Alex had his firs tournament over in Pasco this weekend. The team is basically made of up Little League 11 and 12's who play by Little League rules and are used to 55' between bases rather than "real baseball" rules and distances for that age. 70' between bases and leading off are the two big rule changes that kill any Little League based team.

We got our asses handed to us, which really didn't surprise anyone.

Cold, rainy, windy, wet and miserable conditions on Saturday and a little better on Sunday. Might as well have been playing in Seattle.

Oh well, good for Alex to get some pitching and hitting in this weekend. He didn't play as he would have liked and is always hard on himself.

More Little League practices this week with games starting in late March. His "tournament" team has games every Sunday.

Going to be a busy spring and summer for Aled and I.

This thread is about baseball, right?

At bat.....



On the mound......

Paker,
You better hope he's no good or else your gonna have to sell the boat and buy an RV!

p.s. At this point even Little League baseball is better than anything to do with the NFL. God I'm sick of that league. One, maybe two, good games all year long and that's all simple minded Americans can wrap their peawit brains around. Ugh!!

Alex is a good, solid, player. He's not going to overwhelm you on the mound, but will throw a fastball and a change up for strikes. If he misses, it's low.

He's got super fast hands, and soft glove, and not all ball shy. He makes an excellent 3rd baseman as well as a great center or left fielder.

He tends to lean forward a bit on his swing and his biggest obstacle there is himself. He's a good hitter.....and wants to be a great hitter...but he just hasn't convinced himself of that yet.

I hope he continues on with baseball after this season. Not too sure what or where he would be going. I'd love to see him try out and make his HS team, but that's for him to figure out and not me.

In the meantime, I'm just a coach on his team and now and let him do his thing.

Parker,
I coach my son's team as well.
From one father/coach to another it's easy to see your son's problem.
He's swinging an outdated, year old Mako.
You need to get out your wallet and buy him a new Beast.
If you don't believe me....................Just ask him.

PS. Tell the second baseman to at least pretend like he is ready.

Little League is changing the bat requirements at the end of this season. He will move to a Juniors level, or pony league bat next year. He will be just fine with that 2-year old Mako!

Yeah, the kid behind him plays exactly like he looks....and about how you'd think he would play. In all fairness, Alex was warming up before the inning started.....wasn't actual game time yet.

Now if the sun would only come out! As an ex catcher I've always hated mud. Anybody who thinks baseball players are sissies for not playing in the rain never stood in a batters box!!!

10-4.
That is real similar to the chit hitting the fan.

Looking good! That was a fun age....

No talk about the M's here? Looks like they are not the favorites to win the off season world series this year......oh well

Back to little league.


Some of my favorite memories of playing ball were little league through American legion. Played a couple years in HS, pitched and 2nd base.....schitty at both.... My advice to the little guys are to have fun, don't put alot of pressure on them and let the next level talk work it's way out on its own. Your boy has good form, I can tell he's going to be a hitter

BM, the Seattle Pilots use to play at sicks stadium before becoming the Milwaukee Brewers. I remember being around 5 years old and going with my Dad and Uncle and Cousin to the N.Y Yankee's when they came to town. It was bat day and they gave out free bats to all the Kids. The best part was watching the last days of Mickey Mantle before he retired. Man, I wish I had that bat today.

Word.

Congratulations to Team USA for their first World Baseball Classic title!

USA!

USA!

USA!

USA!

Sounds like something you would find at the Dollar Store.

Found this gem at the dollar store!

USA!

USA!

USA!

USA!

USA!

Pretty sweet deal! I didn't get to see much of the WBC, but what I did see was pretty fun. IMO - they need to cut the MLB season down by a lot. It won't happen, but it would make the season more interesting and easier to get excited about for the average fan. People don't have the attention spans any longer to handle 162 games. 75 max with no inter-league play.

This hurts..... The M's lose the season opener, the King comes up lame on a jog over to first, and the offense couldn't do schit.

Somebody tell me that it's going to be O.K.






If Slo wasn't such a total Neanderthal, Chuck would still be here to carry on the M's tradition. Fuk all ya'll.....as they say in Houston

The King ?

Damn!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/27019...paign=editorial

PS. The boy hit is first home run on Saturday. Dead center, hit the top of the fence at 225' and bounced on over.

He hit a screamer that drilled the 225' on the fly (about 6" from the top of the fence) the Saturday before. That ended up being a double, but showed him that he easily has the power to go yard a few times this season.

C'mon STAM, we're only 4 games out of first place