon but if not I'll bench them. If I'm going to lose I'll do it with the young guys and build for next year. Back at it again tomorrow vs. Woodsville at home. No rest for the weary.

 

[bowhunter1023]

That's tough to swallow AJ. Hate to hear it. Do what I did last week. First pitch fastball strike and you look, one foul pole. 2 for backwards Ks. Swing the bat or pick splinters from your ass AFTER you run those poles.