Coaching and Youth Sports

Finally finished up our baseball season last night 2 weeks late. It seems to surprise everybody each year that sometimes it rains here in April and May.

Anyway, team rebounded from an 0-4 start to finish by winning 10 of our last 11 and our championship game last night. My nephew, at 11, is the best hitter in the league and the best pitcher by far. He throws in the mid-60s and has just enough side-arm on it to make hitters think they are going to die. He gave up 4 hits, I think, in something like 50 innings, and struck out 16 in our 5 inning semi-final win.

Cotton Jr. really had a good season despite being on the young end of a 9-12 league, and he ended on a high note. He had 2 assists from 2nd in our final, including one to the plate where he backed up the pitcher on an overthrow back to the mound, and had what amounts to a walk-off to end the season. There is a 7 run per inning maximum, and with the bases loaded up 7 in the bottom of the 5th, he singled into left to end it. By the end of the season, you could count on him to put it in play if he got something to hit. Now I've just got to feed him cheeseburgers and milkshakes to fill out that 60# frame he's carrying.

Overall, we had a great season, and if I do say so, the 1st base coaching was superb. Now, golf. No rest for the wicked.

 

This sounds familiar.

 

congrats on the great seasons. my team went from kicking the shit out of everyone (literally) to sucking ass the last 3 games (we lost by double digits to a team we beat by double digits 2 weeks prior). Since there are no playoffs in this division, i'm declaring victory and attempting to forget about my terrible down the stretch coaching.

the gap between my twin boys is growing too and i don't know what to do about it. one son ended the season probably a top 10 player in the division and second best on the team while the other was among my worst players and worst hitters in the division. now i have to figure out if i'm going to hold both back which might piss off the league, or split them which might crush the kid who gets held back, or move both up when i know one kid isn't ready. fun fun. i'm playing both down in the fall (their birthday is actually right on the edge so it's not ridiculous and they were born 5 weeks premature), but son 1 will likely be a first round draft pick and i doubt i can do that again in the spring.

 

Getting ahead of yourself with the first round pick stuff dros. Other twin probably hears it and cant live up to the expectations.
Geez. Marinovich Sr.

 

Ha. I sucked at every sport when I was a kid, so I have zero expectations

 

Or you are going to push your sons to the brink because you sucked like NYY on twofer night.

 

nah if anything i haven't pushed them enough.

 

Let the better one experience being big fish in pond.

 

Yeah that’s my plan for the fall.

 

What ages? Ask the kid imo. Lay it all out for him. Maybe he wants to play with his brother, or maybe hes a baller and wants to be with ballers.
I'm just opining.

 

Baseball season ends, brotherhood doesn’t.

Life will separate them eventually, but they’ll always remember playing together, so give’em as many seasons as you can, now.

JMHO.

 

About to turn 7, so obviously very young. I’ve asked what he wants to do, but I haven’t laid it out because it’s the talent difference has never been discussed and I don’t think they realize how big of a difference it is. Also the better one already thinks too highly of himself and I don’t want to hurt the others feelings since he loves baseball probably even more than his brother .

 

My plan is to keep them together if at all possible. Generally people don’t play kids down at this age, but my one son just isn’t ready. Hopefully my decision will be easier as time goes on.

 

Yeah 7 you may just want to let him play with his brother and dominate. I was thinking 9 or 10. Time to break off from brother and dad coaching at 10ish imo.

 

The league though won’t want me to play him down in the spring when it’s more competitive. I could probably get away with it, but they’ll want me and strongly encourage me to play both up or split. People get remarkably pissy even at the younger divisions.

 

Now, it's golf time.

Cotton Jr. is pretty damned tough. He has a 1st, 4th, and 3rd in his Western Ky tour this year from the low end of the 9-10 age group. Little guy shot a 26 for 6 holes on our home course. So now, in addition to losing to Mrs. Cotton, I will have the joy of losing to a child.

Girl also started this year in PGAJr, where you play a 2 person scramble. It's the league that was so disorganized that I swore it off last summer, but they've brought in a bunch of college golfers to manage it this time so we're giving it a go. Anyway, it's off to a better start, and daughter likes it, so I guess it's a decent introduction to the game.

 

Nice. None of my boys got into it. Have a friend whos son is a soph and about to commit to Nooga or Unc Charlotte. They tend to commit before junior year..

 

I'm strongly considering putting a club in Card Jr.'s hand.

 

Even at my age, it is so hard to switch from a baseball swing to a golf swing. Everyone that watches me at the driving range tell me they can see I played baseball for a minute.

 

Yeah I know a coach who is absolutely convinced that everytime his kid plays golf it screws up his baseball swing