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Brock and Mason... continued

Haha. No doubt. It's funny that no one but Mason seemed to know anything about this deer for so long and each year more and more people seem to find out about him. If it is Tines, this will be the fourth season he's had an exceptional set of horns... And I kid you not, he is living in a very heavily hunted area.
 
Glad to see that the crowd favorite saga is up and rolling again. You and Mason seem to have some encouraging news to work off of. Good luck and keep it fun!

 
I wonder what he looks like this year.
 

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Boarhead said:
Good luck guys.
How did the baseball season go Brock?
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It was long and eventful. Looking back, I can take pride in the fact our boys improved tremendously. I coached our 7th grade team which was made up primarily of 6th graders. They had a long way to go just to get competitive, but they did. Once that was finished, we moved on to travel ball and many of the boys that were on our 7th grade team played with us. They did well. They have a great deal of talent but lacked the heart to battle if they were ever down a run or two. By the time we finished, they knew the game was not over just because they were behind a bit, or even a lot in some cases. That was quite a hurdle to get over, took some serious work.

On a more personal level, Mason burned it up, pitching in particular. I'm not saying this because he's my kid, honestly, but when he pitches he owns the ballpark. He not only throws exceptionally hard for a 12 year old, he is smart, with great off-speed stuff. And he can spot his pitches exceptionally well. By the end of travel ball, I learned to use him the first three innings against the better teams. As our boys would struggle coming from behind, apparently everyone else does too. Mason would pitch three innings and simply shut everyone down. It was fun to watch the teams that had blasted everyone else out of the park just take a seat after three batters, three innings in a row. Additionally, I had a kid that could throw strikes all day long, about 40 MPH. After a team would see Mason throwing in the mid-60s, they just couldn't make the adjustment. It was fun to watch. Offensively, he struggled through most of the early season. Eventually got that figured out. He has had issues at the plate since he was wee little, I don't know why. We changed a couple things back in early May and he became a line-drive hitting machine. He forgot that he once struggled and changed his complaints to "I can't hit one over the fence"... dumb kid. He hit the fence on a couple of occasions, on hits that sailed about 10-15 feet off the ground the entire way. Personally, if I could hit line drives like he does, I'd not worry about them not clearing a fence...but that's kids for ya.
Now, I hope we can find a place to play fall ball! :)
 
I've got to tell this, just because you've got me thinking about baseball again and I rarely miss an opportunity to brag on Mason. He does not walk many batters, but one day he walked a kid in a game that would prove to be one heck of a battle. It was in the third or fourth inning, he had pitched from the start and was still on the mound. The kid he walked was the first base runner he had on the entire game. He threw one pitch to the batter. Before delivering the second pitch, he picked off the kid on first. He's got a nasty move for a youngster. He told me after the inning that he didn't want them to get used to having kids on base. :)
 
That is awesome Brock. Heart is something which is difficult to teach. Most of the kids have heart. Some more than others. To get them to dig deep, together, and fight thru being down at this age level is tough. Garrett has a ton of heart. Sometimes his heart outweighs his talent in regards to speed and such on the soccer fields. This is usually when he gets a step behind and called for a foul. Lol. Congratulations to you and the boys for learning the ability to suck it up, dig down deep, and fight til the end.
 
brock ratcliff said:
I've got to tell this, just because you've got me thinking about baseball again and I rarely miss an opportunity to brag on Mason. He does not walk many batters, but one day he walked a kid in a game that would prove to be one heck of a battle. It was in the third or fourth inning, he had pitched from the start and was still on the mound. The kid he walked was the first base runner he had on the entire game. He threw one pitch to the batter. Before delivering the second pitch, he picked off the kid on first. He's got a nasty move for a youngster. He told me after the inning that he didn't want them to get used to having kids on base. :)
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Love that killer instinct!

It's great catching up on Mason's ball playing and what you two have to look forward to this upcoming season!

That pic of Tines really shows how big of body he truly has! His head and chest are huge! I sure hope one of you guys can kill him this year but if you do, his head with that massive set of antlers will be a load! Lol
 
I hope he is still around, Ric! If so, I can't wait to see him.

Phil, it was easier than I'd have imagined, once it occurred to me, I wished I'd have thought of it sooner. I showed them a picture of one of my little league teams and proved there were no super stars on it. Yet, we won the 12 team league six years in a row. I told them we played every pitch of every inning of every game. I explained it makes no difference what the score is, know your job and do it. If you make an error, forget it, you have a job to do on the next pitch! I even told them I didn't care what the score was, just do your job and do not dwell on past mistakes. The next play is all that matters, etc. It worked, surprisingly. I think it applies to everything, just stay on task!
 
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