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

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.)