My just-turned 10 year old son has developed into quite the pitcher this year. Tonight he pitched 2 and 2/3rds innings and had 5 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 1 out when he caught a pop-fly to the mound. He threw a total of 44 pitches.
He doesn’t have much smoke yet, but we are working on his off-speed pitch and working on keeping the batters off-balance. The big boy (is he really in 5th grade?) got up to bat and my son started him off inside at belt level for a swing and a miss. I yelled out to him, “Keep him off balance JB!” He threw the next one low and it hit the dirt just behind the plate for a ball. I was proud of him for that pitch. That is just what we’ve been working on–moving the ball around. The next pitch was again low around the ankles and Big Joe swung and missed. I yelled out, “I see you 99! Keep him off balance!” I knew he was going to throw some heat since he was pumped and ahead in the count. I had no idea where he’d throw it, but I was hoping it would look different than the previous two pitches. Big Joe’s coach was reminding him he had two strikes on him- he had to swing at anything close. The big boy was visibly nervous when he stepped into the box. My son threw him a high fastball (it came across the plate around Big Joe’s shoulders. He was trying to throw it hard and his timing got off…) and he swung, his bat cutting underneath the ball by about six inches. WooHoo!!! Strike three! The inning was over…
We still lost 8 to 3, but my son gave up no runs.
I put him to bed tonight around 10:15, and he promptly brought out his 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time and tried to read about A-Rod by the sliver of light coming in from the hallway bathroom.
He’s got the fever. I’ve got the fever. Hell, even my wife had a t-shirt printed up with “JB’s Mom” across the front and “99” on the back.
Tonight’s a night for celebration and reflection. I’ll get back to the market in the morning.
Good times, you must be proud.
We are! So much fun this season! Its amazing how much working in the yard only a few days a week makes them such excellent ball players.
Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear of your son’s passion for baseball.
I chuckled when I read “Tonight he pitched 2 and 2/3rds innings and had 5 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 1 out when he caught a pop-fly to the mound. He threw a total of 44 pitches.” Spoken like the quant jock you are!
Kind of surprised you haven’t broken out the distribution of pitch types and their relative effectiveness against right vs left hand hitters and the average height of his opponents with some coefficient of team color or something. 🙂
You are a good papa.
Oh Boomer, you know me too well. All that is coming…if he really wants to keep pitching, then we will keep copious stats and I will create neat little Excel graphs and all that stuff.
A man can not stand tall till he stoops to help a boy.
Congrats on spending time with your kiddo. I’m grateful for my times with my father.
You are one proud father and why not. Watching your kid do so well is very satisfying. Been working on my daughter’s tennis as well since she was 4(now 10). I know the feeling when they achieve milestones.
Good luck, Wood.
Thanks sg!
‘grats, Wood! These are the best of times with kids – and it only gets better. Just wait until your boy straps on a helmet and makes a sack or scores the winning TD – or your daughter throws down her best drop step in the paint and tickles the twine….
My favorite time of day is that hour after the sun sets and my kids and I are out in the yard tossing around a ball of some sort and laughter fills the still air while joggers run by and smile and nothing else really matters much other than the thwack of the ball and the easy motion of a good throw and thinking how wonderful it is to be a father…..
The sun sets behind our house and so we get some nice shade in the front yard, early in the evening. True story: when we were house shopping, we looked at our home, but didn’t really like the house itself. However, the lot was fantastic. Wide open, corner lot, lots of sunlight, and very few trees. And the front yard is huge. I told my wife, if we buy this house, we’ll always know where the kids are. Ours and every other neighborhood kid will be in our front yard playing baseball, football, etc. And so it has come to pass. The front yard has a clearly defined pitcher’s area and batter’s area, due to the grass being worn away. We have thick plastic bases that they put out. They are literally out there every_day playing something. Definitely good times…and the joggers do run by and smile!
Yeah wood!!!!!!!
Great post.
Thanks Chivo and Yogi…glad you enjoyed.
Ted Williams wrote a book called something like “How to Hit”, it is out of print but I think it is still on amazon. I read it many, many years ago, but the lessons remain, Highly recommended for any young player. and now that I think about it, some of the lessons applies to markets, just sit back and pick you pitch …which is to say “the one you know you can hit”
I have heard about that book. I will see if I can find it. Thanks!
Great story, but a book about the 25 all-time bests has A-Rod in it? He is / was a good one, but 25 best of all time? No friggin’ way.
Hey, I didn’t write it! Seriously though, it is a great book. Great pictures, great stories, even if the player selection is sometimes questionable.
Of course A-Rod is one of the 25 best all time, just on his hitting alone. Are you kidding me? He’s on track to beat the HR record, and without any additives.
At least recently… heh.
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(fugging Yankee haters… )
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Indeud.
I actually like the Yankees as far as that bastardized version of baseball called the American League goes. But I don’t think A-Rod is top 25 OF ALL TIME. Top 100 for sure, Top 50 probably. But not Top 25.
In absolutely no particular order:
Babe Ruth
Lou Gehrig
Mickey Mantle
Joe DiMaggio
Jackie Robinson
Hank Aaron
Willie Mays
Cy Young
Nolan Ryan
Pete Rose
Ted Williams
Ty Cobb
Stan Musial
Walter Johnson
Roger Hornsby
Honus Wagner
Grover Cleveland Alexander
Bob Gibson
Mike Schmidt
Roberto Clemente
Christy Matthewson
Ernie Banks
Steve Carlton
Jimmie Foxx
Barry Bonds – if A-Rod isn’t dq’ed for ‘roids then Barry is on this list.
Your list is very very close to the books.
car yaz over a couple above
pedro martinez in his prime
don mattingly before his bad back would have been one of histories greatest
barry bonds was one of the top 50 or 100 or maybe even 25 BEFORE the drugs, but when viewing him you have to grossly discount the massive drug “enhancement”
like everything, including soldiers, the present brings better specimen. lets face it, if we could bring a 2011 baseball team back to 1925 it would be a jokish scene of batting practice. An 8th hitter would be remembered as an all time great. Babe Ruth couldn’t swing that 98 pound bat today, in this game, and prevail.
Yaz hit 301 in the 60s and that was amazing, Lenny D hit 50 homers and 3++ once, and that was nothing but just another steroids orgasm.
Sandy Koufax? Tom Seaver? A dead drunk monkey?
Wood — that’s a nice story, but it’s a shame that besebol is in a deep dive pattern in America.
My kids all play lacrosse, which, when I was a kid was only played in like 3 places on earth, Syracuse, Maryland and my own Lawn Guyland.
Today, it’s taking over the world. All the best Fall athletes in the Lou are playing it now, and eschewing the Sport of Boring (admittedly, not boring to play, or to watch your ten year old play, but for the rest of us…).
If your kid has any wheels whatsoever, get a lacrosse stick in his hand… one of the funnest games to watch out there, and there’s no risk of cardiovascular impairment for the players like there is with wait-and-watch ball.
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Jake, my oldest played Lacrosse for 1 year. Damn, that sport cost me a fortune. It is very popular over here on the Southside. I didn’t really like it all that much, as a parent.
Let me recommend a timely purchase, then….
I make that rec to all the noobs trying to figure out what’s going on on the sidelines…. 😉
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Teach him to throw the cutter!
Little Vaseline under the bill of the cap will work. Hell it’s baseball. If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.
lol…I’d like to teach him it to throw it honest, first!
Woodshedder, it is so nice that he has this passion! My nephew went to college on a full baseball scholarship. He ended up getting a tumor in his arm and could no longer play ball, but he could still golf and is now a golf pro. Heck, I remember him reading the baseball stats in the Detroit Free Press with my dad when he was barely old enough to read. He does coach some baseball now, too, so lots of outlets for his love of the game, still.
It was so much fun for our entire family to go to his games and to see his growth over the years. Plus, he grew up to be this really great guy.
Good for your son.
Thanks Chanci. Good to hear your nephew was able to find his way after such a terrible turn of luck.
I’m not really concerned about scholarships and stuff. I just want something to keep him focused and away from drugs, alcohol, and girls. And, it is nice to have something that we do together. I was an All-Star ball player when I was coming up. My dad was very supportive but never had time to really play all that much in the yard, teach me how to throw a curve, etc. I have more time than my dad did and so I want to use that time to help him become better than I was.
awesome, woods, good on all, ya’all. I can’t imagine a thrill in this world greater tahn a grunt/scream as hard as you can throw fastball… that hits the catchers mit, with an umpire yelling “sttttttttteeerike!”. The ultimate, absolute, head to head competition that any team sport offers. Adrenaline central.
don’t let sports become all important though, that leads to alot of boys sittin belly up, wonderin why they aren’t still cool…
Nah, when i left baseball in highschool, I started playing drums and guitar…As did his mother. If/when he burns out on sports or wants other outlets, we’ll start working on his inner rock star.
Shed, my kid is also in 5th grade and plays the game with a passion. He’s on the travel team as the starting center fielder and I coach with him. It’s fun to watch they start from T-Ball to develop into a player. Next week we have a game in Toms River in a pretty big tournament.
He pitches once in a while when games are out of reach and we need to chew up innings, He has good accuracy but no zippity do dah on the ball, so when he throws a strike the batters usually hit him. As a result he has become a junk ball pitcher, nibbling at the plate with different speed pitches. His 2 seam has some slide in it, not much, but just enough to keep a hitter guessing. Yesterday he threw a knuckle ball which did nothing but float. It looked like a shotput. It didn’t bob and weave because it so slow, but it did not rotate. Talk about throwing the hitter off balance! Throw a floating knuckleball and see what happens, the kids at this level don’t know what to do with it.
The high cheese your kid threw ahead in the count is textbook! Hitters down in the count will swing at that pitch every day of the week and twice on Sunday and never get it.
Good luck with the rest of the season.
Tree, my boy is actually in 4th grade, making this is first year in Minors, although he did play Minors in Fall Ball last year. He is going to be trying out for a travel team in the next few weeks.
We have been working hard on the change-up- three finger grip, held deep in the palm. He started throwing it more this past Saturday. He was facing one of the best hitters in the league, and he had him at 0-2. I knew he was going to throw it, but I was hoping he wouldn’t, as this kid is a 2 strike hitter. He threw the change, it looked good, and the kid waited on it and smacked it over the centerfielder’s head for a double. Oh well. 🙂
He really wants to learn a knuckle ball. I think we’ll start working on it over this summer and see how it goes.
Good luck to your son in his Tourny!