Fun Sight for Me

Yesterday after dinner Alex and Maddie went and played catch in front of our house...  threw for about 15 minutes... need to make sure they keep doing the "together" part...

Texas Glory 14U won 3rd place out of 20 teams at the Frisco Pink Out on May 27, 2012.

Maddie pitched:

1) 5 innings vs. Xtremem Heat 99 - pool

2) 5 innings vs. Texas Force Soliz - win - bracket

3) 8 innings vs. Axe Weichel - win - bracket in ITB

4) 5 innings vs. Team Assault - win - bracket

5) 6 innings vs. Dallas Tigers - win - bracket in ITB

6) 7 innings vs. Oklahoma Storm - loss bracket

36 total innings in two days....  26 on Sunday...  was definitely not throwing as hard at the end, but still getting Ks...  relied on change-up the last few games...

The kid is a pitcher....

Not to get lost in the pitching...  Maddie was freakin' crazy at the plate too...

1) Tripled over right fielder's head in last at bat against Oklahoma Storm...  I said "tripled"....  190 feet in air...
2) Doubled over third/short and slid into second...  aggressive running... I said "stretched a single into a double and slid"
3) Slid into catcher at home - safe!!!
4) Has a streak of 6 straight hits/on base
5) Struck out once
6) Probably had 15 hits in 9 games
7) Had 3 hits against AXE

Alex Playing left field for the Texas Wildcats Gold in an 18U tournament in Plano.  She also played first and said she had "fun".

Maddie Black Widows

Maddie played in North Richland Hills for the Black Widows.  The team was bad...  several dropped third strikes and dropped pitches...  

Maddie pitched a lot and slept on the ride home...

Alex Texas Glory 16U

Alex played on a Texas Glory Adkins 16U team in Allen.  She hit 3rd the entire tournament and said she hit well...  I didn't see any games...  she wore an old pair of Maddie's pants...

Many of the Frisco High School players were on teams at the tournament...

No Idle Hands Here!!!

During the week before May 5th I saw a post on VTD for a pitcher needed for a tournament in Frisco.  Maddie's Glory team wasn't playing this weekend and she had just made an adjustment in her pitching motion.  She had pitched well in a 16U tournament last weekend, and I was hoping to replace our weekend pitching practice at a park with a couple of games pitching in Frisco, five minutes from our house.

I sent a video link to the Coach of the team needing the player in Frisco.  He wanted Maddie to pitch but had already told a girl coming up from Conroe that she could pitch.  We probably exchanged emails 10+ times...  a few times he said he needed Maddie because the Conroe player may not be coming.  I didn't really care one way or the other...  I had to bribe Maddie to play as she wanted a weekend off.  We got to Thursday and the Frisco team coach said he wanted Maddie but had already given the spot to the player from Conroe (odd because Conroe is 3 hours away).

Maddie was about to get three baby teeth pulled at the dentist on Friday morning at 10:00am when I received a text from the Coach of the Weatherford Fast Lane asking if Maddie could play with them in Grand Prairie this weekend.  He said they would only have 10 players.

Maddie had played with the Fast Lane a few weekends ago in Midlothian at a one day tournament.  The team finished second when Maddie played with them.  She won all the games she pitched. (see a previous post)

I told Coach G I would have to get back to him in a couple hours and went to the dentist.  Three teeth gone and twenty minutes later Maddie was fine.  The dentist did say she would be sore on one tooth because he had to do more work and it required more shots.

I asked Maddie if she was OK playing on the Fast Lane team this weekend and she said "ok".  I think there was some confusion as she thought they were playing in Frisco, when they were actually playing in Grand Prairie - 50 minutes away.

Maddie was scheduled to pitch their second game at 1:00pm on Saturday, but I hadn't committed 100%.  He had told me "all I really want is Maddie for the bracket games"...  I woke Maddie up around 11:00am and we were in the car driving to Grand Prairie by 11:15am.

Maddie pitched the game against another Glory team and we lost like 11-1...  she didn't pitch "bad", there were a bunch of errors and she wasn't dominant...  she told me her mouth and stomach hurt... and she was dizzy...  it was 95+ degerees...

We got through the next two games and Maddie didn't pitch in either.  She hit pretty good...

We finished low in our pool seeding and had to return to the field at 7:00am for an 8:00am game...  and the Coach told me he wasn't going to have Maddie pitch the first game because the Mizuno Ice team we would play the second game was good... 

We were loosing the first game 3/4ths of the way through and had a spurt of hitting to win 6-4... 

Maddie started the 2nd game on Sunday and pitched 6 innings in a 1-0 win...  she was throwing "hard", never really gave up a good hit and was in control the whole game.  I actually think she drove in our one run. 

The Coach asked me if Maddie could go again...  and we decided "yes"...  she pitched 6 more innings to a 2-2 tie against a North Texas Impact team, both runs unearned...  we went to ITB and had a runner start at 2nd and each batter start with a 2-1 count...  Maddie got ahead and ended up allowing 3 runs to score...  I figured we could score more than three in our bottom half of the inning...  Maddie doubled in a run to right center and we won 6-5...

The Coach asked me if Maddie could go again... and we decided "yes"...  she started her 14th inning against Blu By You (who had just won their last tournament) striking out the first two batters...  we went 4 more innings...  I don't think Maddie walked a batter...  we were winning 6-1 when time ran out...  Blu By You scored 3 runs...  Maddie was visible tired... she had only pitched 19 consecutive innings...

They made it to the championship game and I assumed there was no way Maddie could pitch again.  The coach was using another pitcher...  which was quite OK...  an assist. coach asked me if I thought Maddie could go again...  I told him "heck no"...  and he said he was just checking my "Dad Status" and I passed....

Loves cupcakes, likes trophies and hates pictures.

A well deserved rest on the ride home...

Oh, by the way, the team that originally asked Maddie to play in Frisco lost both their bracket games by a combined score of 1-25....

I Know What I Want for Our 18th Wedding Anniversary

On Friday night Andrew and I talked about going to hit early Saturday AM before teams start practicing.  To my surprise, and delight, I heard Andrew up around 7:30am and we drove to the field.

It was about 75 degrees, shadows and slight breeze... no noise... what a fantastic way to start a weekend.

I pitched about 80-100 pitches to Andrew.  Before he started, I told him he would hit one over the fence because he has been swinging well when we have been hitting tennis balls.  

WHA LAH!!!!

He hit two over the fence.  It was a fun morning!!!

So, honey, now that we have stretched the hitting field beyond the fences...  can I get two dozen Rawlings baseballs for our anniversary?  Thanks...  :-)

Biggest Fan, Hardest Critic!!!

I have made a philosophy decision to be my kid's "Biggest Fan and Hardest Critic".  (Remember, I believe it is about the journey and not the destination)  I have enormous "street cred" with my kids because I have often predicted their results with amazing success.  I know how hard they can work.  Until now, early 2012, I have spent most of my sports time with Alex, and Maddie fast approaching.  Natalie has spent most of the time with Andrew and his baseball activities.

Don't read this the wrong way...  but I always thought it was worthless to be constantly positive, because its the failures that make you stronger.  If you fail 70% of the time you make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Working to improve is the "fun" I have in the relationship with my kids and their sports activities...  If they were "GREAT" I wouldn't have any reason to pitch to them after work...  I realize it sounds like I am an Ogor...  but probably not explaining well...  if you strike out three times, looking, I will tell you that you didn't have a good game...  I will also be ready to go to a park, or the lit tennis courts (Alex :-)) to work with you... as I am writing, and reading, I think I am digging a bigger whole...

Well, I just started Asst Coaching on Andrew's team...  and to be fair to him he wasn't use to my "coaching"...  I also believe games are a great place to learn...  we had a few rough first games...  Tom Hanks said it best...  "there is no crying in baseball"...  we have spend a dozen times pitching in the front of the house and continued going to fields to hit...  he is getting better...

Tonight, Andrew's team played a really good team...  Andrew pitched and threw well...  he gave up 12 runs in the first inning without an out...  I said, without and out...  infinity ERA...  he threw hard, threw strikes...  probably didn't get as many calls as he should and had a few errors behind him...  on the books it was his worst pitching performance EVER...  actually, may be the worst pitching performance in the history of baseball...  BUT, he DID FANTASTIC!!!  I was really impressed with how he kept throwing strikes...  he never showed emotion...  never made mental errors...  and when he was pulled after 50 pitches, he made all three outs at first base...  I was VERY PROUD of him...

The best thing about baseball is that there is always another game...

The Eye of the Camera

Maddie and I went to a pitching coach last Friday afternoon.  He suggested some "tweaks" to Maddie's mechanics to produce more speed.  He flies in from Erie, PA about once a month for a weekend full of lessons.  I liked him, he had a sense of humor.  Everything he suggested is something I knew was "fixable" but put it more in the Maddie Style bucket instead of Mechanic requirement.  

The comparison below isn't completely fair.  The left side is with the mechanic tweaks and the right side is from a couple months ago.  I tried to find similar angles, but the right side was taken with a camera and the left side an iPhone.

First comparison...  he stopped the hands over head and has Maddie using her legs to push toward home...  he wants her momentum going toward home and views the hands over head as unneeded use of energy... I like the momentum to home...  it also makes it easier to do "walk-ups"...

Second comparison...  she is more angled toward home and appears to be "pushing" more...  big difference is where her glove hand is...

Third comparison...  ALMOST the same...  he does not like the glove hand toward third...  and neither do I...  but Maddie DOES :-) ...  we will keep working on that...  takes away some energy...

Fourth comparison...  almost the same...  

Maddie pitched 17 1/3 innings in a 6 GG 16U tournament in Keller this weekend.  Her 14U Texas Glory Adkins team won 4 out of 6...  Maddie's best pitching game was against a team down from Oklahoma with sophomore and junior players...  they were big...  we lost giving up 1 earned run, but kept them off-balance, had her fair share of strike outs and managed to get 6 innings in the 1 hour and 15 minute time limit...  the game moved along...

Maddie came in the last game with the bases loaded and two outs winning by 2 runs...  she couldn't find the plate in warm-ups and then proceeded to throw three straight strikes to strike out the batter (looking)...

It is amazing what cameras can do these days...

When I was in High School...

When I was in high school I am pretty sure they kept stats on napkins, and until someone has blew their nose the stats were pretty accurate.  Another invention that I had thought about but was too late to the patent office was the stat keeping App Game Changer and iScore.

I have kept up with the stats each game and the spray chart above is pretty accurate.  Of course, a couple HRs haven't landed yet so I am not sure where the dot will go (made me giggle to type it)...  Alex had 43 hits in 102 At Bats - both leading the team...  She doesn't beat many infield hits out...  and pretty sure no bunting...  only started to spray a bit in the last dozen games...

A Waypoint on the Journey

I have always said it was about the journey and not the destination, and I am grateful for every softball (baseball) related discussion I have been fortunate to have with my kids.  Competitive sports provides a phenomenal backdrop to real-life issues.

In 2005, I took my 4 year old son on a Father-Son trip to New York City.  Just a weekend trip. We toured Yankee Stadium and went to a Mets game.  That was the true beginning of our family ballpark outings.  Shortly after returning from that trip, my curly haired, dress wearing 8 year old daughter said she wanted to play softball.  Until then I hadn’t given it a second thought.

Alex played Coach pitch softball in FBSA, and struggled mightily. We hadn’t caught the “softball bug”, but I can still remember telling her… “if you connect with a pitch, just make sure you keep running because the ball is going to go a long way.”  The last game of the season she connected and hit a ball over the left fielder’s head for a home run.  I remember that day.

When we moved to Oakville, Ontario Alex played House League (recreational), then Select and then tried-out, and made the Oakville Angels travel softball team.  She was very overmatched early on, and I can remember a streak of 20+ at bats that were all strike outs. 

She was a perfect canvas, and beginning point for my “mechanics” education.  We spent a lot of time at batting cages, in the basement, in the back yard and at fields primarily working on her swing.  I always valued the journey more than the destination.

WOW!!! I have so many fond memories of the times I spent with Alex practicing, and playing softball.

Things I remember:

·         The car ride conversation is best place to talk to your child… “squirrel”
·         Natalie so observant that my kids “ball sports” are my hobby
·         Erie Sports every time we drove from Toronto to Cleveland
·         Family trips to Montreal, Pennsylvania, Chambersburg
·         Father – Daughter trips to Myrtle Beach, Buffalo, Pennsylvania, Napanee, Niagra Falls
·         Softball in Ontario – Oakville Angels and Brampton Blazers
·         Practice every night… practice in gyms…
·         Net and pitching machine in the basement
·         Playing softball in cold (30 degree) weather, Brampton & Port Perry
·         Bat lost in mail from EBAY
·         First Over the fence HR in Brampton
·         Staying in crappy hotels to be with the team 
·         Winter weekend afternoons at Playdium…  the STING of the bat
·         Catching
·         Playing catch in the outfield at Andrew’s provincial tournament when I realized you can catch anything I throw
·         Missing your first Varsity HR while traveling for work… seeing the second.

So, the point to my thought is that I am dealing with the reality that Alex isn’t going to play college softball…  which is OK… she is coming off an enormously successful sophomore season at Frisco High School, both in softball, but more importantly in scholastics.

What took me a while to realize is that the world has changed.  The only people who play competitive 16U/18U softball in the summer are players solely interested in showcase opportunities for playing softball in college.  I have never heard of most of the colleges where players are getting scholarships.  No one plays for fun anymore.  Alex and I have been talking that she will probably not play softball this summer.  I understand.  

I spent most of the last summer coaching, or watching Alex’s sister, Maddie, play softball.  I have had just as much fun on my different journey with Maddie as with Alex.  And as Yoda said “There is another”; he must have been talking about Andrew as our journey is just beginning.

For now, I am going to relish the memories and be a little sad at the same time.  It’s just too easy for Alex to finish school for the day and disappear into homework.  I miss me dragging her to a field or a batting cage...  probably OK for me to be a bit sad…  I have to grow up someday.