Fields of Screams: 2017 youth baseball/softball thread

The coach going thru the divorce is mother of the lefty horse jumping catcher. She didn't let her daughter play on the 7th-grade team because of grades so she's not letting her play on my team either. The bigger issue is that to cope with the nasty divorce she has become super close with the other two coaches, whose daughter is the 1B/C, and therefore the girls have become super close. So if her daughter isn't playing there's no need to help me coach like she has for 2+ years.

The problem with 1B/C's parents is that Mom chews on rocks and scowls for sport and has hubby's balls in her clenched jaw so if she's not coaching with me then he isn't either even if I suspect he wants to. As I mentioned the other day, she blamed me for daughter's wrist injury, which wasn't nearly as serious as thought to be when it happened. I responded by saying the accusations were both stupid and hurtful considering how close we've been. Minutes later I'd been unfriended on Facebook by Mom/Dad/Daughter. I won't see them again.

So, the season starts Saturday with a doubleheader.

The aunt of the dispersed girl (who turned out to be a capable catcher) is going to help me but doesn't have much coaching experience.

The father of the lava-haired pitcher (new dye job) offered to help but said he has never coached. Not sure I need two green coaches.

Let the fun begin.

 

Well, 1) two green coaches is probably better than no green coaches, and

2) It is just always better to have a female coach around when coaching girls. It just is. Sometimes situations happen you pretty much need to have a female assistant on hand. And it helps head off any number of awkward/ perilous situations.

 

I've begun using the aunt. We'll see about pitcher's dad, if/when he can show. I'll rely on other parents as needed.

 

Songbird, I want to hear more about the divorcee and your status as the shoulder to cry on.

 

We are now a team of 12 and all 12 showed up tonight for our only preseason scrimmage.

We slugged and bunted the ball, including a perfect squeeze, while my 3rd-year pitcher looked decent with our new catcher, and we made some plays in the field, including the catcher hustling to a ball to the fence and racing to tag a runner trying to score. Big collision but Abbie held onto the ball. We also need to work on our fielding, especially our outfield situations.

But overall the girls did well and I'm pleasantly surprised. We played 4 innings and outscored the other team 11-7. Their shortstop CRUSHES the ball and is probably the best all-around player in the league, very head's up, though my lefty shortstop is pretty good too.

We play the same team Saturday. Their coach said "And now I know you bunt a lot so we will be ready."

My lone assistant coach can't make Saturday's doubleheader because of work, so I might have to go without a first-base coach.

 

I always like to put one of my older/more experienced players at 1B coach if I am running short of assistants (and even sometimes when I'm not) -- it establishes "senior leadership" and lets some kids move into "captain's" roles.

Coaching 1B isn't that complex; all you really have to do is keep tabs on whether the outfielders are kicking the ball around or not. In softball you don't have leading off base so you don't have to give the "get back" signals and guard against pickoff plays.

Basically I just rotate my last players in the batting order into the 1B coaching slot, with a preference for my "senior captain' types.

I had my preseason parents' meeting tonight in Starrville and a very informal pickup game/practice.

9 of our 12 players showed up; we knew one had a track meet and wouldn't be there. One is a bit concerning; it's Lucy, the big PF from Starrville Starrs basketball, who has a history of head-case behavior. We didn't get a call or email from her parents either. I like my 12-player roster, but it could get awful thin in a hurry if I have any dropouts.

My coaching staff was filling up. One assistant is Blake, a mid-thirtyish dad who (believe it or not) also runs a statewide reporting service. His daughter Lizzy is funny and tries hard, but isn't a world-beater. Fine. Takes all types. Blake knows a lot about sports (but not as much as me) and is very enthusiastic. He'll be my semi-lieutenant. Then there's Gayle, the mom of our No. 2 pitcher. Gayle was a starting player in high school.

StarSis is on board as about a half -time coach. Sis was about a .500 pitcher in HS, and was an all-conference ss/1B as a senior, so she knows the fundamentals. But still the situation with Varsity Vinny and the 8U team is festering. Nobody's heard diddly out of Vinny on the 8U team (his varsity team at Starrville HS is still 0-for-the season, although they did take a game into the seventh inning Saturday) and Sis is suspecting she is going to inherit a lot of the grunt work of the 8U team as an "assistant coach."

So that leaves Paula, mom of Polly from St Sissy basketball. Mom is huge just like Polly; it's not hard to see where she got her size. And although Polly has never played organized ball before, it's pretty obvious she has been playing some catch in the back yard with older sibs and Mom. Polly stepped over to 1B and started picking up grounders and taking throws decently. She's a little fuzzy on the footwork around the bag and doesn't know when to come off the bag, but she can stop the throws and that's the test for the first baseman.

No word from Paula on whether Polly pitches or if she wants her to pitch. She has the big boned frame of a power pitcher. But Paula, I am going to yield completely to her opinions on the pitching staff. Paula was a VERY GOOD D-1 pitcher in college. Whatever she thinks we should do with pitchers, we are gonna do.

We had three players take turns at pitching: Alicianna, the top pitcher from the 10U team last year. (Coach Mike who coached that group last year, said she has good control but not blazing speed. In the early workout, she did. She started out by throwing strikes, so my visions of early-season endless-walkathon torture sessions seem unlikely), Jaylen, a new arrival from the farmlands 30 miles the other side of town, who was belatedly placed on our roster last week, and Sis B.

Jaylen is also big and tall and also catches and plays 3B. She's also our oldest player and I suspect she will be our "captain."

Amazingly enough, the team just kind of naturally started to settle into positions. One of my new players I never saw before actually wants to play outfield. And was pulling in some pop flies early. The infield seemed to sort out. We ran a parade of people for about a half hour into SS and 2B, where everybody wants to play, and only two seemed to have any clue about the SS/2B combination plays to turn double plays, the exchange, force outs, etc. Shockingly enough, it was Sis B (at SS) and Sis A (at 2B). They were doing underhand flips, scoops, you name it. They've been watching a lot of MLB games on teevee.

My No. 3 pitcher also wants to play outfield. Awesome. At the lower levels, OF is considered Siberia -- somewhere you stick your worst players.

StarSis and I are both very wary of instantly installing the twins as our starting/full-time SS/2B combo, to head off charges of favoritism, so we're going to tread lightly. But it's clear they're the top option there. Sis B will pitch sometimes and Sis A can take a turn in the OF and we'll run some of the other kids in the infield. But when it gets down to crunch time the twins will be the keystone combination.

The SS-2B mix is where you really do want the players to be familiar with each other, know each other's moves, etc etc. And this is where "twintuition" is a very real thing.

And it also helps the twins also have the basic tools: they can field grounders and they have good arms (Twin B a little better, so she's better suited to SS).

It turns out we have four players named some variation of "Allie/Aly/Aliciana/Alisa." We'll have to get to work on creative (non-insulting) nicknames.

When you get into HS, and maybe with guys, you can get away with a sardonic/teasing nickname, but not with 12-13 year old girls. They might be fine with something this week and take it as a mortal insult next week. So any nickname has to be something they like.

 

We also discussed the issue of chants from the bench. Paula says "OK within limits."

I don't like em, I think they distract players from the game and screw up your focus, and with 12-13 year olds that'll be a problem anyway.

I don't want to be a big grouchy hardass, so I'm gonna ask our three mom-coaches to try to tamp it down a bit at times.

 

I did talk a bit with Paula about bunt defense -- this is the first level where bunting is allowed.
I don't think it's going to be super common, but I have seen youth teams and JV teams go to pieces all of a sudden when they can't field bunts, so we've got to have a plan.
Of course with good HS teams and college (as Paula knows well) you've got dozens of different bunt defense options, but we've still got problems with some of our second basemen knowing to cover the bag on simple force plays, so we will definitely stick with the KISS principle -- first baseman stays put.

Any bunt in front of the plate or down the 1B line, we'll have the pitcher cover. I think we'll have a pretty much ironclad rule: get the out at first.

 

We had a somewhat light hitting practice today. I did the pitching.

My 3-year pitcher was in one of her moods and I had to tell her to have a seat. She sat by her mom and moped. Haven't had to do that in awhile.

Several minutes later I told her to come back in and play shortstop while lefty shortstop was batting. She begrudgingly did and stood in the hole arms crossed looking like someone took a big ol piss in her jar of Nutella. I've learned when to push and when to play it as it lays. She also knows when not to push my buttons with her 12-year-old stubbornness. Several hits went her way and she'd make the plays begrudgingly with a scowl, but at least she was making them. The lefty shortstop was done at the bat so I put her back where she belongs in the field and told the pitcher to go over to first base. She continued to scowl but made real efforts to field the position. She'd make a great first baseman and I'd love to give her time there but we don't have a back-up pitcher.

I think she'll be back to her spry ways for Saturday's opening games. At least I hope she will.

 

3-year-old pitcher?




Update on the amazing athletic family of our assistant coach Paula: One of her older daughters, Penny, a senior going D-1 in volleyball, decided on a whim to play softball this year for the first time (in high school).

She's hitting .622.
For us, that'll complicate things a bit because her mom Amy wants to see her games too, in addition to helping us with Polly's team and coaching the JV team.

 

It was Opening Day. We won both games 15-12 and 17-5. We did so many nice things and have to work on our defense, but our catcher -- the transfer from a team that didn't have enough players -- was really strong behind the plate in her first action with us. She caught our 3-year pitcher like they've known each other forever (they've become besties overnight) and also saved at least 4 runs on dropped strike 3's that she retrieved and hustled to tag out runners who broke for home. She ate dirt each time but got up smiling and covered in chalk. We put down several bunts that led to girls ending up on second or third because of bad throws and we pounded some doubles and triples. And our pitcher put Thursday's moodiness behind her and was and solid and disciplined in the circle. It was a good day for us but we have work to do.

 

My pitcher faced 54 batters today and walked just 6, and 3 of those were in the final inning of the second game after 3 straight hours of playing.