I hate tee ball

First game as softball coach ...

* Lost 25-4 but the team hadn't scored 4 runs in any of its previous 4 games.
* Let girls who hadn't been allowed to pitch before pitch, and they loved it.
* Switched positions every inning, and girls loved it, and we found a catcher.
* Parents who were disgruntled with the old regime were happy afterward.
* Lost 25-4 but the 6 players (4 were on a class trip) were smiling afterward.

 

What grade level?

 

I just can't wrap my mind around the hit through the order no matter what and no strike outs. I think I've said it before, but in our league once it's coach pitch it's basically all regular rules except no passed balls and walks (not really fair for a coach to walk his own player, right?). There is also a one base max on an overthrow because as you described the Bad News Bears aspect, aggressive coaches could have players scoring on three-foot dribblers otherwise. They are supposed to call strikes, but it usually only happens if a player refuses to swing and has been given instruction what a strike is and it could be called if he or she doesn't swing.

Anyway, what in the world are you teaching them if they can't strike out? Or get three outs in an inning? Or that everyone gets to hit every time up? I guess kids adjust as they get older and at least they call outs at the bases, but man. The sooner you show them they can't always get a hit the better it's going to be. It's amazing watching a really good coach pitch offensive team make the move to player pitch. If you have them prepped for those things the transition is a bit easier.

And how long are those games? Two innings?

 

Ages 9-13. I don't like that disparity in age. It should be 9-10 or 8-10 and then 10-up (if 10s can play with the 11's, 12's, 13's).

The team isn't all that great compared to 3 of the other teams that are older and have many more experienced players.

 

They're still trying to teach the kids how to hit, catch and throw since most of 'em didn't play T-Ball and this is their first year of organized ball. That's why they allow the teams to bat through the order with no strikeouts. If you had strikeouts and kept the game to 3 innings, not every kid would get to bat in game where they're supposed to be learning how to play because at least 7 or 8 of the kids would have struck out.

The games are an hour and a half or three innings, whichever comes first. Unless of course the time of day or weather doesn't cooperate, then it's two or less. Weekday games start at 6, Saturday games can start at noon, 2 or 4. A pretty good wind can whip through the park where the field is, so if you get a cold spring twilight it feels colder due to the breeze and the coaches will agree to cut the game short an inning.

 

Yes, if the game is limited to three innings then no not every kid would bat more than once, but ours is a 90 minute time limit as well but we play up to six innings. Been a few occasions where we got full games in. Every kid hits at least three times a game, not uncommon for it to be four. So it doesn't sound a lot different. I just think teaching them that outs count and you can't swing until they hit it is a good thing. Try to limit those strike out meltdowns at an early age!

 

Yeah, that's way too wide an age disparity. A lot of girls at 9 are really still at tee-ball level, and the good 13-year-olds are nearly HS-level players.

A long long time ago I was in a city rec summer program in which I coached a softball team with players 8-14. It was ridiculous; the really inexperienced 8's, you just had to hope wouldn't get hurt on offense or defense. I beseeched the program director to split the league into at least two divisions, but he refused for a bunch of reasons I don't totally remember right now.

There was supposed to be a kind of gentle-coaches' agreement that when a really immature 8-9 year old came up, you were supposed to 'pitch easy,' but some of the coaches weren't as 'gentle' as others and put in 12-13 year olds who could actually pitch fastpitch style.

Some of the little 8-year-olds just curled up in the batters box like turtles. You just prayed they didn't get hit.

As I recall, I and one other coach in the 8-team league had actual 'city rec' teams that were assigned by the rec director by random from kids whose parents simply filled out the forms to "play softball."

The other 6 teams were teams that were actually chosen and organized by their coaches. Needless to say there weren't too many 8-year-old dandelion pickers on those teams.

I did luck out that I was assigned, by sheer chance, out of a roster of 12, about 4-5 really good players, including one 13-year-old who later became an All-State player in high school despite being almost totally deaf. I also stacked the deck somewhat by bringing my own sister, StarSis of the Pandas' thread fame, who at the time (age 11) had totally destroyed her own age-level leagues in our hometown city-rec league. So I had a core of about six girls who could really play, and I could rotate the rest in and out as circumstances allowed.

 

The team is coming along nicely. Haven't had a game for a week because of school functions and whatnot, but practices are strong. Girls are hitting well and fielding better and generally happy. One of them asked if I'd coach them next year.

We'll see how these practices translate when we play tomorrow night.

On another note, I'm starting to feel every bit of 43.

 

Ask one of the moms for a neck rub. #freqtips

 

Like the Starman B ball thread I am enjoying this thread immensely, please keep us updated.

 

It got pretty fucking disgusting tonight. I'll try to keep it simple.

Rematch against the team that demolished my team back when it had the 3 coaches who quit.

Tonight, the official score was 15-6 but we played an unofficial extra inning and both teams scored 5 runs (maximum) in the at-bat so you could look at the final as being 20-11, which is great for us for so many reasons because it's the first time my team has scored 11 runs in a game. Shit, it's the first time we've scored more than 4 in a game. Also the first time we scored 5 in an inning, and we did it twice. We found a new pitcher in the process too. She's a terrific shortstop -- varsity material -- and just an all-around athlete. She wanted to try pitching in a game, so I put her in, and she did really well till she got tired in her third inning.

We made a few more plays in the field but kicked many more and still need to work on our throwing. But we've made great strides. We need to be more aggressive on the bases like the the team played tonight, which scored most of its runs by taking extra bases and advancing on dirt balls to the fence etc etc.

Unfortunately, the progress the girls showed in practice didn't translate early tonight and it was 10-1 after 2 innings.

But then we scored 5 in top-3 -- huzzah! -- and it was a 10-6 game.

And then adults decided to get involved.

So, the ex-head coach of my team -- who quit on the girls two weeks ago, which is why I took over -- is married to the head coach of the team we played tonight. She and another one of the quitters wanted to make a point and trotted out to coach the bases in bottom-3. I'm not going to say it rattled my girls but it affected their attention to start of the inning. Fucking cunts. Utter disrespect for the kids. Their stifled grins said it all. Some of our parents chirped loud enough for the ex-head coach to hear at third base but she just stood there without saying a word.

On the other hand, bottom-3 is when I let the shortstop try her hand in the circle and she threw our best inning of the season with 2 K's, including the third out, then practically floated back to the dugout with a smile on her face. Even better, we held them to 1 run so it's 11-6, which is great for my girls because last time the teams played it was 15-0 after 3.

The other team got a fortunate call in top-4 to quash a bases-loaded rally -- FORTUNATE -- then scored 4 in the bottom half for a 15-6 lead. Some of their coaches and players started to eat pizza on the bench.

We went quietly in the 5th, which pretty much was ballgame, but I asked the other coach if we could go another inning because we hadn't played in 10 days and needed the real-time work. He was cool about it. My pitcher was fatiguing, and the defense lagging, and they put up 5 runs thanks to a grand slam.

We got one more ups and against a new pitcher showed nice patience, reaching with a combination of walks, hits and bad defense. We also went ultra aggressive on the bases and it all added up to another 5-run inning. Great way to end the game. We scored 11 runs. Hadn't scored 11 runs in all the games combined.

The girls were giddy. They're a happy bunch, and so are their parents.

 

I was checking the league website and the description for the division on the website is different than how the coaches are doing it every game. The description says inning ends after 3 outs or 5 run scored (but no standings kept). Coaches are playing it you go once through the order each inning. The way things were going last night, there would have been time for 9 innings as most kids would have struck out - except for my kid. His hitting really came around last night - 2 first-pitch singles and a second-pitch single (reached on error if you're scoring tough on the 6-7 year olds)