Lugnuts Play Ball!

Coaching baseball for the past month and a half has been very rewarding, but also frustrating at times. No longer a MLB fan, I haven’t cared about the game since their last strike and the player contracts that continue to spiral out of control. Regardless of what players in “the bigs” do, these little leagues are another story. I have really taken a liking to coaching, thanks in part from assistance of Al Price, who is known as Big Al.

We just finished the first week of games for farm division, which is considered “coach pitch”. There are no strike outs, no walks, no stealing, no recorded score and no umpires. We do play either 3 outs or bat through the order (usually 12 players). The kids we have on the Lugnuts have a wide range of talent, from those who have played before to those who look like they don’t want anything to do with baseball.

Having a son on the team is tough, as I have to know when to have the “parent hat” on versus the “coach hat” on. As Big Al preaches, he asked his kids if they wanted dad to coach their teams. In this case, I didn’t really have much of a choice, I was asked and I accepted without asking my son. If he doesn’t want to play next year that is fine with me. He continues to ask about soccer and when he will play, so that tells me he isn’t completely into baseball. Maybe that will change as the year rolls on, but soccer is still on the horizon.

As I mentioned, coaching has been a rewarding experience so far. Helping develop skills of young kids isn’t always easy, but we have seen quite a bit of improvement in just 6 weeks. After just two games the frustration has begun to set in. Much of that improvement we saw seems to have fallen by the wayside after watching out players in game situations. I know, we must remember they are just kids. Thankfully there is excellent support from the parents who want to watch their kid do well.

So while progress has been made, it’s back to the basics this week after 2 games this past week. While we set some goals prior to the season, it looks as if after coaching the players for a short period of time, we might have to readjust those goals for the rest of the season. Hopefully the kids are open and receptive to what we are going to reteach them this week, but it’s important to give them the basics in hopes of seeing improvement this week during our games.