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Baseball Journal

aholdren

Senior Member
Supporting Member
5,176
151
South East Ohio
Got my first disgruntled parent phone call last night. I find this disturbing especially since we field 10 kids and I specifically only took 10, this way every kid plays every inning. We are a pretty good team and all was well till last night, he even chewed on me about not pitching his kid in Rec ball.... Oh well at least I got the first one out of the way and no one else will be getting a cherry the next time....
 

aholdren

Senior Member
Supporting Member
5,176
151
South East Ohio
Our rec team finished 2nd in the MOVBL 9-10 league, which had 3 travel teams in it. We kept 8 and picked up 2 other 10yr olds. Our first tournament was in Athens a week ago and we started slow and droped 2 games in pool play, got seeded 3 out of 9 in the B bracket and finised 2nd. It was a good weekend but we just ran out of quality pitching, 3 innings per game and 6 per day with 9 total per tournament caught up to us. We play in Lowell on the island this weekend.
 

Buckmaster

Senior Member
14,538
205
Portage
We concluded our season yesterday in tournament HotStove play.

Saturday we won Game 1 against a 7 year old team, 9-8.
That advanced us to Game 2 on Sunday in which we played the Number 1 Seed.
We were down 5-2 after the middle of the fifth, then the other team blew it open with a 4 run fifth.
We had them scared up until the 5th inning.
Final score a 9-2 loss after 6.

This ends our season with a record of 5-13 and we come back next year as big bad 7 year olds.

I conclude, I am very satisfied with our season, play, and growth.

Now its off to coach Mighty Mite football as that begins next week.
 

cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Kodys pony team ended up winning the Chester WV tournament. Caught us a all by surprise since we have such a young team. Everything just went our way.

Tonight, they were knocked out of the Weirton WV tournament by Sto Rocks, Pa.

I had a good time with this group though. Every kid on the team will play for me in HS one day if they stick it out. It was nice working with a younger group of kids that will feed into my HS system. Usually we have kids from other schools involved.

This puts a wrap on kodys 13 year old baseball season. Overall I'm pleased with his progress to this point.

Here's a few action shots of Kody
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Klay's bronco team went 2-2 in the Wintersville tournament and are currently in the Weirton, Wv tournament and have earned the one seed after going 3-0 in pool play. He continues tomorrow.

Here's a few of Klay.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1405390778.340885.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1405390789.476784.jpg
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
25,251
261
Those are great pics Mike! Congratulations on a good season, glad you got to work with your up and comers. Its got to be exciting thinking of the future with them!

We are missing 1 1/2 tournaments due to vacation. Mason will be pitching Sunday (we arrive home Sat night). He is looking forward to the games more than he looked forward to vacation! The kid wasn't born with an ounce of athletic ability, but he was given a work ethic that blows my mind. "Dad let's go throw" - heard it 50 times already this week and its only Tuesday! :)
 

cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Thanks Brock. Klay is, like Mason, going to be missing 1 1/2 torunaments as well. One begins this Friday when we leave for the beach and one is wrapping up next Sunday when we get back. He's pretty pissed and he contemplated staying home with my parents so he wouldn't miss the games. I like his drive, but I'm also glad he decided on the vacation with us. I value our family time too much to leave him home. Plus, I hate missing games too! If I have to miss, so does he. LOL

Good for Mason! If he continues that work ethic, he will develop into a solid player who will always contribute. Can't coach heart. you either have it or you don't. Sounds like Mason has it!
 

brock ratcliff

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Its tough on these kids to learn they cannot be in two places at once. :). I didn't know any kids that were as "in love" with baseball as Mason is even when I was a kid. We played everyday, nearly, but to sit and think about technique/form/methods as Mason does...nah. I just always thought as a kid that people were born with it, Mason spends hours studying his idols and trying to immitate them (Chapman, of course). We didn't have youtube, Mason does and he is using it to it's fullest!
I am not that guy, I'm not pushing this kid. He just wants to work to improve. I do want to help him, but I was just an average HS catcher, couldn't pitch for crap. His All Star coach is really, really good, but I feel like I should be doing more to help the boy since he is willing to do the work. One of our customers is heavily involved with the Chillicothe Paints (Frontier League). He has seen Mason pitch and Mason has talked his ear off about it. He said he could get Mason started in lessons with their pitching coach. Here's my question for you; is this a bad idea at his age? I don't want him learning to throw any dangerous pitches, but my line of thinking is that he could gain a great deal by having someone work on fundmentals with him more than I can. What are your thoughts, Mike?
 

cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
It's never too early to get extra help. Most of those guys giving lessons aren't there to teach curveballs and stuff. They will just focus on fundamentals. The only drawback to some of these guys is that they try to make every kid do things the same exact way, like robots. I'm a firm believer that most of the time, it is a comfort thing. For example, in hitting, you'll see lots of different stances, but in the end, in order to hit consistently, everyone gets to the same spot (back elbow to the belly button, hip rotation, hands inside the ball, etc...). To think everyone can stand the same exact way is crazy. I think it's comical when I hear little league coaches screaming "get you back elbow up" to every single hitter. Sure, it works for some, but not all. Look at the stances of MLB and NCAA players. Lots are different, but in the end they end up in the same place if they're doing things right.

I believe if it's not broke, don't fix it. I've seen ugly stances with good production and I've seen beautiful stances with zero production. It's all where you end up.

Pitching is the same. If he's throwing strikes and hitting spots, a pitching coach may not be needed. Could a little tweak here or there help? Maybe. I guess it depends on where Mason is at this point. For example, if he's not reaching back enough and you're constantly telling him to and he doesn't change, maybe he needs somebody else to tell him. I'm in that spot with Klay. I might as well talk to the wall.
Or maybe Mason is throwing across his body. Somebody else may pick up on that. Or maybe he's not sitting on the back leg and driving to the plate.

For the most part, going to an instructor can't hurt, just beware of that one that starts changing stuff before he even sees Mason throw. That's the guy that wants a robot and that's the guy that will waste your money. And, if he wants him to throw curves, just step in say "not yet". Changeups? Do it! Curves? Not yet. If he can change speeds effectively and keep the ball down, he will dominate little league and can even get by in HS with that. Keeping hitters off balance, like a whiffle ball game, is key.
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,189
171
Lots of childhood heros going into the hall of fame tomorrow. Sure makes a kid feel old.
 

brock ratcliff

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Mike - thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts! We finsihed up tournament play yesterday. Hate to see it end, but we did go home and blow the dust off our bows afterward :). Mason pitched for another team Friday night, 5 shutout/no hit innings, then drove to Chillicothe where he pitched another 5 innings Saturday morning @ an 8 am game. Too much? Maybe, but the kid will leave a baseball game and go home to throw at a target for another hour. He says his arm never hurts, so I'll let him go till it does I guess.

I'll be cautious when I select a coach for him, if we do. Still mighty young imo to work too hard on a hobby.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
49,507
288
Appalachia
Just watch that arm and make him ice it after a stretch like that. He's not too young to develop a great stretching and recovery routine. And PLEASE (like Mike said) do not let him throw a curveball until he's in high school. Nothing ruins an arm faster than that. What he needs to focus on is hitting his spots and learning a change-up. Then when he's bigger and stronger, he can learn the curveball. A kid that can hit spots and keep hitters off balance will go much further than one that learns the "mystical" curveball at 12, then throws his arm out before he's 16.
 

brock ratcliff

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His "All Star" coach told him he'd never show him a pitch that would hurt his arm. He has a pretty good change up, it works really well because his fastball is a good deal faster than most of the boys that pitch in 10U leagues. Most kids swing on the timing of his stride vs actually watching the pitch, so when he lobs one, he usually burns 'em. Anyway, the first game he pitched for this coach, he looked weird to me when he threw the ball. His coach had him throwing a breaking ball that wouldn't break... It made a long inning. During a time out I called him over to me and he told me the coach had him trying this pitch. It involved no wrist flipping, but it didn't work regardless. At the time I was pissed off, told him to stick with the fastballs and keep em low, regardless of what the coach said. They had two outs at the time, new batter @ the plate. Sat him down with three pitches... Some people try to over-think a kid's baseball game. He better never let me catch him throwing a curve! I caught two boys in Circleville all through little league that were awesome. By the time we gt to HS, they weren't fit to throw BP. I don't want to see Mason go through that...
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
49,507
288
Appalachia
I'm officially done coaching HS baseball. The powers that be conspired to hire the VP for the job without input from the AD or notifying current coaches that they were hiring. It was a complete inside job that I'm positive broke some rules. Part of me wants to get dirty over this, but I'm just walking away. With a new job looming, I couldn't coach anyways. However I love to have the last word and torch bridges. Going to be tough to keep positive on this one.
 

brock ratcliff

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25,251
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Sorry to read that, Jesse. Burned bridges are tough to rebuild. You never know when you'd like to cross it again.