Two year hitting streak over......

This is a fun topic, it does allow us dads to revisit the years of fun and excitment as well as disappointment of our kids youth baseball experience.

Mine played up too! Two of them played up! My oldest started T-Ball at 4 and my middle son played with him at 3! Chasing butterflies in the outfield!

My oldest was given a bat and ball on his 4th birthday and could hit the ball well when it was tossed to him, so that began his journey.

He hated hitting off the tee so they would let me toss the ball to him when he got up.

It was a lot of fun...just fun. It introduced them to the game.

I believe one of the things that really helped my son with the game of baseball, which he continues to love as a sophomore in college, was climbing trees and building forts.

The climbing of trees increased his strength and building forts, hammering thousands upon thousands of nails helped him develop his hand-eye coordination. I firmly believe this!

For the record once they were 7 or 8 they played year round as well. Spring and Fall. They wanted to, and I sure encouraged it, heck it was fun! We continue to love watching our boys play and the more opportunities the better!

I suppose that balance is important, but I would have to admit that particularly for my older son and to a lesser degree my middle son, our family has been decidedly un-balanced. Baseball all the time, year round. A couple years when he was 12 or 13 I recall that he was playing on 3 teams in the same fall season. A travel team, the local Little League team and a Church Sponserd youth league.

We actually have 5 children and for a number of seasons we had two daughters playing softball and 3 boys playing baseball on the same day at different fields! Once we left a son at a field and didn't realize it until we got home and did a head count! LOL. My Daughter 25 plays 2nd Base in a competetive young adult softball league in Virginia to this day.

My oldest son is happiest and at home when he is on a baseball diamond. My middle son is in love with the game as well.

We do fish...when we can...

Did I keep stats? No...thank goodness I can find some seperation here. But, I did find pleasure in watching him hit! And I still like to recall that he bounced one over the 200' fence when he was 8 and hit his first HR over a 200' fence at 9. I remain a very proud dad.

My son began seeing a former pro hitting instructor at 11. We would drive 90 miles each way to Tampa Florida an work with Dave Kent at The Hitting Zone. Dave played in the Yankee organization years ago, never making it to the Bigs.

What fun those years were! We would drive down, do hitting then go to the beach and out to dinner. A bunch of time spent with my son.

That is the best thing about this whole ride. The years of spending time with my sons as they have grown from children into teenagers and now into young adults.

DP - ENJOY THE RIDE! Remember that the STATs DON'T MATTER. But, enjoy every success your son has and love him through every failure. Baseball as we all know IS a game of FAILURE. And to be successful at the game and love it for life, you and he need to EMBRACE that aspect of the game.

You know, I don't think I ever knew what their batting averages were before they hit HS. But I always knew that they were enjoying the game, regardless of the outcome.

4 games today! Middle son has a double header in Jacksonville and Older son has a double header in Winter Haven. Decisions, Decisions!

Floridafan,
The fact that you never paid attention to his stats shows how you are quite different from the OP (where is he by the way).

We have no clue whether son had any streaks when he was young. Or if his hips were aligned in the right position, if he had power, his bat speed or his pitching mechanics would be what others consider acceptable when he first started pitching or what his velocity was.

Looking back on those younger years, I tend to like to remember the "firsts" such as the first at bat, the first hit, the first strike out, the first HR. They are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, except have meaning for us, where memories of all of our kids "firsts" are special, which doesn't necessarily include baseball. They are much more meaningful than having to look back at the "first" time he broke his hitting streak or winning streak,etc.
I hope that if the OP is reading, he will take all comments in the spirit in which it is intended (not nasty or mean). One thing I taught my kids, you can't go through life just hearing what you want to hear and around here, we all express our opinions differently.

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Originally posted by TPM:
Looking back on those younger years, I tend to like to remember the "firsts" such as the first at bat, the first hit, the first strike out, the first HR.

Ahhh...the memories. For me the most memorable first for each of my four kids that played was the very first time, in the dugout and without any adult supervision or assistance, they were able to successfully insert a straw into one of these things...



I'm proud to say that three out of four of them mastered this task well before their thirteenth birthday!




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Gotwood,
You are toooooooo funny!

My biggest fault according to my wife is my long term memory in regard to past milestones and accomplishments and spending too much time reaching for goals and unreachable dreams.

I've thought back and tried to remember my son's first game pitching, his first HR, my wedding and I'm drawing a blank. The funny part is I coached all those teams and I do remember most of the kids I was blessed to interact with.

The one thing I do remember about my sons baseball past is a quote he made during an interview with PG when asked if he had any "famous last words" he said "...Anytime you can put the idea of THIS PITCH to the forefront of your focus, you’ll always have the best chance to succeed".

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You coached your wedding team? I'm impressed rz. At my wedding I don't even remember the team. All I remember is a coin flip or something like that.




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