Baseball Practice

Baseball practice began for the boys on March 16. With three boys playing baseball, that keeps us busy from March through June. Matt has moved up from Tee Ball to "Coach Pitch" for seven and eight year olds. He is one of the younger players on his team but he is probably one of the best. Yes, I know I'm partial, but I really think he is. The coach has him playing first base because he is good at catching the ball. I think one reason Matt is so good is that he practices with his two older brothers so much. I am a firm believer that being challenged by playing with others at a higher level makes a huge difference. Joe is in his second year in the 9-10 age group. He has improved a lot the last few years. He missed out on tee ball so he has some catching up to do when he started at age 7. It has amazed me at how much stronger he has gotten since last year. I was throwing batting practice one day this winter and he almost nailed me with a line drive. He can also throw much harder than he did this time last year. David is in his second year in the 11-12 age group. David really came on strong at the end of the season last year. In his last game at Cold Springs he got 4 hits, all of which were line drives. One thing that has helped David was taking him to the batting cages. He likes to get in the 70 mile per hour cage. That makes the pitchers in his league seem slow by comparison. This past Tuesday, David's coach, who does a terrific job, by the way, took the team to the batting cages. David was in the 50-60 mph cage and had three rounds of 16 swings. He made contact 15 out of 16 times in the first two rounds and hit 12 out of 16 in his third round. The main thing is that they all enjoy playing. They have a lot of fun and learn a lot of important values about teamwork. I'm so glad that they all have so much fun. That's what it's all about!