Baseball Talk: Hitting, Pitching, Catching Strategy

Good one gonzo....thats what we need.

Answer to the last rules question.

It's April, early in the season, it's 1957 and the Reds are playing a series against the Braves.... This was back when (believe it or not) the Braves were good and they were heavily favored.

The Red's Johnny Temple is on base, a ground ball by Gus Bell is hit at him and it's an obvious "double play" ball. Temple stops and lets the ball hit him...The ball is called dead, the play is immediately over and Bell is awarded a single. This play keeps the Reds in the game but the lose 5-4.

The VERY NEXT DAY, the same two teams are matched up. This time, Red's player Don Hoak is on 2nd with a runner on 1B. Wally Post hits a ground ball directly at the shortstop. Instead of letting the ball hit him as Temple did, Hoak jumps in front of the shortstop and FIELDS THE BALL barehanded. He then turns around and flips the ball (slowly) to Johnny Logan (Brave's SS). Again, Hoak is out for interference and Post is awarded a single....inning continues.
OBTW: "Braves Win, Braves Win"...final score 3-1.

After those two plays, the rules are ammended to make both the runner and batter out for intentional interference.

Lets hear about some strange plays our kids (or us as players) were in.

 

I remember a game where we were in the playoffs. It was a 1-1 game in the 8th inning. We had the bases loaded with 2 outs. Our runner at 3rd noticed a particular habit the pitcher had. He would roll the ball in his hand while getting the sign from his catcher.

While the pitcher was receiving his sign, the runner at third made a break to home. The pitcher got too excited and while he was twirling the ball...he dropped it....balk. The pitcher became rattled and we scored 4 runs after that.

 

You have a tendancy to forget, after seeing a certain high level of play that there are a lot of "holes" in the knowledge that kids have today concerning the rules.

We were in a tie ball game, in the bottom of the 7th, 2 outs, runners on 1st & 3rd. We put in a pitcher who had done well all year. He had great control and was good at getting the "ground ball"...The other team was at the bottom of the order, so we figured our chances for extra innings were pretty good.

Well, the guy had been watching pitchers fake to third and then throw to first all season...he had done it repeatedly himself. But he figured out to do one better on his own.

On the first pitch, he faked to first and then threw to third....balk...game over..... When we talked to him, he swore he had never heard the rule. All our pitchers received personal instruction on "balk calls" from then on and that instruction was repeated every year.

 

Most important age for development

What are the most important ages and why?

 

I dunno but.....

That first "Hit By Pitch" has made more soccer players than any soccer hype in public schools could ever dream of........
:help:

 

It kind of weeds them out, doesn't it.

13 yo moving up to regulation size fields, throwing the ball waaaaaay over to 1st..and hitting to the infield and taken what seems like forever to run to first is a big change.

But is the teaching of fundamentals at a young age more important? Or teaching the finer areas of the game when they are older, more important or trying to save the good players from giving the sport up after being introduced to GIRLS the most critical time? What's your thoughts.

 

You talk to a scout and he knows that it's the 18-20 when they really learn how to play, the reach their strength, the pitchers velocity and ability starts showing their final promise.

BUT... Though they develop more (and quicker) in those 2-3 years than any other time, I will hold out for 13-14. You can fix flaws fairly easily up to the age of 14. After that, it becomes VERY DIFFICULT. It shows in HS immediately if you really know how to play the game (even if physically, you lag behind upper classmen).

 

Honestly, I think they're ALL important...for different reasons. However, forced to choose, I'm in the "8-10" camp.

Properly coached, young players not only have an opportunity to learn the basic skills correctly; they also can begin to appreciate the fact that baseball is different in some fundamental respects from virtually every other sport. The main difference that comes to mind is the amount of thought it takes to play the game well.

A quick story to this point: When one of my sons was in his first year of coach-pitch, we were riding down the street one day soon after practice had begun, and he said, "You know, Dad, playing second base takes a LOT of THINKING! ...and I'm not sure I can get it all down well enough to keep from letting my team down."

I replied, "You know, son, your coach wouldn't have asked you to play the position if he hadn't been confident you could learn it over time. None of you is expected to know exactly how to play the positions you've been assigned; but, if you'll all listen carefully to what he tells you to do and work hard at it, you'll get there."

Fortunately, for his sake, he hung in there...and he learned in the process that baseball was about MUCH more than just the basic skills.

 

I think I am gonna go with 11-12 on this one just because I feel like these are the years when a kid decides if they are going to be a rec. league player or become serious in baseball. So to me these are the years that you have to instill the type of work ethic in them that it takes to bring your game to that new level. If not then they will be left behind as they move into the older age groups. And no matter how good they are if they dont begin taking the game serious at this age then they should plan on a career of rec. league and not always making the HS team, which is fine if that is what you want.