New Season

Well, Dee's first "big league" season begins tomorrow (weather permitting). And, of course, by "Big league" I mean he will be facing "real pitching". And, of course, by "real pitching" I mean that he'll be facing other 9/10 year olds throwing the ball as hard as they can--which can be pretty hard at times and certainly unpredictable as far as placement goes.

You would think this transition wouldn't be much of a problem. He's had plenty of batting practice this year, with the ball coming at him faster and faster. He's been to batting cages and stroked some reasonably fast pitches. But, it would seem, with a "real pitcher" on the mound things are different. This was clearly evident Saturday during his team's game at the league Jamboree. At this event, team's get to play a two inning "exhibition" game against one of the other teams in the league. A chance, if nothing else, to get some of those "big league" jitters out.

And jitters there were. Not just Dee, but the whole team (although I'm not quite so concerned about them). Out of twelve kids, only one hit the ball--and that was a short pop back to the pitcher. Dee, for his part walked. But in the whole at-bat he never seemed to have any intention of swinging the bat. A careful eye he told me, but I could sense the uptightness as he stood there, not even stepping out of the batters box between pitches.

So, it seems, the early part of this season will be about getting over the nervousness of stepping into the batters box. Any suggestions on speeding up on the acclimation process? Oh, and catching pop flies is our current fielding goal. Anyone out there have any good strategies on teaching someone to judge where a pop up is going to come down? I haven't figured that one out yet.

So, as you can see, I don't have much to say today. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.