My bad, I should have explained better, he is a 2027, hit a 91 ev. I wish he was throwing 90, but he is an infielder. Mid summer he threw 79 across the infield. He has put on some muscle since then. He is now 6’2 168. He has a long way to go. But he was the only freshman to hit 90+ ev. And that was only 3 hits. Others took more, but he didn’t want to wait in line.
I know this is long but was fun thinking about it and writing it. My son has never really taken to practice so I had to come up with how to teach him, without “teaching him”. When he was little, 4 or 5 I used to throw a tennis ball against our 2 story house. If he caught it, it was 1 point. If he caught it glove up (not underhand) it was 5 points. If the dog got it, the dog got 1 point. We would play that for hours. The dog would knock him over, they’d wrestle for the ball etc…just amazing fun.
That graduated to hitting it straight up in the air as far as I could with a tennis racket and him trying to catch it. I think he was 5 then. Then having the dog run around under his feet at the same time. Then hitting another ball as soon as the first one started falling. Always just keeping it fun and increasing the challenge.
To telling him if he hit the ball off a tee over the back fence, it was considered a home run. One day I could only find a few balls and didn’t know where they were. I looked in the neighbors yard and there was about 40 balls in their back yard.
To hitting foam golf balls in the front yard with a sawed off broom handle and seeing how far down the street he could hit it. Which morphed into a game called “hit the victim”. We lived on a quiet, wide street with a car coming by maybe once every 4 -5 minutes. I wanted to teach him how to hit under game pressure. I knew boys that age love mischievous stuff so I told him when a car comes by I’ll pitch the ball and you try and hit the car. He only had one shot to do it before having to wait another 5 minutes. I knew the ball wouldn’t do anything to the car and if they got mad I’d just say sorry. He was about 8-9. I've noticed now that he's older that 2 strikes really don't bother him. He almost hits better with 2 strikes.
Taught him how to dive for a ball when he was 6. We were in the nursery at the gym while mom worked out. I laid down 2 foam mattresses back to back and told him to run as fast as he could and dive like superman and try and catch the ball. That lead to doing it at the park with tennis balls etc..
Instead of “teaching him” how to do something, I would just invent some game that might be fun. Like launching balls with our pitching machine over the house and him trying to catch them in the front yard, I'd just incentivize the thing I wanted him to learn. I think because of it he’s ended up able to just try things and quickly figure out how to do them athletically.
Always emphasized the fun in baseball. Like hanging out after games or having fun in the dugout. (That one got him on trouble. He found he could jam sticks in the water fountain and it would spray people in the face when they tried to get a drink)
Bought him a trampoline when he was 9 thinking it would help with spacial awareness and strength. He taught himself how to backflip, which lead to backflipping his razor scooter at the skatepark when he was 10. (2 broken wrists)
I was telling some dads this stuff at a practice and realized that no one did anything like this with their kids. It ended up kind of awkward.
His travel coach is the son of a 17 year major leaguer who’s JV coach at one of the best baseball HS’s in Los Angeles and he’s very impressed with how easily he learns and how well and hard he hits the ball.
There’s more but overall just an amazing athlete. Unfortunately he has some sort of dyslexic thing so not so great in the classroom but we may have a handle on it finally. He’s 14. Not sure where it will all lead but writing this made me realize just how much fun it all is. Hopefully it’ll turn into something.
This is a bragging post so had to add the picture even though Im sure most have similar
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I'm going to stretch the boundaries here a little and brag on my nephew (36 years old) who recently got married in St Lucia where my wife and I honeymooned 35 years ago. It was great to come back. Of course, we had to be there for their special event and spend some time at the all inclusive resort. Way too much to do in 5 days. It was a fantastic time with friends and family, and provided a much needed break from winter.
Our weather coconut (below) was "dry" and "moving" everyday which means it was sunny and great for sailing.
Most of the friends and family live in Maine or New Hampshire, and they really needed the sun. It was the palest wedding party I've ever seen.
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Wife and I honeymooned there 23 years ago!
Congrats
Just a follow-up on my daughter entering her college Athletic Hall of Fame. My wife and I are so proud of her. She was asked a series of questions during her induction by the moderator of the event and she was so classy in her response. When they asked about her accomplishments, she talked about her team and coaches. At one point, the moderator said that he was going to ask her one question where she could not defer to her teammates or coaches. He asked her how far her longest home run was. She said she didn't know the distance but it was at Bellarmine University. An umpire walked up to her after that game to shake her hand and said that he had never seen a young lady hit a ball that far. When asked about my influence on her life and career, she said that I had a great effect but so did my wife and all of her coaches and teammates.
I've posted on this site and others that my kid is big and strong. Some people at the event were a little surprised at her size. (BTW, she is having twins.) Here is a link from YouTube of what the university showed to introduce my daughter:
This is awesome @CoachB25! We've taken our daughter (6th grade) to a couple of UMSL games and had a great time! Congrats to Brianna!!
@CubsFanInSTL posted:This is awesome @CoachB25! We've taken our daughter (6th grade) to a couple of UMSL games and had a great time! Congrats to Brianna!!
Good for you and your daughter. I am shocked that the majority of young ladies I coach in softball have never been to a college game and yet, they want to play in college.
Love it @CoachB25!!
This is great, B25! Thanks for sharing the news, and have a blast grandparenting! Twins! OMG!
Pretty awesome!
@PTWood posted:Love it @CoachB25!!
Did you see your son featured on MLB Network? It was pretty neat! The breakdown was that your son is on the cusp of being in the bigs and should get a really good look in Spring Training. The talking heads would not be surprised if he is on that roster at the end of spring training.
@TPM posted:You and I have corresponded here since Dave was drafted. That was in 2007. Wow! Congratulations to Brianna on being inducted to the Hall of Fame. I wish her good health and much happiness.
Let us know when those grandbabies arrive!!
Yes, and Dave is the perfect example of all of the possibilities this great game has to offer. Hard work and dedication do pay off! You have so much to be proud of.
@CoachB25 posted:Did you see your son featured on MLB Network? It was pretty neat! The breakdown was that your son is on the cusp of being in the bigs and should get a really good look in Spring Training. The talking heads would not be surprised if he is on that roster at the end of spring training.
Big article about James Wood in the Washington Post - may be behind a paywall:
https://www.washingtonpost.com...-nationals-prospect/
And it quotes his mom, who, as usual, has great things to say!!!
I saw on Facebook. Congratulations!
Nothing like a proposal at the beach!
Congratulations!!!
Awesome, congrats to all
I'll brag on Wog's son for a second. He struck my son out on 3 pitches the other day. Two nasty curve balls and a 94 mph fb up and in swing and miss. I was watching the players gunning his pitches and I thought I saw 95 once in the first inning. I saw 94 several times. I quit watching after the first inning. Thank goodness they removed him after the 2nd inning. I'm sure it was to save him for the weekend not any other reason because his stuff is electric