Winter Doldrums Discussion

Keeping with your random theme , our younger son's team played in the Ole Miss NCAA regional last year.  Fantastic place to play AND watch a game.  Terrific atmosphere - even for the visitors if you embrace it.

They really ride the outfielders and kind of in a funny way.  Some are tweeters too - one is @rfhater.  Anyways, our CFer's dad decided to try and neutralize them, so he went out there with a case of beer and sat with them.  By the beginning of game-1 (vs. Ga. Tech) he had the whole Ole Miss OF fans rooting for his son's team and his son himself!

It was classic.

And here's a video of what they do in the outfield when Ole Miss hits a home run.  Very, very cool. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYZnizAAeP4

Nice.  Hope to see that one day, heck hope my kid gets to play in an atmosphere like that one day.

JBB - What do they do if the visiting team hits a home run?  Please tell me it doesn't resemble what monkeys throw at the zoo.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg2AezJo8aQ

Great question!!  We didn't hit one so I don't have any data on that. 

Ah, the winter doldrums!  We're buried in snow and have gray skies here...can't wait for the high school season! Can't wait for the roar of the stands, seeing who's grown 6 inches since last season, taking bets on how long it takes for that "one parent" to get a talking to from the ump...it's just a great, fun time.  There's nothing quite like small town baseball! 

The roar of the stands, really?  That would be cool. I was at one of my kid's basketball team's "rivalry" games last night and there were a couple hundred kids in the student section for each team and a similar number of adults, and a whole lot of roaring going on, even when it became clear that even triple teaming wasn't going to help much against their 6' 11' kid. 

But I'm looking forward to baseball, when you might see 15-20 students watching the  game on a good day.

Haha, ok JCG, you got me, probably "buzz" was a better world, but during the long icky winters, the memories and anticipation grow.  

Our team practices started on Monday... 

Our HS team had the organizational meeting on Tuesday.  Starting next week all the kids are "invited" to the open gym.  My kid also plays basketball so he is not allowed to go.  Though we started with organized travel team practices two weeks ago.  Hopefully the winter stays milder and we can get outside sooner then last year.

one month from tomorrow is first scrimmage for my son's team

Luckily for us winters are not too icky here.  In fact, since we're in the midst of an epic drought, we'd like to see winter get a lot ickier.

HS-affiliated club baseball started up again this week. It's an extension of the fall ball program. My kid can't practice but he can play. Lots of reps in the cage Saturday.   First game Sunday!

2 things-

first my son's team wil be playing Ole Miss there 2nd week of season, At moment he is slated to get the ball on Sunday. I hope he doesn't let to many (or any) fly over the fence for them. Will definitely be the best team he has ever faced by far. I think I like the idea of going into the OF with a case of beer and see if I can't get them to root for him and his team .

Second- funniest baseball story was probably 8 years ago for my older son when he was a freshman. He was on Freshman team and as a rule the HS program is very good (Varsity went to state finals in Div 1 (big school) that year and his class was loaded as well. So they were scheduled against a very bad varsity team. Had to show 2 of the "new" pitchers how to throw from stretch. son's team was up by about 20 runs in there last AB before run rule. Son hit double and then they were switching pitchers. 2nd baseman told son that son's team must be a state contender varsity cause he had heard son's team was good. Son said, "we aren't the varsity", 2B said "you are JV?, we must be bad". Son said "we aren't JV". 2B yells over to SS " Hey they are freshman- WE SUCK"   Whole stands heard him say that and cracked up. It was even funnier when son told me the rest later that night

My "laugh out loud" moment last season was when my son's high school team played in a tournament in a nearby rural town against mostly small-school teams.  Our first opponent was playing their first game of a double-header as we arrived and was losing 12-2.  The kid on the mound gave up another 4 runs before they could get the 3rd out and the game was quickly over after the bottom of the inning.  We started our game about 30 minutes later and lo and behold the same pitcher comes out to start the game. He gave up 10 runs in two innings to us before being pulled (so at least 14 runs total on the day, if not more).  I was standing at the concession stand when he came up to talk to his mom, who was working behind the counter. She flashed

him a huge smile and said, "Great job, honey! Did Coach take you out?"  He replied, "Yeah, he doesn't want to waste my arm."  Later in the game his coach put him in RF, where he promptly began to talk absolute, hilarious trash for the rest of the game with the biggest grin on his face.  Gotta love a kid with that kind of confidence!

keewartson's team is playing the Ole Miss opener!  Can't wait!  I won't be sitting in the outfield!

I am all talk, I will be huddled in a corner with my wife and whomever else from Wright State make the trip and hope for the best on every pitch. That being said, my son is excited to show the world he belongs.

Have a great time you two - the good news is that the Ole Miss fans in and around the stadium are very polite and will treat you right.  I hope you both get to experience a big crowd and the atmosphere we really enjoyed.

Be sure to go down to the town square for dinner one night.  Its also a great experience.  Pick up a beer at 'The Library'...some crawfish too.  And for dinner, try City Grocery (Shrimp and Grits - amazing!) or same owner and similar menu for slightly less, 'Boure,' both on the town square.

For breakfast, gotta go to "Big Bad Breakfast." Literally the best breakfast I've had in many years.  796 N. Lamar St.

Enjoy!

So now that most of the back and forthing is over and we’ve pretty much all agreed that what we’ve been talking about is at least worth further investigation, it’s time for folks like myself to see if we can do something with any information gathered. I don’t mind bringing this information to the guy I score for so he might have the benefit of it, but before I do that I need some hard and fast rules so he doesn’t get off on the wrong track right away.

I need to know exactly how this “measurement” or “timing” is supposed to take place. Is it from 1^st movement to release or foot plant, or is it from 1^st movement toward the plate? I suppose it might be from either starting point to release as well, Is it important to measure all pitches or only specific FBs?

Of course just having those measurements is better than nothing, but there has to be some kind of performance they’re relative to in order to assess their value. How should the result of each pitch that’s timed be measured?

I’m only trying to find out how to track what’s going on and figure out how to best assess what it’s doing for each pitcher.

just saw the schedule... First game is 3/31, then they cram into vans and cruise down to Florida for spring break. That sure is a long time away! Was just thinking of his trip last year, when I got a call from son from Florida. "Mom, coach just dropped us at grocery store, what do I do?"  I think a lot of kids survived on pbj that week. Might have to do some basic cooking classes over the next couple of months, haha.

That's cold, Bolts.

Well if ole miss isn't recruiting him as an 8th grader it may not happen!! Or is that miss state i interchange the 2 of them. 

14u low-level travel game. Played at a field with notoriously high-grass. On that day, IF was 3-5" and OF more like 6"+. One of our kids hits a routine pop-up to LF but somewhere near the line (if there was one). LF and CF frantically running around trying to find ball and finally do as the SLOW kid who hit the ball trots into home. Sad and funny at the same time.