Campaign Manager

I was honored to be asked to be Emilio Navarro's campaign manager on his re-election bid for Cranston City Council, Ward 2. You can see what we are up to at Friends of Navarro.

Great Quote

"The game will tell you how good you are, not your parents, not the people in the stands, not the writers, not your friends. You always measure yourself by what the game tells you."

-- Eddie Pellagrini

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges.

What does the title have to do with baseball? Nothing. I just wanted to say that.

We lost last night. Tough loss. Let the other team back in the game in the 4th, then lost it in the 6th.

But I choose to expound upon how to prevent runs from scoring on things such as 1st and 3rd situations and passed balls with a man on 3rd, or at least, minimize the damage. The solution is simple, keep as many runners from reaching 3rd as possible. If the other team chooses to run into outs, take them as they come. For example...

Last night, other team had a man on 3rd. Batter walks. The runner kept on going to second base. The other team is handing us an out. Regardless if the runner on 3rd scores, we should have gotten the runner going to 2nd out. A few things prevented this. One, as much as I have wanted to, we haven't worked on this situation in practices. Two, the catcher was slow in getting the ball back to the pitcher. Three, the SS wasn't covering 2nd. Four, the 2B, who was properly backing up the throw to the pitcher, was forced to take the throw from the pitcher and backpedal to apply the tag to the runner.

How to remedy this? a) Work on this in practice. b) The catchers have to be quick and accurate getting the ball back to the pitcher. c) Batter walks, SS should be covering 2B (and every pitch, thereafter).

There is a flaw in the other teams strategy sending the runner to 2nd on a walk. It would be safer for them to stop the runner at 1B, and have him steal on the 1st pitch. There is a greater probability that something will go wrong with the throw from the catcher to 2nd, than there would be, if the pitcher throws to 2nd, on the walk. So, if they choose to run that play, we take advantage of it. If we got that man at 2nd, that inning would have been a lot different. That would have been the 1st out of the inning, and that runner would not have scored.

Other thoughts. It's time for a change at SS. RJ, as much I hoped he would step up and be the 12 year old leader the team needs, is still playing in a funk, fog, whatever you want to call it. My nominations for replacement would be Ben or Tommy. Maybe we can give both an inning trial to each next game. Also, RJ needs tee work.

Catchers have to be more, crisp, in their execution. Passed balls, throws to the pitcher, 2nd base, etc.

That is all for now.

Fay 13 Willow Tree 4

I have been remiss in my blogging. I didn't blog Saturday's game right away, so I'll try to recap both games.

First, the bet. The team was struggling in the field, committing a lot of errors. So I bet the team, that if they can play an error free game, I'll buy them sundaes. Both games, they were error free through 5 innings, then, they got bit by the error bug in the 6th inning of both games. Soooooo close. But, this is a bet I want to pay off. Frankly, I don't want them to win it too early. It actually seems like it is giving them incentive.

Also, we have been doing infield practice at the beginning of the game, and, our fortunes changed. So, this will stay in the pregame routine.

Both games, the umps missed infield fly calls, causing some confusion on the base paths. But, for the most part, the umping has been good.

Saturday, Connor had a bases loaded triple. Pure guess on my part, but if the game was played in the minor league field, the hit would have one-hopped the fence. He also got the game ball. Everyone pitched well, and we played 5 scoreless innings out of 6.

Today, Ben pitched 2 innings, and struck out 6 batters. He was pitching strikes, and had zip on the ball. Alec made a nice baserunning play. I had him take a big lead at 1B to draw a throw from the catcher. As soon as the catcher threw, instead of coming back to the bag (as I intended for him to do), he took off for second, and was safe. Heads up play. Riker had a bit of trouble in the 6th, but, hung in there and worked through it, striking out one batter, and inducing a ground ball for the final out. Tom has a nice double, and Austin went 3 for 3 with a nice play at 3B.

Things to work on. Getting Brian and RJ hitting again.

Next up, Caputo. I hope they walk to 2nd.

Fay 8 Wickford 3. Joy in Mudville

By far, the best game we have played this season. And, the funny thing is, the umps didn't show. Coincidence? So I ended up umping when we were in the field, and Wickford's coach did the same when they were.

Our defense finally came through. We only made 2 errors, which were both infield pop-ups that should have been caught. But, we gave up the 3 runs in the first inning, and played the next 5 innings scoreless. All of our pitchers did great (Evan, Tom, Ben, Brian, Riker). Tom crushed 2 balls, one of them one hopped the fence. Jason's new nickname should be Hoover. 5 put outs tonight, a couple on some hard hit balls. Could this be the proverbial "turning the corner"? Find out Saturday.

Outs are goooooold.

Prime example. First inning of the Sox game. The D-Rays have the bases loaded, 0 outs. Ball hit to 3rd. Lowell could have thrown Gathright out at the plate (he would have had him), but, he conceded the run and turned the DP, quite possibly taking them out of a big inning.

Wickford 12, Fay 10. Umps 1, Fay 0

This was an interesting game. Wickford's first pitcher wasn't very fast (I originally used a colloquialism here but, that's not fair to the kid who was pitching for the first time), which gave our hitters fits. Everyone at the top of the order was swinging ahead of the pitch. But, on the flip side, the bottom of the order did well, and scored some runs. Connor made a nice slide at home. Alec hit a line drive double to the gap.

The 5th inning was an interesting one. Our infield comprised of Mike at 3rd, Nick at SS, Connor at 2nd, Evan at 1st. This was not our strongest alignment, to say the least, and we actually considered switching up at one position, to get one strong fielder in. It was still a close game, and the top of their order was coming up. But, we decided to go with what we had. I thought to myself "stranger things have happened". Wickford scored 3 runs, 2 earned. Ben was tired, and Riker came into pitch, Ben moved to SS. And then the flash of brilliance occured. Man on 3rd, a pop fly was hit to 3rd. Michael had to go back and caught the ball. For whatever reason, the man on 3rd tagged up. Michael threw a strike home, and the runner was tagged out. Double play. Next batter hit a line drive to SS, caught by Ben. Inning over.

And then, in the 6th, the umpires scored one on us. Wickford brought in their closer. The typical fast but wild pitcher. Connor was leading off. I suggested making the pitcher throw a strike before swinging. And sure enough, Connor walked on 4 pitches. Passed ball, Connor runs to 2nd. Catcher throws down. Connor was safe, but took his foot of the bag (I've been told that he didn't even do that, the toe of his cleat was on the bag), then put it back on, THEN the tag was applied. Safe, right? Not according to the ump. He called him out, BEFORE the tag was applied. That sound you might have heard earlier in the day was the air coming out of our balloon. The pitcher then settled down and retired the next 3 batters. I would not accuse the ump of losing the game for us (at least, not in front of the players ;) ), but, he definitely took away a chance to win. Also, the ump behind the plate was calling his pitches in the mitt. For the first 3 innings, this was an advantage to the other team. The pitchers that lobbed their throws in would get strikes called that were at eye level when crossing the plate, then in the strike zone when hitting the mitt.

As I was writing this, Coach Jamie called, and we were going over the earned/unearned runs. And while this game didn't have the frustrating feel of the last game, we were surprised to see that we gave up a ton of unearned runs again. Looks to be 8 or 9. Also we have given up 40 runs in our first 3 games. 40 RUNS! Yikes.

Finally, I will allude to a story that I told the team before the game. I told them one of the proudest moments I can remember in little league was when my coach called me a smart ballplayer. We were going through a rut of runners being thrown out at home on passed balls (due to indecision, or, the wrong decision to run). Meanwhile, I, being so not fleet of foot, was 4 for 4. And the coach said I was a smart ballplayer, watching the play, making the decision to go, and going, head down, full speed (which isn't saying much). To be called a smart ballplayer, in front of your teammates, is really, a defining moment, at least to me. It will be a laurel I will reserve for those special players that deserve it. This year, I am hoping one of our players can earn it. I also hope, that, by recounting that story to the players, they can aspire to reach that goal as well.

Practice tomorrow. Infield, infield, infield.

A Coach's Nightmare

Our second game of the season was one of those games that the team, as one coach put it, had a collective brain fart. Everything we professed and worked on in the 3 weeks leading up to this game went right out the window. And that is a coach's worst nightmare. The other team scored 14 runs last night, and I think 11 of them were unearned.

First, a little background. Our little league team is in the minor league division (AAA), one step below the majors. Our team is comprised of mostly 10 and 11 year olds, with a 12, and two 9's as well (one of the 9's being my son). Our team's biggest strength is pitching. We have kids that can pitch strikes, and put some zip on the ball. Hitting would follow next, and defense is last, especially after last night's game.

Our biggest priority on defense, which we cannot stress enough, is to not throw the ball around on plays. The kids in this division, for the most part, are on a level where they can make the initial standard play. But once a play starts straying from the norm (like a bobbled ball, an error through an infielder, etc.), things can get out of hand quickly. Last night, one of those plays led to 3 runs. The ball was thrown from 3rd to 1st, to home, to 2nd, and not one throw or catch was clean. It was a nightmare.

There were other nits as well. Twice, our guys hit groundballs to the infield, and watched and watched and watched the ball as they were running to 1st, and then, slowed as they neared the base. Both would have been safe, otherwise. A couple of held balls in the outfield led to runners advancing. A pop fly to the 3B side of the infield that no one called for, and, for the most part, no one wanted to catch. The constant reminding of the SS and 2B to backup the pitcher when the catcher throws back to him. Playing groundballs to the side instead of getting in front of it.

It is these mental errors that will drive a coach to drink. We worked on running to first for, at least, an hour at one practice. After the first time it happened this game, we reminded the kids to run through the base, don't watch the ball. What happened next inning? Yep, you guessed it. At this level, I would never get on a kid if he does everything right, but, oops, makes an error on a play, or, strikes out swinging. These things are going to happen.

Brightspots? The pitching was good. Brian pitched a good game. They were hitting him in the first, but his defense let him down. Tom and Ben pitched well too. And, we attempted a comeback in the 6th (we were down by 11 runs, and scored 4(?)).

A sidenote on a tactic used by the other team. We played this team in our first game as well, which we won 12-10. With men on 1st and 3rd, they would have the man on first walk to second base after the first pitch, trying to draw a throw, or some sort of mistake. Legal? Sure. Bush? Sure. Having a kid walk to a base, in my opinion, goes against one of the basic rules of the game, hustle. You want to run a play? Have the kid run halfway, and stop. Anyway, being up 14-3, I heard the first base coach instruct the kid on first to walk to 2nd. He didn't, he ended up running to 2nd. But, we play them again after 4 games, and that will be remembered.

The dreaded first post...

I wanted to start a blog to keep track of our little league team as it progresses through the season, complete with highs and lows. It will be a way to exalt the players in our moments of victory, and also, to note what went wrong in our moments of defeat. We'll see how this pans out as the season goes on, but the post following this will be one of thost what went wrong posts.