Softball
August 3rd 2007 15:37
Good morning everyone,
Hope everyone is well today. I have been playing and coaching softball for around 22 years now. In my mind at least, I happen to know a lot about the sport and the little inticacies. I know what's right and wrong. I coach both my daughter's team and an adult team of men. The When I lived in NY my teams won 8 championships and lost 7. Since I moved to Florida, my teams have won 12 championships and lost 4. I don't say it as a bragging thing, because who cares in softball, but I know how to play the game correctly and try to preach that to my teams. I only say all of this, because my latest teams drive me crazy. Over the years, besides trying to preach the right way to play the game, I have also gone out of my way to try to obtain the best talent. I am like a mini-Steinbrenner, which is ironic because I hate the yankees. What I did, was whenever I saw a good player, I asked him to join my team. It was difficult at the beginning, because the teams I took over were so bad, but I am a good salesman. I got very lucky at the very beginning, when one of my players brought his cousin on, who was head and shoulders above the rest of the team. I had to build around him. Also, if we ever beat a team, I sought out the best players on other teams and asked them to play with us the following season. If they agreed, the good players usually had friends who were other good players. Little by little I built a team, until my teams are usually powerhouses which compete for the title every season. The only problem with all of this, is sometimes I have players who goof around too much and think that we are just going to roll over everybody. It has happened several times before. In the middle of the game, there is playing and laughing. Two things about this. One, if it was done to me, it would burn me up, so I hate it when my teams do it. Last night for example, we are in the fifth inning and leading 20-6. There is a mercy rule in the league, which states that after 5 innings if a team is leading by 12 or more runs, the game is called. We were actually leading 20-4 in the inning and some of the members on my team start making errors on purpose and the pitcher started walking guys on purpose to let the other team score runs, to let them get under the ten run rule so we could bat again. I was furious. It's not everyomne on the team, but just a couple of guys. The ringleader was the guy pitching for me last night. He used to be my main pitcher and I like the guy, but he fools around too much. It is tough to control a team when your pitcher is goofing around. That is the reason I went out to get other pitchers and when I did, my team really took off. We would have won a few more championships along the way, had we had different pitchers earlier. Last night, the other two pitchers were gone, so I had to let my first pitcher on the mound. It reminded me about all of the stuff that used to aggravate me. Even though, my teams are so good now, I sometimes miss the days when my teams were mediocre and everybody played explicitly by my rules. I used to make everybody on the team take one strike before swinging. See, we weren't as talented as other teams, but yet won a couple of championships literally by walking. We always led the league in walks and always had baserunners. The teams that we played, would swing at first pitches a lot and swung even at 2-0 and 3-0, even when they are losing. My teams were very disciplined. Now, when the teams I have are so talented, these guys want to swing the bat and we don't have a lot of walks anymore. It is a trade-off. I am happy with my teams, but still frustrating because we sometimes lose to teams that we should have killed because we fooled around too much. Last night was an example and it is why I am writing about it today. I used to get rid of people that didn't play my way, but I have mellowed. I will straighten it out, but it still kills me when people don't play the right way and it is what I teach my daughter's team to do.
By the way, a quick note. The yanks lost and the Mets, Red Sox and Indians won yesterday, so the night wasn't a total loss. That's it for now, hope you all have a great weekend.
Later,
Jonathan
Hope everyone is well today. I have been playing and coaching softball for around 22 years now. In my mind at least, I happen to know a lot about the sport and the little inticacies. I know what's right and wrong. I coach both my daughter's team and an adult team of men. The When I lived in NY my teams won 8 championships and lost 7. Since I moved to Florida, my teams have won 12 championships and lost 4. I don't say it as a bragging thing, because who cares in softball, but I know how to play the game correctly and try to preach that to my teams. I only say all of this, because my latest teams drive me crazy. Over the years, besides trying to preach the right way to play the game, I have also gone out of my way to try to obtain the best talent. I am like a mini-Steinbrenner, which is ironic because I hate the yankees. What I did, was whenever I saw a good player, I asked him to join my team. It was difficult at the beginning, because the teams I took over were so bad, but I am a good salesman. I got very lucky at the very beginning, when one of my players brought his cousin on, who was head and shoulders above the rest of the team. I had to build around him. Also, if we ever beat a team, I sought out the best players on other teams and asked them to play with us the following season. If they agreed, the good players usually had friends who were other good players. Little by little I built a team, until my teams are usually powerhouses which compete for the title every season. The only problem with all of this, is sometimes I have players who goof around too much and think that we are just going to roll over everybody. It has happened several times before. In the middle of the game, there is playing and laughing. Two things about this. One, if it was done to me, it would burn me up, so I hate it when my teams do it. Last night for example, we are in the fifth inning and leading 20-6. There is a mercy rule in the league, which states that after 5 innings if a team is leading by 12 or more runs, the game is called. We were actually leading 20-4 in the inning and some of the members on my team start making errors on purpose and the pitcher started walking guys on purpose to let the other team score runs, to let them get under the ten run rule so we could bat again. I was furious. It's not everyomne on the team, but just a couple of guys. The ringleader was the guy pitching for me last night. He used to be my main pitcher and I like the guy, but he fools around too much. It is tough to control a team when your pitcher is goofing around. That is the reason I went out to get other pitchers and when I did, my team really took off. We would have won a few more championships along the way, had we had different pitchers earlier. Last night, the other two pitchers were gone, so I had to let my first pitcher on the mound. It reminded me about all of the stuff that used to aggravate me. Even though, my teams are so good now, I sometimes miss the days when my teams were mediocre and everybody played explicitly by my rules. I used to make everybody on the team take one strike before swinging. See, we weren't as talented as other teams, but yet won a couple of championships literally by walking. We always led the league in walks and always had baserunners. The teams that we played, would swing at first pitches a lot and swung even at 2-0 and 3-0, even when they are losing. My teams were very disciplined. Now, when the teams I have are so talented, these guys want to swing the bat and we don't have a lot of walks anymore. It is a trade-off. I am happy with my teams, but still frustrating because we sometimes lose to teams that we should have killed because we fooled around too much. Last night was an example and it is why I am writing about it today. I used to get rid of people that didn't play my way, but I have mellowed. I will straighten it out, but it still kills me when people don't play the right way and it is what I teach my daughter's team to do.
By the way, a quick note. The yanks lost and the Mets, Red Sox and Indians won yesterday, so the night wasn't a total loss. That's it for now, hope you all have a great weekend.
Later,
Jonathan
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