Fields of Screams: 2017 youth baseball/softball thread

Since the Club Volleyball thread, at least for me, appears to be morphing more into a softball thread, for the benefit of those who might want to keep the volleyball thread about volleyball, here we go:

Just to set the stage/recap from the other thread, StarSis's oldest girl, Sis-14 (who becomes Sis-15 Sunday) is a freshman at Starrville HS, currently playing JV softball but with a decent chance to go varsity.

The terrible twins, Sis-A and Sis-B, 10 1/2, will be playing 12U limited fastpitch (the pitcher gets 5 pitches to throw 3 strikes, otherwise the offensive coach comes in and serves up BP tosses). StarSis MAY coach their team, although more likely she'll be a part-time assistant. Most if not all of the Pandas/Squirrelly Girly hoopsters are involved in softball too.

Sis-6, a krazy kindergartner, has already been playing catch in the backyard with the other three. She'll be in coach-pitch or tee-ball.

Anybody else going daffy on the diamonds this summer feel free to chime in.

 

4-year-old had his first tee ball practice last Thursday and loved every bit of it. He was attentive to his coaches, had fun with his new teammates and took to it right away. I wasn't sure how he'd do with an organized activity, but I was pleasantly surprised by how into it he was.

He woke me up at 5:30 the next morning and the first thing he said, "Can we practice tee ball now?" I'm excited for the season.

 

In our town, they make the girls who play travel softball also play in town, so it's a bit of a tilted playing field with every team having 3-4 travel players. My 5th grader skipped softball last year because she was having issues catching the larger ball and wanted to play spring soccer and swim. This year, she's picked it up again and there was a draft. My assistant hoops coach loves her because she's a good listener and he picked her. Season starts Saturday, so we will see. Six week season, with two games and a practice each week.

My second grader son is a lover and not an athlete. He never wants to play catch but we worked for a couple of hours this past weekend on throwing, which went well. The key for him is not being afraid of the ball, which is a work in progress.

 

Sis-14 is having a hell of a problem adjusting to playing outfield on the (JV) high school level.

In U-14 and below, the ball was rarely hit out of the infield and was usually a dying quail when it was, so the pace of life gets very ... laid back ... out there.

In high school, balls get hit to the outfield reasonably often, including sharply-hit singles, so you can' t really stand around out there picking daisies.

And it actually matters where you throw the ball to the infield. In kids' ball, if the ball got hit out to the outfield, the job of the OF was to simply hurl it in in the general direction of the infield, and hope the SS would cut it off.

 

All of the girls from last year are back on my 11-12 softball team. One parent is being overbearing. Other than that, things are going well so far.

 

Ewwwwwwwwww ...

 

Huggy Jr. is 16 and after many years playing at a very competitive level and winning three provincial championships he is dialing it back and will play for his high school team - very short season and high school ball here in the Toronto 'burbs is a long way from what it was in my day - and will begin umpiring which - my many run-ins with umpires as a player and coach aside - I have always told him was a great way to stay in the game and make a few bucks when you aren't playing.

 

Good for him! Get into it young, have some fun and earn a few bucks being outside on a spring/summer day. Our mutual friend in Chemical Valley TV does quite well with that as a side-light, and has called some provincial level games.

Oh, and our old friend from the Forest City fishwrapper has done LLWS games. I still can't see him as an ump based on the large amount of time we've spent in press boxes together but have been told he does a bang-up job.

 

I actually touched base with our Chemical Valley pal when Huggy Jr. decided he wanted to try umpiring and I know he does well with it even if I told him if he ever did a game my kid pitched he would probably have to toss me in ground rules.

And I told the kid I would not go watch games he worked, if he gets into it with a player, coach or parent (granted he will be dealing with young house league age groups but still...) he needs to figure out how to get out of it.

 

Who is that guy and when does his TV series start, I'll be there watching. Brilliant.

 

Just some dude from east Alabama. He's been written about in the local and statewide media a little bit.

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