2023 High School Baseball Season

@Momball11 posted:

Yes, still early on in the season for sure. Inconsistent with the "healthy" lead though. I would say justifiable if the lead was comfortable because that's a perfectly good time to let players on the bench get some playing time. But that hasn't always been the case. Last year son was in the first man off the bench position, but when the team had a healthy lead he didn't get put in. Guess the coach has changed his tactics, but it's definitely odd that my son is the only one that gets pulled. I question if maybe it's attitude/behavior...but no, that's something we/he gets complimented on the most. I sort of wonder if it's to appease the parents of the one replacing him and they figure my son will be "understanding" and/or his parents won't throw a stink. I just tell myself and son that sometimes life just isn't fair, keep working, support your teammates and make sure you encourage positive conversations/talk in the dugout.

The frustrations with play time are providing my son and the other player that he is swapped out with opportunities to work on their mental game. The other guy had some great at bats recently, so I'd say he deserves to play over my son, but obviously it'shard to say with such a small sample size. Both my son and the "other guy" that swaps places with him have been put into this tough situation. I do believe things might be changing up this year. Did see some other substitutions, so I'm going to be optimistic.

PT has to be one of the toughest parts of these teams - and I am saying that as the parent of a son who has been fortunate in that department so far.  How can you have a team of 20+ kids, with about 10-12 of them getting the most PT and NOT have some disgruntled teammates in the dugout?  I actually feel quite badly for some of the kids not playing very often and we have not been in such a drastic situation before.

Our team has kids on it that don’t play.  They are told that when the team is selected though, and asked if they still want to be on the team.  Most say yes because they want to be part of and support the team.

@Dadof3 posted:

Our team has kids on it that don’t play.  They are told that when the team is selected though, and asked if they still want to be on the team.  Most say yes because they want to be part of and support the team.

Once at a certain level, only the coach’s perception of the best 9 are on the field. At 13U-14U my son was bench depth for a pretty good independent dad managed select team (3 currently in the MLB, 2 more in the next couple years). He had the choice to play elsewhere (my preference) and get more playing time, but he loved the dynamics of the team.

The most memorable and cherished part of baseball are the interactions with teammates, opposing players and sometimes coaches – as parents sometimes we forget this. You don’t need to be on the field to be part of that, there are many ways to contribute, although getting time between the chalk lines is every player’s goal.

@ILoveBaseball04 posted:

PT has to be one of the toughest parts of these teams - and I am saying that as the parent of a son who has been fortunate in that department so far.  How can you have a team of 20+ kids, with about 10-12 of them getting the most PT and NOT have some disgruntled teammates in the dugout?  I actually feel quite badly for some of the kids not playing very often and we have not been in such a drastic situation before.

Our Varsity team has 18 seniors.  18 !!!!  We also have 4 underclassman who are the starting pitchers and 3rd baseman.  From what my son says, the kids aren't the problem....its the parents.  The minute we get up a lot or down a lot you start hearing parents talking about, "Getting the other kids some reps". 

One mom looked at me and said, "I wish my son would have been cut.  I hate having to explain why he's not playing."   SMH.

@Master P posted:

Our Varsity team has 18 seniors.  18 !!!!  We also have 4 underclassman who are the starting pitchers and 3rd baseman.  From what my son says, the kids aren't the problem....its the parents.  The minute we get up a lot or down a lot you start hearing parents talking about, "Getting the other kids some reps".

One mom looked at me and said, "I wish my son would have been cut.  I hate having to explain why he's not playing."   SMH.

I will one up you. My son's team has 25 seniors. 7 juniors and 1 sophomore round out the team. With another sophomore pitcher on his way up soon.

@ARCEKU21 posted:

I will one up you. My son's team has 25 seniors. 7 juniors and 1 sophomore round out the team. With another sophomore pitcher on his way up soon.

Wow. Does this mean that all position players are seniors?

@ARCEKU21 posted:

I will one up you. My son's team has 25 seniors. 7 juniors and 1 sophomore round out the team. With another sophomore pitcher on his way up soon.

That is insanity. No way that they can all fit in the dugout.

@Momball11 posted:

Wow. Does this mean that all position players are seniors?

One of the starting outfielders is a junior. We do have four seniors who are injured and out for the year. Three of them pitchers. So that puts a junior as our #2 starter.

@adbono posted:

That is insanity. No way that they can all fit in the dugout.

Our dugouts are larger than some NY city apartments. LOL. But yes, at away games, it does sometimes become a challenge.

The large rosters really create an interesting dynamic.  I can see pros and cons to it, honestly.

Son, a 2026, hit his first high school home run this week.  Very special moment, indeed!   

Rained out for all three boys today☹️

@ClevelandDad posted:

Congrats to your son on his good season.  With respect to your quote above, I suspect it is happening in every dugout in the country because the same things are happening here.  Maybe a kid is not gracious enough to actually pull for a teammate when they are sitting on the bench - I get that.  At least don't open your mouth then and say negative things to someone.  Of course, I forget, the guys sitting all would be hitting 1000, never make an error in the field, and all have 0.00 ERA's if only the coach were smart enough to play them.

These days, even if they don't say the negative things in the dugout, they still say it behind the kid's back in practice, or they text it to them later (or at least that has been our experience). Maturity is in short supply everywhere, so I guess it's not surprising that it's even harder to come by at 15 or 16.

@Dadof3 posted:

Rained out for all three boys today☹️

We had the good ol "a sprinkler broke on the field" rain out today when the opposing school had no pitchers to throw today. Our coach offered to host the game and their AD gave it a quick no.

@ARCEKU21 posted:

We had the good ol "a sprinkler broke on the field" rain out today when the opposing school had no pitchers to throw today. Our coach offered to host the game and their AD gave it a quick no.

Wow...that was allowed to fly?

I noticed the other day that there are some players that stand so close to the plate that their heels are the only part of the foot in the box.

@Momball11 posted:

I noticed the other day that there are some players that stand so close to the plate that their heels are the only part of the foot in the box.

You can’t assume that the chalk lines that define the batter’s box where put down correctly.

Son's team started slow.  Lost a handful of 1 run games, oftentimes giving up 2 to 5 unearned runs.  The team's performance in the first 3 weeks of the season did not meet the preseason ranking and expectation.  I was actually very optimistic as the issues in the first 3 weeks were things I felt are easy to address.

Fast forward to now as the last week of regular season is winding down.  We sealed our first region championship the other day and completed region play w/o any loss for the first time!  Now, hopefully, the momentum carries over to state playoff.  My son is a senior so he wants to finish strong.  We were so close last year - lost in the state championship game.

@Momball11 posted:

I noticed the other day that there are some players that stand so close to the plate that their heels are the only part of the foot in the box.

NFHS rules state that your foot can't be touching the ground outside of the chalk box. On the line is ok, but not over the line. Like @adbono says, maybe the box was so poorly placed that the ump let it go... or maybe he just didn't care.

@MidAtlanticDad posted:

NFHS rules state that your foot can't be touching the ground outside of the chalk box. On the line is ok, but not over the line. Like @adbono says, maybe the box was so poorly placed that the ump let it go... or maybe he just didn't care.

Chalk lines looked good to me, so it was probably that they just didn't care. This umpire is notoriously bad for both teams...lol. I imagine it's not something he's looking for.

@MidAtlanticDad posted:

NFHS rules state that your foot can't be touching the ground outside of the chalk box. On the line is ok, but not over the line. Like @adbono says, maybe the box was so poorly placed that the ump let it go... or maybe he just didn't care.

Any part of the foot on the line is considered in the box.   The location of the line - correct or not is not addressed in the rules other than the field set up.  If that is not addressed before the start of the game, then the lines are official as they lay.    Its a stradegy some use to make the pitcher uncomfortable and make him throw balls.  If the pitcher isn't comfortable busting the batter inside, then a lot will likely be off the plate and called a ball.   Keep in mind - a batter hit by pitch that is in the strike zone is a strike, the batter is not awarded 1st.  Gotta have the right ump behind the plate to make that call. 

Son's team clinched the district championship Friday night and finished out district today with a W. Finished district at 14-2. One more non district game left on the schedule next week and then playoffs start May 4th.

First playoff game on Thursday. Team had a better regular season then many thought for the young team. Now we just see how far they can take it. Finished second in the district.

Team is Bi-district champs (won last 2 of three), now moving on to Area. Heard they will be doing a coin flip to see if Area will be one game or best of three. Should find out today.

Not looking good for games this week in Texas. We had some pretty hard storms roll through the Houston area last night and this morning. I know that the teams were scrambling trying to find turf fields for the games this week. Even with turf, not sure if these storms are going to allow for games to be played. Not sure what UIL will do. Hopefully not make everything a one game series.

@ARCEKU21 posted:

Not looking good for games this week in Texas. We had some pretty hard storms roll through the Houston area last night and this morning. I know that the teams were scrambling trying to find turf fields for the games this week. Even worth turf, nut sure if these storms are going to allow for games to be played. Not sure what UIL will do. Hopefully not make everything a one game series.

Turning a series into a one game playoff, for the sake of convenience, sounds exactly like something the UIL would do. The only place you can find more clowns is at a circus.

We had to do a coin flip to get a three game series. Think it would be bad for us to go to a one game. The other team wanted the one game, because they have one really strong pitcher. It would play right into the other teams hands. We were able to get a turf field (local-ish JUCO). We play Friday and Saturday if weather allows.

I'm impressed you have turf for high school fields...we had plenty of those in travel, but so far all high school fields have been grass (and soggy after storms) and NO lights (yes, I guess we were spoiled in travel), so games called for darkness.  Hope you can get those games in!

@ARCEKU21 posted:

Not looking good for games this week in Texas. We had some pretty hard storms roll through the Houston area last night and this morning. I know that the teams were scrambling trying to find turf fields for the games this week. Even with turf, not sure if these storms are going to allow for games to be played. Not sure what UIL will do. Hopefully not make everything a one game series.

Consider yourself lucky.  Here in Kansas we play 20 regular season games.  Then regionals and state are one game win and continue.  The most games any team will play is 25.

Has anyone ever had to deal with a horrible coach at the High School JV level?  As of now everyone is kind of ignoring it and telling their kids to keep a low profile, work hard and not call attention to themselves in order not to be on the receiving end of the coaches tirades at games end.  Not that it's working because coach has to find someone to yell about every game.  But I guess that's really about the only thing you can do, but man it sucks to watch.  Just seeing the kids not want to be there (they all want to be there, just not at the moment), not playing as a team because they are made to look over their shoulder, making errors because they're so tight as a reaction to the coach, pressing at the plate.  It's just so hard to watch.

That's his personality, the baseball side is lacking equally, but the berating, gaslighting, and pitting players against each other is just unfathomable in a JV baseball program.  Especially one where they can't keep kids playing long enough to stick around through their senior year on varsity.  Toxic is the term used to describe it.

I have had tough coaches before, some real bastards, but honestly I never thought of them as mean.  this guy is mean, this is more like it's forced for the purpose of trying to be the "tough guy" coach?  It's one sided, all the time, gets personal, negative, never anything positive, even after a win, never, it's almost a running joke with the players, just to deal with it.   Just not good.

And I'm the guy who is always working on the things that need improvement and rarely mention the positive stuff, one of the reason I backed off of coaching or training my own son, but this is,,, just,,, omg, type level.

So how did you deal with your bad coach situation, as player or parent?  did you ignore and hope days ahead are better?

He is supposed to be an educator first I presume.  No one would tolerate their kids getting verbally abused in any other class.

@HSDad22 posted:

Has anyone ever had to deal with a horrible coach at the High School JV level?  ….

So how did you deal with your bad coach situation, as player or parent?  did you ignore and hope days ahead are better?

In our area (and probably most of Texas), HS baseball is considerably less competitive and a small component of a player’s development compared to the coaching and competition the players get outside of HS teams, on club/travel teams or other training.  I’m Not saying there aren’t awesome HS teams, but I’d wager those players didn’t develop into studs because of their soph, JV, or V coaching.  So in my area, I’d say JV doesn’t matter and I’d recommend just taking it as a learning experience for my son in coping with one of the many a-holes he will encounter in his lifetime.  It’s actually a very valuable skill set.  

I’m also not saying it wouldn’t bother me to be in your situation, but I would have to personally observe the ‘abuse’ to say anything - and I would approach the administration or district if I thought it was warranted.  

Son’s team won the Area Championship, moving on to Reginal Quarterfinals. We were all surprised they were able to get in the games with all the bad weather we had in Texas, but all our games were played. Time to get ready for the next round.

@TxballDad posted:

Son’s team won the Area Championship, moving on to Reginal Quarterfinals. We were all surprised they were able to get in the games with all the bad weather we had in Texas, but all our games were played. Time to get ready for the next round.

Same here. On to regional quarterfinals this week. Hopefully the umpiring gets better or please don't let us have the crew from last series. One of the umpires wanted to be the main attraction. It was bad. I have never seen an umpire so worried about what is going on in the dugouts more than what was going on in the field. I don't know how many umpire time outs he had so he could assert himself to the coaches and players and make sure everyone knew he was in charge. I had people who were watching remotely on Gamechanger messaging me asking why the umpire thinks he needs to be the focal point of everything. The same guy switched to the field the next day and he was just as bad. If there was something that could draw attention to him, he made sure he was involved in it.

Sounds like the crew we had in Bi-Districts (very inconsistent at the plate).

Two out of the three plate umpires we had at Area were probably the best (most consistent) we have seen all season. They were consistent with not giving more then half a ball off the plate (Best we have seen keeping strikes in the strike zone). I think there was also only one call that was questioned on the base path by the coaches combined, and it was a really close call. The third plate ump needed to watch the other two more to see what they were calling. He was giving 2 balls off the plate strikes on the outside. Luckily the other team didn't make adjustments with there outfielders so, our team just kept hitting the ball down the right field line.

2024's team knocked out the #10 ranked team in the class today, and will play the #2 ranked team tomorrow for the district championship. They were swept in conference play by both teams, and he held today's rival to one run in 5+ innings and exited with the lead. Game went to extras -- won it in the 9th. Other team and its coaches were very gracious to 2024 and his teammates after the game -- they knocked him out in 4 innings a couple of weeks ago.

Game was held at the #2 team's field where they won their game in 3 innings and stayed to watch. Many clapped for him when he came out of the game, which was nice as he had a pretty rough outing against them on the same field.

Good luck to those still playing!

Son's team playing for state championship this weekend!  Graduation ceremony same weekend.  It's going to be a crazy and emotional weekend...

Well Son's HS team had a great season for such a young team. Only 1 SR starter so everyone else is coming back next year. They surprised almost everyone with how well they played. They lost their last game in the Reginal Quarterfinals to a very evenly matched team on Saturday and Son's summer ball team started on Sunday. First tournament is the first weekend in Jun with a new team, after watching practice/team selection yesterday, looks like it will be a great summer. 

Son's team advanced to the regional semi final. Going to be a really tough match up. The teams remaining in our region are really good. No surprise teams there. Going to be a tough road to try to get through to state.

Son's team was bounced in the district championship game the other day. Graduated 2 seniors, and have have 10 juniors coming back plus some other great kids, so a lot to look forward to next season!

Again, good luck to those still playing!