When he was young. That play when you thought....Hmmmm?

For my oldest, it was when he was 5 years old (I think) watching a Red Sox game on TV.  He was asking why the pitcher was throwing fastballs as a first pitch if the other team kept hitting them.  Most kids like cartoons at that age.  He liked to watch baseball games and understand the numbers.

 

For my middle son, I watched him turn a triple play with a teammate at 7 or 8 years old in an all-star game.

 

For my youngest, I watched him pitch to his strengths against some very good travel & showcase teams this Fall at 16 years old.  He's my late bloomer

6U TBall first game ever (Yep this was pre 6U travel ball and kids actually played T ball and had fun…but I digress)

 

Coach tells the other coach that he should probably move his “pitcher” back a bit since the kid was kinda big)

 

Jr proceeds to smack the ball off the kids head (rubber balls) the kid is laying their writhing on the ground crying with everyone attending to him and my son takes off yelling at the kids on base ahead of him to keep running….. he gets fed up with them all and just runs by everyone all the way around the bases. He tells me after the game that it was his first “Home Run”…. 

When my son was 6 or 7, I was shooting him with his toy gun that shot out a little disc about 20 feet. He suddenly stopped and ran and got his bat and wanted to try his luck at the one inch disc that was hooking about 3 feet. Over the next few days he learned to hit the hooking disc that started behind his ear.

 

 Another game we played was with a Velcro ball and glove, if I could throw it past him into the other room I would score a point, if he got a glove on it and it stuck to the Velcro he would receive a point. We played this for hours and he learned to dive and backhand, I would usually let him win 10-9 on a come from behind contest. I am sure the skills he learned at this early age is what made him the player he is Today.

I think it was when he was 3 or 4 and he was using a plastic bat to hit wiffles. He banged one off my forehead and it hurt.  Then another. And another. The other thing is a few years later when he would ask me daily to come outside and hit him flies and he would keep shagging as long as I kept hitting.  It wouldn't matter if he never played again -- those days were great.

My son was 5 years old and it was January in Northern NJ. He told his Mom he was going outside. Mind you it was about 25 degrees and there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. I was working on a project in the basement, when I kept hearing a banging against the backside of my house. I went upstairs and looked out the window and there was my son on the tee banging line drive after line drive off the aluminum siding of my house. Fortunately he was using the soft tee ball baseballs. That's when I knew...

So many great stories!  I have some great game stories but I'm going to go earlier than that.  My son was three and we were camping along the Oregon coast in an old growth forest.  There was a clearing near the restrooms, so I was tossing him wiffle balls to hit before dinner.  He pounds one across the clearing and it lands in a knot inside a tree, just as a guy, someone else's dad, was coming out of the bathroom.  The dad starts going crazy, asking me and others walking by "did you see that?"  "hey, can you believe that kid?!"  "how can he hit that well, how old is he?".  He was nearly jumping up and down, which was funny because we were a bit nonplussed, as son hit a lot for fun when he was little.  The guy made me spell my son's name, so that he could look for him in 15 years in the draft. It's a little harder now to impress strangers, but my son still hits a lot for fun!

This is a no-brainer... two distinct moments..

 

Sophomore year in HS when he is elected HS Homecoming Prince and talks a hot senior into walking him down the isle.

 

Yesterday, he and his sister are home from college.. We had a little gift exchange.  His sister had some gag-gift T-shirts made up for mom and dad that had a picture of her and was titled "Trophy Child".  His competitive nature did not like the idea of coming in second.

 

Not so much a moment that made me think he may be good, but I do think it had an affect on his baseball:

 

when end my son was 8and still playing coach pitch, we walked by one of the older fields and there was a coach working with some older catchers.  During a break, he asks my son if he catches.  Well, in coach pitch, you don't exactly have your best kid behind the dish, so my son says no.  The coach asks "what are you scared?"  Now, 6 years later,  Heading into his first high season, my son's primary position is catcher.   He decided to take the challenge :-)

I have video of Bum, Jr's. first baseball game ever as a 6 y.o.  It was coach-pitch, and his first position was to stand beside the adult on the mound.  On the video, his eyes light up, he does a fist-pump and screams "Yea!  I'm going to be the pitcher!"

Good idea for a thread. I really enjoy reading theses. My boy is in middle school and girl is in second grade so I don't know if either will ever even play HS but these are the moments I thought they might grow up to have at least average ability.

I don't remember how old the boy was but he was walking so above one and in a diper so below three. Anyway we were playing in the spare bed room and ended up with him standing there in nothing but his diper holding a plastic drum stick. I was tossing marbles to him and he was crushing them. Momma made us stop when he broke the widow hahaha. I did not know if he would ever play baseball but figured he at least have the eye hand coordination to hit.

For my girl it was a few years ago on vacation. The condo we were at had a big lawn right in the middle. For some reason the were a bunch of 10-13 year old boys there and they would break out into a mid day wiffle ball game every day. (Which was an awesome memory throw back to sit and watch) So the girl had taken an early nap that day and when she woke up she wanted to go play with her big brother. So she went over and asked to play. Well most of the boys didn't want a little 4 year old girl to play with them. One even told her "this is a serious game" lol. So my son told his team to let her play and they said ok. There was a row of bushes the we're using for a HR fence and so far I had only seen three or fore hit one over. So she walks up to the plate and first pitch hits one over the bushes. Now I don't know if it was an ah ha moment for me or not. But 20 or so 10 to 14 year old boys standing there with their jaws dropped sure think so.  The rest of the week boys kept walking by saying. Daddy or momma that's the girl that hit that ball. Hahaha

Son was 7, I would take him to my oldest sons practice (10 yr). I would let the kids that came early to take some ground ball at SS including my 7 yr old. He was just as good or better than the older kids including my oldest son.

This thread is fun.  I'm not a great story teller, and this wasn't a play in a real game, but here it goes.

 

The dad who really inspired my guy to love baseball  was a neighbor. His son and my son and this dad would play catch or hit wiffle balls in the street until after dark all summer long. It got him hooked.

 

The boys were 6 or 7, and this dad started showing our guys how to pitch in the backyard, just to get the kids ready for their first LL season of kid pitch. 

 

My son sets himself, looks over his glove in a perfect seven-year-old imitation of Andy Pettitte, does his windup, lets it fly. Beans the nice neighborhood dad right in the jewels. Hard. For a good 60 seconds or so I was afraid I'd be rushing my neighbor to the hospital. But his first reaction (after a choice word or two) was, he's got a pitcher for the team that year!   It still makes me laugh so hard just thinking about it.

 

 

I've got three. I'll try to be quick.

1.  He was about 1 1/2 years old. I had a Braves game on. I was doing something off to the side. He called to me and went into a pitching windup. Needless to say, I was floored.

2.  7 years old playing 8 yr old rec ball. He was sort of in competition with this other kid for playing short. The other kids parents were always making comments about how their son should be there. In this one game, ground ball hit up the middle, son dives for it behind second, hops up and throws the batter out at first. True other parents said something like "I guess he should play there" and never said another word the rest of the season.

3.  9 yrs old playing 10 yr old select rec. I used to stand behind the fence and relay signs to him. He had a fastball and a pretty good circle change. He was corkscrewing batters into the ground with the change up. I remember the opposing coach yelling to his batter " watch the change, watch the change". I called a fastball and he blew it by the batter. The other coach threw his hands up in the air, spinning around and said "nevermind". It was SUPER fun to watch.

Man, he has always loved being out on a baseball field. He still does and I really feel lucky to still be watching him play.

10 yr old playing 11-12 yr old rec ball championship game.  Typical rec stuff with 2 stacked teams and coaches who could not stand each other.  With runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs late in a tight game, the big kid in front of mine gets intentionally walked. Before the 3-0 pitch the coach told my boy if he liked it to drill it while i was screaming in my head to take it but it was a belt high meatball and he jacked it over the cf head and to the 300 ft fence on a couple of bounces. I can still see that play like it was yesterday.

Looking back, this wasn't my smartest thing I've ever done....but it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time....lol

 

My son was 9....playing in a league with kids his grade and a year older.  He was one of the smallest kids in the league at the time....but threw harder than anyone in the league...with very good control.  We were playing another team from our very small school district in a battle of the top 2 teams in the league.  He was pitching the game of his life.  Our catcher took a foul ball "down there"...and couldn't continue.  There were only 2 outs left...and to save time (and because we didn't have another catcher)  I just told the opposing coaches, who were good friends of mine...."I'll just catch".  They both agreed though one chimed in "not a good idea"...knowing I had no gear...heck, I didn't even put on a helmet, I was that confident(or maybe ignorant) in what my son would do with me behind the plate....lol  The top two kids on their team were up with 1 out in the bottom of the last inning.  6 pitches....6 swinging strikes...and I don't think I closed my eyes on more than 3 or 4 of them.  The coach who said it wasn't a good idea used to pitch in the minors.  He looked at me...nodded toward my son and just said "wow".  

At 18 months I got my son a tee, a whiffle ball bat and a few balls. It was one of the few toys he cared about. Every day I came home from work the balls were all over the yard. When I came home he made me watch him hit. When he started playing (skipped t ball) 7/8 machine pitch I noticed he knew where everyone was supposed to be and what they were supposed to do. This was from attending almost all of his five years older sister's softball practices and MLB video games. He analyzed video games. I saw a killer instinct attitude in him when he was two When his sister ticked him off he would put his arms around her and not let go until she fell over. It was like Python versus Bambi. Except Bambi was five years older. He was also kicked out of Gymboree when he was two for running on the top of equipment rather than through it.

 

My daughter always had a casual attitude towards sports. She played because it was social. Then in 7th grade softball we were coming home from losing an undefeated season and first place. Both teams were 12-0-1 going into the game. It was the last game of the season. She was quiet in the car. Then she said, "You know what? Losing sucks!" She was in the process of a growth burst to 5'10". From that point forward she was a different person athletically.

 

At eight my son threw a participation trophy in the trash as we left the gym. He looked at me and said, "We didn't win. We don't deserve trophies."

My son was 8 when he practiced with my older son's Pony League team (14U) and the coach was shocked that he was fielding balls as well as anyone else on the team. 

My oldest was always smaller, just lean and skinny, than his friends coming up thru LL, but his desire and fire was head and shoulders above the others....He had pretty good mechanics, but the lacked strength the others had.  He continued to work hard, we long tossed a lot.  Keeping in mind I still have a very good arm, we were playing long toss  when he was 15 and he was easily out throwing me with a long, fluid, effortless motion.....that was the confirming moment for me that he was on his way

First day of 12 year old Little League practice when a new parent looked over at my 6' 0" son and asked who the new coach was!

It's been quite some time, but I remember my son's first true LL game (minors - I don't count coach-pitch).  Started at short stop.  Batter hits a hard hit ball (well, hard hit for 8-9 year olds.....).  He fields the ball and makes the throw to first like a major leaguer.  I knew then he would go far.  He's playing at a DII JUCO now.

 

But the play I'll always remember was just a few years ago.  High school senior year, district championship game, down by 1 run, bottom of the 7th, 2 outs, runner on 2nd and he rips one over the third baseman's head that goes into the LF corner for an RBI double that drives in the tying run.  It was the only time I ever saw him pump his fist after getting to second base.  His team would go on to win in the 8th and bring home the District Championship for the first time in 25 years.

 

 

He was 4 playing 5U tball.  First game he is at short, my wife and I are trying to get the camera rolling and a kid from the other team hits a ball to the right field fence, as I look up I see the right fielder pick the ball up and throw a seed to the the third baseman (or past him actually).  I told my wife wow that kids got a cannon, I then realize it's bb jr and he is now running back to his spot at short.  At the half inning the coach ask me to come down and explain he has to stay in his position.  I explain and my sweet son says dad that kid is terrible if I don't get the ball we will lose.  Next game they move him to a 6U team Because he kept catching the ball and hitting the first baseman in the head, chest, shoulder etc with his throws.  

Holy crap talk about early bloomer, how tall is he now?

My kid cried about losing and teammates who didn't care from the time he was 7. Danged embarrassing. I spent half my time consoling my son and the other half apologizing to parents when my son called out his teammates errors. Thankfully, as I had hoped, we got past that stage after I pulled him from the mound on a couple of occasions because of showing his exasperation at errors while he was pitching. He was always better than his teammates but they were trying times. Even sent him to a psychologists because he would not waver his stance on poor play by his teammates. He was 9. Fast forward to 13 yrs old playing on a 14 yr old team. Championship game against the best team in our city with some really big kids. My kid gets the start and throws a no hitter while hitting two home runs plus a base clearing double. First time I teared up during a game. Fast forward, 2 months ago 2015 verbaled to a D1 program as a two way player. Teared up again. Only athleticism he got from me was pulling a trigger and setting a hook; I like to hunt and fish. I've enjoyed being a dad and this kid helps. Thanks for letting me brag. Good luck to all.  

I have heard it from coaches and parents every season since he started playing coach pitch baseball at 7 years old, "He has such a great swing" and "His swing is so consistent!"; and this last season - "Wow, don't you just love that swing!"   I had to smile.  I do.  I do love that swing. I always have.

All of this is really good stuff.  This is what makes the offseason so great.  Merry Christmas all, and I vote this thread an early "Golden".

9 years old in LL. About half way through the season hit a home run. First kid of the season to do it. Son was as shocked as I was and he wasted no time dropping into a slump after that!  Then at tryouts before 13U season hit 2 of the 3 tryout pitches out.

Have always encourage son to be as versatile as possible.  Go wherever coach needs you.  Best way to get PT.  Catch, pitch, OF, ........switch hit.  Began practicing hard at age 10 debuted as a switch hitter in games last year of LL at age 12.  Always told him in the cage for those two years, "First left-handed HR you hit in a game, I'll buy you a BB gun."  He worked and worked.  His LL coach was not thrilled with our, "Little experiment," as he called it.  Third game into season, son hits a Grand Salami lefty and follows it up a home run lefty.

"Hmmmmm............, better buy him a 20 gauge." 

 

Thanks for all the memories.  Priceless.

He's pushing 6'4" and about 190 as a young Jr in HS.  I still got him in total body mass though! 

I love these stories. Mine was 8 years old playing LL “Minor A”. I knew almost nothing about baseball. Son is playing 2B, bottom of the last inning, bases loaded, 2 outs. Batter hits a grounder to my kid’s right. He scoots over, gets his butt down and gloves it cleanly. I’m thinking to myself, great, now make a good throw. Son calmly allows his momentum to carry him right over second base for the easy force out. After a moment of panic, I realized that he already knew more about the game than I did.

The first time my chest puffed out was when he was a 9U on the 9-10 All-Star team. The 12U kids were waiting for the field for a practice. Son practicing in the OF, chased a ball to the RC fence, then threw it on a line to 3B. One of the 12U kids asked, how old is that kid. I said he was 9. Kid shakes his head and says, “That’s just not fair.”

When SPYvSPYjr was 11 we went to our first summer baseball camp at the high school he now attends. He was warming up with another kid when the HS varsity coach went over and talked to him. After that he alternated between throwing to the kid and throwing to one of the high school seniors who was helping with the camp. At the break, I asked him what the coach said to which he replied, "I'm supposed to throw it soft to the kid but I can throw hard to the big guy."

My son's first word was "ball."

I started my current 2017 at 7 years old, beofre that he traveled with me playing fast pitch softball. when signed him up for Rec ball i asked if he could play 8. the guy says to me he has never played before...I told him he had been playing with me his whole life and I was sure he would be fine. Lucky enough the league VP had seen him hitting several times back in the fall at the local LL field and approved the move up.

 

He was the best hitter in the league while playing up a year - granted I knew nothing at the time and assumed he was going to MLB bound shortly...LOL oh much we learn!

When he tied for the season HR lead, hit 2 HR's in one game against the league's toughest 2 pitchers, and made the All-Star "A" team and started at SS during the Cal Ripken 12u season as a 9-year old...

+1

Great thread. 2 for me stand out

Son was 4 playing in back yard with older 2 brothes (5 and 8 years old). Hit the pitch back fence and  it was a strike. head to his toes. they wer messing with him and thorwing curveballs. He was furious because he couldn't hit it, screaming with rage and crying. My wife is telling the older 2 to lay off, he is only little. He yells back at her, while still crying. "Stop it mommy, I am gonna hit this thing" A little while later he was driling curveballs all over back yard.

 

When he was 9, first year travel. playing catcher. Foul ball hit 20 feet away from him firstbase side near teh dugout. He laid out superman style in full gear helmet and all, sliding on those little rocks some teams put by dugouts. catches it and while everyone else is amazed including myself. pops up and doubles up the runner on 2nd who was just standing watching.

 

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year everyone

 

 

I don't think my son ever had a chance to not be a baseball player, as I took him to West Virginia University games in his stroller....He always was more interested in baseball than his teammates

 

When he was 6 he came out of the dugout after a game all mad and I asked him what was wrong, He was mad that all the kids were talking about "power rangers" during the game and not baseball.......

 

Later on my son made a 10 yr old all-star team as the last player picked...I think they thought he would just be happy to be picked....but at each game, when he wasn't in the starting lineup, he would pace behind the coach saying....when am I getting in?....when am I getting in?....when am I getting in?..... when am I getting in?

 

When the coach finally put him in, he asked my son f he could play left field....(he was a SS 3B)...he said he would play anywhere but the bench........bottom 7 game tied, with a runner on second a ground ball to short went right by our SS .....3rd base coach sent the runner thinking easy score, but my son had charged up to back up the play and threw the runner out at home on a one hop bullet......and sent us off to extra innings...

On the way home I told him that was a pretty heads up play....and he said, "nah everyone knows you gotta back up plays in the infield"....

 

 I thought hmmmmmmmmmm..........

 

 

Plenty of those moments came each year after that.....

 

 

It is interesting reading this thread.  It makes me wonder about all the parents that had that moment they knew their kid was special, only to find out later it was a false alarm.

 

Our middle son showed me special abilities as soon as he picked up a ball.  As time went on I kept seeing more and more things that told me he had special talent.  He did amazing things through high school and college. He played one year of professional baseball in the Cincinnati Reds organization, got injured and was released.  Never even tried to come back.

 

Our youngest son did not show me any talent for the game at a young age.  I suppose some of that was due to comparing him to his older brother.  Looking at him I honestly thought he was the worst player on every youth team he played for.  Then he kept growing and as a junior in high school I started thinking he could be a late bloomer.  Very tall, loose arm, great attitude.   I told him he should think about concentrating on pitching.  He became the #3 pitcher on a fairly weak high school team.  The #1 pitcher ended up being drafted and signed.  So as a senior our son became the #1 pitcher. Iowa plays their high school season in the summer, so the other kid has signed and gone.

 

It wasn't until his senior year in high school that I thought he might be able to pitch in college.  Unfortunately none of the DIs recruited him.  He went to Indian Hills JC and went from being a decent high school pitcher to throwing over 90mph with plus life in just one year.  That was when I first realized there was something special going on. That was the moment!

 

At age 15 he showed absolutely no reason to think he would be a good baseball player. By the time he was 22 he was pitching in front of 50,000 fans in the Big Leagues. No one would have ever thought that could have happened until he was out of high school. His extremely talented HS teammate that was drafted was out of baseball in two years.

 

I have made my living in baseball for over 40 years.  Sometimes things appear to be crystal clear and you end up being wrong.  And sometimes the surprises are mind boggling. I think the most important thing to look for is the love for the game. Some in this thread have mentioned that as being the moment they thought hmmmmm.  For good reason, because that might be just as important as any physical ability they show at a young age. It is that passion for the game that will drive them to keep trying to reach their potential. It's hard, nearly impossible, to reach your potential. Who knows, maybe no one has ever reached their full potential.  But for sure you can't do it unless you have a great passion for what you do. To me, that is the main thing to look for in a young kid. If he has that, he might have a chance to do something amazing.

My son's was too!  And by far the most repeated (the only real contender..."why?").

 

Funny story: my son was very determined and persistent.  If he was crawling off to some place or thing we didn't want him to go to, we would pick him up and move him to another room.  This had worked for his older sister; she would forget about whatever she had been doing, and become absorbed in her new surroundings.  Not true for my son.  No matter where we put him, he would doggedly try to get back to whatever had originally drawn his interest. 

 

Trying to figure out how to deal with this, I stumbled upon the ONLY thing that distracted him and made him change task: I put him down in front of a baseball game on TV.  He would watch that for hours...upside down.  Problem solved...as long as it was baseball season and there was a game on TV.  That was when I knew he had inherited the passion for the game (from his mother as well as me), but at that point, I didn't know if it would go beyond that.

 

Flash forward about a year.  Son is about 18 months, maybe 2 years old.  We're at the zoo in Seattle, celebrating the birthday of a boy who was a friend of his sister's.  All the boys - who were about twice his age - were playing whiffle tee ball.  As soon as there was a break for cake and ice cream, instead of going for the treats, my son lined up in the batter's box (left-handed - woo hoo!) and took a nice little swing and CRUSHED the ball (well, crushed for a two-year-old; he hit it further than the four-year-olds did).  

 

From then on, whiffle ball in the yard was a daily routine (he even suggested we play that Christmas; when I mentioned it was dark and there was six inches of snow on the ground, he looked at me as if to say, "So?").  His favorite thing in the world was to drill dear old Dad with a line drive right to the, uhh, mid-section.  Funniest thing in the world to him.  I decided I would start throwing whiffle curves at him as a result, but it didn't work.  If the pitch fooled him, he'd adjust, flick his wrists and go get it.  At the time, that ability to start a swing fooled, adjust, and go get the ball reminded me (for you old-timers) of Jack Clark.  THAT was the first time I really said "hmmmmm."  After that, there were many times in LL, and later select and even HS ball, but that was the first time.

My son's first word was "hammer".  Hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer.  He repeated it incessantly.

 

I hate it when he's hammered.  (By the bat not the bar.)