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.