Not fair, not fair

[Coach_Baker]

I've seen so many good players sit, stare into space, wait and wait their turn, but never feel the field under their spikes.
I've seen so many good pitchers, I mean really good ones, control the game with everything they had, only to be passed over because of no gas.

Regardless of the reasons, are there are many, this game is not fair, reasonable or true to the spirt of the game. Neglect of why you play this game is very personal and not shared by many, if anyone outside your immediate relatives.

I'd say there are few things in this life that'll try you patience and expectations like a sport will. In that regard, I have no idea of who came up with the phrase .." our team" because from where I sat, a team of one seems to be the order of things. Now I know there are mindsets that say otherwise, and for them, they rarely sit out game after game, plugged in to some spot on the field with the score so far out of reach it's not funny, and so on.

With all that said... you're being in this spot in life makes you stronger than anyone, and I mean anyone. You have the best seat in the house to see-n-think, reason and judge, understand the true meaning of inner strength.

For all that's said and done, your with an alumni of millions - and I for one have more respect and admiration for you and your willingness to "be there".

Now before someone types in... "you don't know what it's like Coach.." I can honestly tell you, yes, I do know what it's like. And when I became older and stronger, I had the meanest reputation of taking the mound and knocking down more batters with wild pitches, yelling.. " I got it... I got it !" only to run head long into the third baseman and the short stop.

My American Legion coach pulled me out of a game once and sized up my situation. We were losing badly and he didn't want to discourage me by pulling me out. He approached the mound and gave me a pat on the shoulder and said " you've have enough.. let's see if we can't turn this around for you." My coach knew a new player was entering the game and this kid had a batting average in the millions. In short, he would have really lit me up. As I gave the ball to my coach, I saw the kid walking to the box, then without thinking I said.. " New kid, hmmm...I haven't hit this one yet".
To my amazement, our head coach sent my reliever back to the bench, dropped the ball back in my glove, and walked away.

Not fair, not fair is this game sometimes...

[4pie]

Making the mlb doesn't make you the best BASEBALL PLAYER, it makes you the best ATHLETE. Great baseball players are everywhere at every level, playing for a salary or not, out there for the LOVE. Great story by the way coach

[south_paw]

Great story. Hey Coach, perhaps it was you pitching to my son this past week? LOL. He was in a 16U travel ball tournament. The first two games our team had only 5 total hits: 2 hits by my son, 1 hit each from 3 other players. In the third game my son was slated to pitch and did his pregame bullpen, visible to the other team. I suspect the other team had looked at the box scores from our first two games and saw that my son had the most hits on our team. When they saw him warm up I suspect they couldn't control themselves. Top of the 1st, my son's first at bat, first pitch, WHAM! Right in the thigh! Top of the 3rd, second at bat, he gets two far-outside pitches followed by WHAM! Right in the rear. What are the odds that a team's pitcher gets beaned twice in a row, not seeing a close pitch even once, while no one else on his team gets hit? I think they were intentional.

[Coach_Baker]

Did others on your son's club get pitched to like your son was?

I've seen some pretty aggressive pitching strategies at that age group. However, for a pitcher to "pop" a guy earlier in his appearance means that - if he gets even a whisker near any other batter during his time on the bump, usually he's gone. Also, nailing a guy low is not that bad, in fact, it's normally because the other club's pitcher nailed one of their guys, or, the batter is hogging the plate, or a grudge of some kind, or the batter is giving the pitcher some sort of clowning around look, and so forth.

Nailing a man in the upper body usually responds with a walking to the mound to deliver room service - one knuckle sandwich deluxe .......

[south_paw]

Coach, no, my son was the only batter beaned all game (twice). One more fact I forgot to mention: their pitcher did not bat at all, so he was protected from retaliation. Also, they pitched to our other batters as we got some hits and runs early, but my son never saw anything near the plate. When I add it all up, seems like it was intentional.

[Coach_Baker]

but my son never saw anything near the plate.

The other club must have had a smart coach. "Nibbles" as we called it, we sent down begging the batter to chase. In the movie Mr. 3000, Bernie Mac played a slugger who was being pitched outside a lot during his time at bat. When he yelled to the pitcher ... "hey, I'm right here" the pitcher yelled back at him... "reach out and get it."

A smart pitcher and pitching coach/staff will never give in to a slugger. A pitcher will either walk the guy, hope that he'll chase one or two, and so on. Now before someone says the pitcher is giving up 90 ft - well you're right, but better than giving up 380 ft or more then standing in the center of the infield watching the guy skip-to-my-Lou-my-darling 360 feet.

So. all in all your son isn't going to get too much served up to him. Now if there's a runner in scoring position, that might be a different story.

I would suggest watching for you son being too anxious at the plate. I say this because as good as your son is with the lumber, there's an equally good pitcher out there that'll take advantage of any weakness that your son has. I personally would relish hard hitting sluggers trying to reach the fences. After two times at bat, their true color comes through and that's when it's high-noon at deadwood. Two guys face each other and only one walks away. If your son ever gets to that point in his playing career, he'll have that one or two pitchers that everyone will be sitting on the edge of their seat to watch the matchup. At that point, your son is the center of gravity for a lot of scouts - trust me on that one.

[south_paw]

He had two good matchups the first two games of his 16U tournament last week (wood bats only). My son is 15, going into Sophomore Year, and in the first game the pitcher (16) was throwing 84 on the Stalker 2 gun. That's more than my son typically faced on his high school JV team, but he still managed a double to deep center. The second game was the real challenge. The pitcher, who was 6'2" and going into his Junior Year, was hitting 87 on the Stalker 2, and had a no-hitter going into the 5th inning when my son hit a bomb to deep center, a double. The funny thing is that though my son's always been a lefty pitcher first and a 1st baseman/batter second, this past year my son's hitting has caught up to his pitching and I'm starting to wonder if 1st base/batting might not be a better road to college ball? Probably not, given the demand for lefty pitchers?

[jwhite]

Very well said Coach, this game can be so frustrating at times and change to the greatest game you've played as quickly as just one pitch. My son is in the process of completing his JR. Transfer from a JUCO to a 4 year school and what a trip it has been. This game will try your every emotion. The stories I really would love to share but honestly their are so many. One always sticks out to me though, A lefty started a game for us and he was a hard throwing lefty, but usually had a hard time finding the strike zone. This game was no exception, a 7 inning game has just past the 2 1/2 hour mark at inning 5!! Walk after walk after hit and more walks. At this point the coach puts my son in relief. He K'ed the last 2 outs of that inning. And K'4 of the last 6 outs with 2 infield pop outs. So game over finally. Walking out to the parking lot we see the hard throwing lefty with not 1 but 2 very nice D1 schools asking for his info. I think at the time the lefty was throwing 86/87 my son at around 83/84. Obviously all turned out ok for my son as JUCO was a great way to go as he received instant play time and I think my son will sign his transfer this week. His first 2 years of school has cost $0 except living cost and the next school will pick up about 80% of all tuition.
I have promised myself though that once my son has completed his playing career, I'm going back to coaching this game. I see way too many kids give it up so young as in our area the coaching can be nothing more than a dad that has never played but that has Tuesday and Thursday night free.
God sometimes I wonder why we love this game so much!!!
My favorite quote from a movie " league of their own" and it's not there's no crying in baseball, lol.
Gina Davis tells Tom Hanks "the game just got to hard" and he replied " the hard is why we love it!" That is so true!
I hope that didn't get to far off your topic, it felt good to vent a bit.
Thanks for use of your thread