72 is oppo!

I was going to take my boy out yesterday for some BP at the field but after careful consideration, we just decided to put on our ice skates and skate on the ice that had formed over the top of it.

Gotta luv baseball in the north!

It was 38 degrees yesterday. Pretty cold to be hitting baseballs but no snow. Today it is 27 with freezing rain. Yuck!

In case some of you wonder why I post something like this here? Well, I excitedly told his mom that he hit a dinger to the opposite field and she said, "Why were you hitting on the "other" field?" Aaaarrgghh!

I like sharing these little accomplishments with like-minded folks that understand....

Callaway
Trust me, if my son had hit 70+ dingers there would have been several posts by now, starting at around the 10th dinger.
The boy has set a goal of 25 dingers this season (60-70 games). Pretty lofty goal at the major level of play, and he only had 10 last year but we have been really working hard on a pure rotational swing (move over Barry Bonds, LOL) and judging by what his swing looks like in practice, I really think he has a good shot at it but this is only in the cages, so I gotta take that for what it is worth.
He also moves up to 225 corner - 250 center fields this year (regulation size for most, some of the games will still be on the 300 softball fields). That brings up a good question, what size fields are regulation for 11 year old ball down south? We play USSSA up here, for the most part. (We do participate in some Super Series events).

KC_Dad

There is a big difference between BP dingers and game dingers for sure. We ususlly practice on his Dixie regulation 200' field. While some of those bp dingers would have cleared 225, clearly his totals would be far less. But it is great for his confidence and he will play the entire Dixie season on these fields this year and next. I can't imagine what next year will be like if he continues to improve. But for now, he is very excited for this upcoming season playing with the 12yo boys in Majors.

After the Dixie season he will play travel ball (USSSA, AAU). He would rather play with his travel team but we, (both he and I), made a deal with his mom, who insisted that he play Dixie this year without interference.

Last year I gave him the choice to either play AllStars or go to Cooperstown and he chose Cooperstown. Dixie has a rule that a player may not play for other teams during AllStars. I informed the League that he was not going to play Dixie AllStars. His AllStar team made it to the Dixie WS (without him mind you) and still the coaches and parents blamed me personally for their showing there. You wouldn't believe the phone calls I took over that. To this day the AllStar coaches won't speak to me.

Of course we didn't know that the AllStar team would advance that far. When we returned from Cooperstown, we attended every game that they played and cheered them on. I asked him many times if he thought that he made the right decision and without hesitation he said that playing in Cooperstown was the best baseball experience that he ever had and he would choose it again even knowing that he could have gone to the Dixie WS.

An important point that would have prevented the whole mess, that unfortunately, I found out afterwords is that Cooperstown is designated as a "Baseball Camp" and therefore would not have been in conflict with Dixie, LL, etc. policies. Had we known that ahead of time he could have done both.

FYI, the fields in Cooperstown are 200', so your son should be licking his chops!

We are planning on going to Cooperstown Dream Park in 2006. We are trying to gain as much info on that trip as possible prior to that (things to do, where to stay, which week to go on, stuff like that). I seen the fields there were 200, just like in the LLWS. We will go to some tournaments this year that use those size fields (most of the older ball parks use those dimensions for our age). It doesn't really make much difference, if he gets a hold of one it will go out and if he don't it will be a line drive somewhere usually. Funny thing about his line drives, he gets more ewww's and awwww's when he hit's a frozen rope into the fence than he does when he plows one. The ball literally will be right next to an infielders head and not drop a bit until it hits the fence. Scares the cr@p out of the opposing teams parents, especially if their kid was the second baseman Last year he hit two HR's in the same inning and the opposing coach still pitched to him the next inning (intentionally walked for his last at bat). The second game of the double header (different team) Drew did one of those near head taking off shots 2 times in a row at their second baseman (seperate innings). His next 3 at-bats that game were intentional walks (the kind where the coach just steps on the field and tells the ump to just let the kid go to first). It really is more impressive seeing those hard line drives than it is those magestic bombs most of the time. Scary how fast the balls come off the bat now days. Anyways, if you have any good info on that CDP give me a shout, I would appreciate it.

KC

I know what you mean about the intentional walks! What a joke. During the Dixie League playoffs last year, he was intentionally walked at every AB during the final game. That's ridiculous at his age. Let 'em play.

We celebrate line drives!

As far as the field sizes LL is the same for everyone I think 200'. When we left LL and started playing AAU most of the fields were 220 lines 250 cf. When we went to 60' 90' we started playing most of our games on HS fields. Last year at the AAU 14 Nationals we played at the Reds and Orioles spring training sites in Sarasota Fla. 340 lines 385 alleys 405 to cf.

quote:

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He hit number 72 this afternoon. No big deal really except that we have been working very hard on letting the outside pitches come in deeper and focusing on driving them to the opposite field. Well tonight the light bulb went on and he was drilling shots to right field hard...when all of a sudden he launched a line drive over the right field wall! First one ever right of dead center. He was so happy. It was as if he had hit his first dinger.

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Callaway,
It IS a big deal to you and him and is should be!! Let me commend you on your approach to working with your son. The first thing that stands out is you are challenging him, and secondly, and probably the most important, it sounds as if he's having fun.
Fungo

Would the results in his hitting improvement be the same if your were not counting?

Me thinks that at times we get too hung up in the numbers--in this case it may be working despite the emphasis on the number of dingers but for others it probably won't

TR

quote:

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Would the results in his hitting improvement be the same if you were not counting?

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Probably.

We don't put much significance in BP HR's. He just keeps a running total in his head ...and reminds me of the new total each time he hits one.

What was significant with this one for me was that it was hit to the opposite field. I was proud of his dicipline at the plate and pleased with how much power he has gained in the past few months. He has worked very hard and made a lot of sacrifices.

I guess that the numbers he keeps are his way of keeping score with himself. When he yells to me his new total, I simply smile and nod and say "Atta boy, Boom."

R.

PS Happy B-day TR.

Callaway,

I just came across your topic and had to comment.

I think it is awesome!

Thanks for sharing it. Your wife probably has the same as attitude as mine regarding workout milestones and that is, "do it consistently in the games and then I'll be impressed."

I hope you get an opportunity to post a clip some time of Boomer hitting. Without ever seeing him hit, if he is being taught how to sit back and drive the outside ball to the opposite field instead of inside out poking it like most people do, I applaud you.

Keep up the good work!

How many real home runs? Not a flame just curious.

cball

Great question, it kind of goes to TR's point about numbers. And to be honest I don't really know. He has hit several but I don't have any idea of an exact count.

As an aside, yesterday we went to the field and there was a Major team consisting of returning 12yo working out. I asked the coach if Boomer could workout with them and the coach said sure. He asked my son where he played and sent him to first. The coach then immediately walked over to me and asked, "Are you sure he can handle the throws from SS, because that is JW, the hardest throwing kid in Majors." I chuckled and assured the coach that my son would be fine (I guess that the coach never saw me hitting hard fungos to 1B from ss). Anyway it was no big deal.

They then hit BP and Boom launched one out and 3 off of the wall. Boomer said, "Dad, that coach had the same release as you. It was like hitting your BP." After practice, JW (the 12yo)came over to me and asked if he could pitch to Boom. I asked the coach and he said sure. This kid reportedly throws low 70's and Boom couldn't wait get in the box. Well, that was a great experience because JW from 46' has some HEAT! Boomer got his stick on a few as he adjusted his timing but all-in-all, JW won the battle with relative ease.

After the short session, JW went up to Boomer and said, "Kid, you're going to do great up here. Don't feel bad about not hitting me because nobody throws as hard as I do. You'll do just fine."

What a nice kid.

R.

Sounds like he eats it up and you both are having a lot of fun. Great nickname.