Baseball Saturday

Since both of my kids are playing ball now, and since I am involved in coaching both teams, you have days like Saturday. We had a practice for Maria’s t-ball squad from 10 – 11 a.m., then had a practice for Ben’s team from 11- noon, then Ben tried out for the 10-year old traveling team in the afternoon.

It was interesting to watch the buildup in intensity of these activities. Maria’s teammates are really nice young kids. It’s been a pleasure to coach them; we have no prima donnas or pouty kids on the team at all. They are eager to learn, take our direction well and they all seem genuinely happy when their teammates succeed. My co-coach and I would love to take credit for that, but we’re wise enough to know that we are not coaching geniuses. We are just lucky enough to have some really good kids to work with, kids with supportive parents and kids from good homes. It’s a luxury.

My son’s teammates have a similar demographic profile – intact middle class families with supportive parents. The kids are generally a polite bunch and will accept coaching. We worked with this group, about half the team, on situational fielding, i.e., when there is a runner on first and two outs, what’s the play if you are the first baseman? My experience this year is that while our kids know what to do, they don’t always do it. They often have to think about what to do, and by the time they come up with the solution, it’s too late. Or, alternatively, they rush the play and then boot the ball or throw wildly. Kids these days only seem to play ball in an organized setting. When I was a kid, we played ball every day during the summer. Often it was Wiffle Ball, and we might only have 5-6 kids who’d play, but we would still play. Now, at least in my neighborhood, it just doesn’t happen. As a result, kids do not get the repetition they need to make standard baseball plays. By organizing it, we lose something. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Sandlot,” you can understand how this works. The kids who play in pick-up games whip up on the kids in the uniforms. But the pick-up games are disappearing.

Then we went to the tryouts. This is a rarefied atmosphere. Kids are timed with stopwatches, given a set number of balls to field, both infield and outfield, are tested for pitching and batting. The measurements are objective and only some kids will make the team. Typically the Shoreview squads play in tournaments against kids from neighboring suburban areas, such as Roseville, White Bear Lake, Brooklyn Park, etc. These teams then become the genesis of the teams that eventually compete for the Little League World Series. Shoreview has a strong history in this, sending a team to the Little League World Series back in 1997 and to Babe Ruth World Series several other times. It’s odd to be part of this tryout process – the kids are doing baseball activities, but they aren’t really playing baseball. My son may not make his division’s team, but if he does we’ll have a much better look at this highly competitive world. And we’ll share it here.