The Mariners WIN!!!!

My only beef with my son's minor baseball organization is the state of the fields.

Over the last 20 years or so, plenty of the diamonds in my little neck of the Toronto 'burbs have been replaced by soccer fields or subdivisions. There are some nice parks but they're for the older kids. Young ones play on old diamonds overgrown with grass and filled with holes. The fields have little if any drainage so any kind of rain earlier in the day leaves the field unplayable and there are no make-up dates. The fields are all controlled by the city parks and rec dept. and as much as the executive asks them to look after them - or reclaim some of the fields no longer used for soccer - it doesn't seem to be a priority.

When we were in the OC last summer on vacation we couldn't believe the beautiful fields at many of the public schools. Cut grass, dirt infields, dugouts, scoreboards. I told my son that ball players his age there wouldn't even go on the kind of fields he has to play on every week.

 

No kids that age so I'm not all that familiar with T-Ball, AA. Do they play regular field positions or are there "rovers" like in softball? What position does Little Man play? And CONGRATS!!!!!

 

Reading the title of the thread, I thought it was about the new movie "Major League IV: The New Generation" in which the Seattle Mariners finally win a pennant.

Glad I was wrong. Congrats AA.

 

Actually, they do have positions, although the coaches move them around every inning or so. Typically, a game only lasts three innings (due to time limits). Also, coaches have to play every player, and since each team has a minimum of 11 kids, they usually let 10 play the field and one on the bench.

The coach pitches to his players, three pitches, and he's joined on the pitching mound by a defensive "pitcher," a kid who is there to run up and field the dribblers (ha!).

Little Man played 3B for two innings and RF for one. Last year he was mainly a catcher because he simply didn't have the attention span or focus for the game.

If you want to see unintentional comedy, you really ought to watch a t-ball game. The number of coaches I've seen get beaned right in the jumblies is huge! That's why I'll never coach.

 

Actually, one of the subplots in the next Star Trek movie has to do with the Washington Nationals finally winning a World Series as the Enterprise prepares for its first mission.

 

Two games ago, Little Man slid into first base on a weak grounder, getting in as the throw arrived, but the baseman dropped it. Little Man thought he was out and so did the first-base coach, so he starts walking away. The ump was a little late in signaling safe, so the baseman tagged him out. I wanted to cry, but really, how can you be mad in a case like that?

Happened again last night, only this time to the other team. His coach (and the kid's dad) was pitching and went crazy for a second before coming to his senses and toning down.

But literally, that's the worst I've seen in two years.

 

My daughter actually pulled a similar play in t-ball...she's playing 2B gets a line drive,makes a very lucky, and very accidental catch, runner on first runs into her and the runner on second ran back toward her. In practice, we had been working on tagging people out, and I had told the team "if you get a bunch of people running around you, just start tagging everyone and the umpires will decidewho is out and who is safe".

So she tags kid coming from first and kid coming back from second. But dad (and coach) said everyone, so she runs to the other teams dugout and starts tagging the kids sitting on the bench. And the coaches. She made it most of the way because none of the adults could stop laughing.

Later that season, same kid, mine (and that acorn didn't fall far from the tree) is standing on second when the batter hits one off the tee into the outfield (much smaller field). I holler "run home", and she does...

Right over the pitchers mound...completely ignoring third.

I love tee ball.

And Alley, that young woman went on to earn a scholarship to play softball in college. Little Man seems to know what he's doing...next stop has gotta be the bigs.

 

My college coach ran that play all the time. Man on first with two outs. Base hit somewhere, the runner would cross second and turn toward home. Worked a couple of times. Didn't others.

 

Huggy, you and the other parents will just have to do it yourself. We were in a similar situation in that the parks dept. though maintenance was a dirty word. So before the season every year, a bunch of us would get together, fill the holes kill and cut the weeds, drag the field and generally spruce things up. We figured it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. No one said a word.

Course, they didn't say thank you either.

 

Woohoo!

One question, though: What happened to your pitching tonight?

 

My son's league (ages 4-6) doesn't keep score, so they focus more on the fundamentals and making sure the kids have a good time. There's also no coach pitch until they turn 7. The uni is a cotton T-shirt replica of a major league BP jerseys.

Only concern I have is how advanced most of the 6-year-olds compared to the rest of the kids. My son doesn't turn 5 until two weeks from now, and while he's the tallest kid on the team, you can tell he doesn't have the coordination the older kids do. It's also hard to keep the kids' attention, too.