Fields of Screams: 2017 youth baseball/softball thread

Maybe Vinny's right.

Reese City, No. 2 in the league, pulls into town, on a cool-to-cold-and-windy day and we start out like a house on fire. Sis B is on hand, wheeled onto the field in a wheelchair to assume official scorekeeping duties.

We're home team, so we're in the field first. Aliciana strikes out the side in the first inning, bang-bang-bang. Our first three batters, Sasshy, Sis A and Aly V, get on base with singles. Bases loaded, no outs. Aliciana is up and clears the bases with a double, 4-0.
Next batter cranks a single to the outfield. The throw comes to the plate and Aliciana apparently scores.
But the ump calls her out for "interference" with the catcher.

It is kinda a bullshit call, but we're up 4-0 in the first, and still batting.

Aliciana's dad Allan goes apeshit on the umpire, "Worst shit I ever saw, etc etc." StarSis and I try to drag him away, but within 20 seconds, it escalates to "one more word" levels, and the umpire says, "you got 30 seconds to pack up your folding chair and hit the parking lot."
"I ain't going."
"OK, game's forfeited."

So there goes our chances for the league title. So much for our delusions of grandeur.

Some of the parents are storming, "pull the team off the field," but I put the shit-hammer on that idea.

"Look. We got two dates left after tonight, then the tournament. We pull the team off the field, we're probably suspended by the league and shitcanned from the tournament. Season's over. You want that? We're playing the second game of this doubleheader. That's it."

The ump says, "Let's take 20 minutes for everyone to cool down then play the second game. But that dude (Allan) has to be out of sight by the time I come back, or Game 2 is gone too."

I dispatch a couple other of the team dads to tell Allan, "Go sit in the car, I don't give a shit what you do, but this guy ain't fuckin' around. Get out of sight and let us play this game."

We play, but Aliciana, shaken up by her dad's explosion, is mortal and these kids can hit. They pull away to a 13-4 win and there go our league title chances. And we're in Tier II of the tournament.

Tomorrow night, undefeated league leader Dannsburg. I got a bad feeling about this.

 

Oh. I forgot/ was too pissed to write about it last night: After we got going in Game 2 of the truncated doubleheader, Sis A stands in the batters box and gets drilled straight in the back with a pitch, which impacts with a resounding thud that echoes around the park.

She goes to her knees and StarSis and our team doctor dad sprint out to check her out. She says she's woozy, so I help carry her off.

StarSis is pretty rattled, with one twin sitting on the bench in a thigh high cast and the other with an ice pack on her shoulder blades.

The idea of hauling Sis A to the emergency room is weighed for a couple minutes, but she says she's ok and Doc Dad concurs. StarSis isn't saying much.

By the end of the game, Sis A seems all right, but it still isn't much of a post game pizza party.

 

News that I might be a diabetic one hour, and the next hour I get a subpoena to testify in family court because the mother of one of my players is taking something entirely too far.

Think I'll eat a cookie now and wash it down with a Red Bull.

 

Whitman Jr. plays in the semifinals of the C League tournament tonight. I took him to the batting cages on Sunday night and worked on some hitting in the yard this morning, as well. He can be a good little hitter if he just keeps getting the reps, but his swing can get long and lazy. The muscle memory isn't quite there yet.

His team is the No. 1 seed.

 

Don't leave us hanging. Spill it.

 

He's just a slow starter like McCutchen.

 

He started OK. He just tends to slip in and out of slumps. He has trouble keeping his eye trained on the ball. Like I told him this morning, there is nothing going on in the neighbor's yard that has anything to do with the pitch about to be thrown to you.

 

The girl was abused at home just as the season started.

The perp was in jail but his dad showed up to a game because he's the grandfather of my first baseman.

The first R.O. was appropriate and I agreed with it. At the championship tournament she'd gone too far.

 

Tell him there's a small number on the ball -- 1, 2, or 3 -- and to figure out which number it is. That should help him keep his eye trained on the pitch all the way down the chute.

 

The Pirates lost 4-1. Whitman Jr. struck out twice. I'm starting to doubt he'll ever be competent. He's both unathletic and uncoachable. Not a great recipe for success.

The manager's son was shoving kids in the handshake line.

So fun, youth baseball.

 

Monday night's fiasco is receding in memory as undefeated Dannsburg pulled into town for a twinbill last night (Tuesday) against the Power Cats.

After tonight's game, we have a 2-week break (although I may try to rig up an exhibition game to fill the gap), so I really want to win Game 2 tonight.

I don't want to go into a 4-week break on a 4-game losing streak including a fiasco forfeit. So I stack all my eggs in the basket of trying to win Game 2.

First off, I have to consider the possibility that Allan will still be psycho after last night's disaster and he and Aliciana won't show. If that happens we're screwed anyway.

OK, assuming Aliciana does show, she pitched all 6 innings of last night's clusterfuck, 1 inning in the aborted first game and then 5 in the time-limited second game. So she's pretty worn down, plus our No. 2/3 pitchers, Alyanna and Aly L, didn't get any innings. So my wild scheme is to throw them both in the first game, saving Aliciana for Game 2, which we're going full-tilt to win.

In our league, the first three innings are run-limited; 6 runs maximum. So really you should throw your shaky pitchers in those early innings; there's a limit to how bad things can go. So I decide to start Alyanna, who has effectively fallen to No. 3 in our rotation (although she did pitch decently last week). The plan is, she'll go 2, and if she gives up 6 runs per inning, we'll bring in Aly L, who we figure can get some outs. We're going to sink or swim with those two through game 1 -- Aliciana won't throw a pitch. I've got her inked in to play SS/3B pretty much the whole game.

Time limit also comes into play here in that long walkathon innings can push you up and over the 90 minute limit pretty fast. So if you "save" your ace for innings 5-6-7, you may never play those innings.

Anyway, my grand scheme actually works beyond my wildest dreams early, because Alyanna is actually pitching well -- hell, GREAT. Our defense is actually making plays, too. We zoom through the first two and lead 4-3.

I deviate from my computer-generated charts and decide to ride with Alyanna another couple of innings. She's actually in a groove and cruising. She goes 4 full and leaves with the game tied 5-5. I figure in my managerial genius that Aly L can work through a couple of innings without complete disaster.

Houston, we are go at throttle-up. UH-OH!!

Aly L cannot throw a strike. Can Not Throw A Strike. When she does, every fourth batter or so, manage to throw three strikes, invariably the third strike is dropped, and suddenly the defense develops Keystone Kops disease, we're throwing the ball all over the lot and the walk fest continues. No scoring cap after three innings. Dannsburg zooms through 6, 10, 12, 15 runs. It's 20-5 and we are in full Hindenburg mode.

I send StarSis, acting pitching coach, out to the mound, and she reports Aly L "doesn't want to pitch any more." This is neither totally shocking nor upsetting to me, so Alyanna agrees to go back in. She throws a strike which the Dannsburg kid smacks for a base-clearing double and the inning continues. A couple more walks and some other shit happens and some more runs come in, and somehow mercifully the 23-run inning ends with the score 28-5. Alyanna has now pitched five of her allowable six innings for the night.

The ump informs me we are up against both time and mercy rule restrictions, so we get one more at-bat, and unless we score 13 runs, we lose by mercy rule anyway. OK, fine, well, whatever, nevermind.

Dannsburg changes pitchers. Holy shit! They can't throw strikes either and we start walking, walking, walking and runs start dribbling in. Four or five runs in , bases loaded, I call Aliciana, waiting on deck, to the fence while Dannsburg is changing pitchers again (it becomes obvious Dannsburg has one good pitcher, one semi-decent pitcher, and after that it's a fire drill -- kinda like us).

"What do you think he's telling her?" I ask, indicating the Dannsburg mound conference.

"Probably to throw a damn strike," says my 11-year-old ace.

"Yeah, I bet that's pretty much exactly it. So you know what is probably gonna happen, the new pitcher will throw the first pitch either in the dirt or over your head, worrying so much about throwing a strike. Then the second pitch will be..."

"Right down the middle."

"Yes. So blast it."

All proceeds as I have foreseen. Grand slam! And the rally is on and the team is fired up. We score 16 of our own before Dannsburg gets out of the inning, 28-21. But time limit shuts us down.

The between-games sub sandwiches taste good and all my planning is now in position to pay off. Aliciana has six innings available to pitch in Game 2 (which probably won't go 7 anyway due to time and darkness limits).

We continue hitting and move out to an 8-3 lead. Things are looking great. Aliciana hits two more doubles, Kaera connects for a smacking triple and makes great defensive plays at both 3B and 1B.

The game moves to the fifth and it's 8-5. We're the official visiting team this game, so I say, "let's pile on some runs this inning, get a cushion." And we do! Ten runs to make it 18-5.

Dannsburg gets a final at-bat and the ump informs me, "this is it." It's getting dark.

I tell Aliciana, "just throw strikes, don't worry about base runners, get the batters."

Dannsburg starts getting a few hits, including a 3-run homer, and our defense gets a little shaky, a few of the obligatory dropped strikeouts, some walks, and things start getting tight. The potential tying run is actually on base, but Aliciana finally strikes out the final batter and catcher Sasshy puts on the tag to seal the 18-15 win, first defeat for the Dannsters, now 7-1-2.

The mood is good as we line up for team pictures after the game.

So we go into the long long holiday break at 8-6, fourth place in the 8-team division. We'll have a practice or maybe an exhibition game during that stretch, but no league games until July 11. Then the tourney four days later.

(And Aliciana will probably be out of town for that 7/11 doubleheader, so I'm already pretty much writing it off as a loss. We'll worry about that in two weeks).

 

I'm sure you've heard this from many parents of kids of all ages ... but there is so much growing to do. Particular to baseball, once those kids get to 13 years old with a BBCOR (dead) bat on 90-foot bases, it's like it's a different sport. This isn't even including the normal changes in interest kids go through, and now with a heaping helping of emotional burnout from the year-rounds. Just keep him playing at the league level. Very soon, someone -- most likely your current manager -- will come along and pitch travel ball as the way to get better. In his case it would be the opposite, it would deny him the development stages and make him feel like he's terrible when he is probably just fine for your normal whatever-year-old.

That's a do-over I'd like to have. We "waited" until our son was 10 -- a full three years after other kids in the league hit the travel circuit. We relented because he was begging to play. I wish we would have held off till he was 13. Wouldn't have lost any time in development.