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Home Schooling The Outfield
by Dave
Friday, April 14, 2006
In competitive softball every single slight advantage can make the difference between winning and losing. You scout your opponent to give your pitcher and fielders an edge. You discuss strategies about how to get specific hitters out. You plan to rattle a poor fielding pitcher, first or third baseman by bunting or slapping at her. You steal at key moments against a catcher you think has an erratic arm. You take extra bases against teams which don't routinely perform good cutoffs. You look for every small item which might produce or prevent a run. There is one thing most teams do not seem to do, except at the highest levels, which you can use to turn triples into doubles, doubles into singles, and hits into outs. You should at least consider this special something if you feel your team is up to the task. What I'm getting at is giving signs to your outfielders regarding pitch selection and location.
I think we all know that the spin of the ball coming off a curveball hit to the opposite field by a right handed batter is going to be somewhat different than that on a hit on a rise, drop or change. If your rightfielder knows this pitch is a curve, she is prepared to move to the line in a hurry and can get that split-second better jump which turns a hit into an out. Similarly, if you've got a girl pitching who really pumps it up there, knowing that a pitch is inside or out says a lot about where it might be hit if the batter makes contact. Fielders generally do fine without this information but, in one run games, they can make that key play which might otherwise elude them by bare inches.
Also, softball is a game of adjustments. You adjust your pitcher's approach to get a hitter out. The hitter adjusts to a given pitcher. No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. Let's say you scout a particular heavy-hitting cleanup hitter and find she likes the ball down and in regardless of type of pitch. So your pitcher is going to work her away. That's fine but eventually she's going to get wise and start stepping towards the plate to even the score. So you've got to find ways to keep her honest. Maybe you're going to throw some drops inside and low and an occasional change or rise up but outside the strike zone to set her up. But if your pitcher makes a mistake, she may give this hitter an opportunity to drive one out of her wheel house. You want your outfielders ready so if they know what the pitcher is going to throw and where, they can at least be ready.
The key questions are: can your outfielders handle knowing what and where the pitch is going to be, and how do you inform them. Let me answer the second question first since this is pretty easy. Your middle infielders should be the only players who can see the signs from catcher to pitcher. It doesn't so much matter whether your first and third baseman know pitch type and location since these are reaction positions with no time to adjust, so there's less of a reason to inform them. Besides, it is too risky signaling them, the other team can pick these off. So second and short know what pitch is coming and the location. These players can signal the outfielders with their throwing hands behind their backs. You use the same signs you use for all your pitchers. They signal location via pre-arranged methods like, for example, an outside pitch is indicated by the mitt hand hanging free by their side and an inside one by extending the glove forwards say by the belly button. You can use any method you find convenient but the important thing is to give a very clear signal to the outfielder which cannot be picked up by the opposing team.
Things get a little more complicated when you've got a runner at second who can also see the signs from the catcher. Obviously you might use a series of signals which have different meanings like the first finger tells the pitcher which of the next two or three signs is the real one. Or maybe location is going to be given by some other subtle sign. Your middle infielders need to know what the signs are with a runner at second so make sure they do. Let them know that if the catcher comes out to talk to the pitcher with runners on, they have to join that conference so they know which signs are being used.
Another problem with runners on base is the positioning of the umpire. Often, with a runner on second, he or she will place themselves behind the shortstop and can sometimes block the leftfielder from seeing short's pitch sign. Similarly, with a runner on first, the ump will often stand behind your second baseman blocking the rightfielder's view of the sign. This can usually be overcome by a slight position change but your leftfielder must know to watch out for the ump moving around and blocking her. In any event, you must also tell your outfielders that if they don't see the complete sign, they should ignore it. It doesn't do them much good to know the pitch type if they don't also know location and vice versa. So work hard to get them the complete sign. Move a couple feet if the ump gets in the way or even talk to the ump between innings and let him or her know they're messing with your signs. But likely they won't reposition themselves for your convenience any way. And make sure to tell your outfielders not to use incomplete signs.
As a final word on giving the pitch signal, there are two considerations which should not be forgotten. First, outfielders should not alter their positions for different pitches. This can tip off the other team and give them back the advantage. Secondly, you must be aware of fans or even coaches for the other team lurking about the outfield fence. It takes only a couple of pitches to pick off the complete set of signs. And if they can pick off the signs, they can just as easily signal back to the field what pitch is coming. The way to combat both the over eager outfielder and the fan signaling the pitch back is to give the sign late in the play. Once the pitcher begins her windup, it is about a second before the ball is released and a little over a half second before the ball arrives to the plate. So signaling no sooner than the pitcher begins her windup is advised since one and a half seconds does not give the guy standing at the outfield fence enough time to signal even the most cerebral of hitters in time to change batting approach. It also doesn't give the outfielders time to move more than a step or two (but see below for more discussion of this).
The one to the batter's opportunity to adjust is the changeup. Say a fan is standing out in center and all he does is look for the changeup sign in which case he raises his arms straight up (not a bad technique if you're batting, by the way), your opponent is either going to have a huge advantage over you or is going to take one pitch away from the pitcher's repertoire. So, for this pitch, I seriously suggest you concoct a series of different signs to fool the jerk in the outfield. For example, let's say your pitcher has the following pitches and signs: 1, fastball; 2 change; 3 screwball; 4 drop; 5 curve. You can use two fingers for the change but you can also use any number of fingers as long as they are placed below the beltline, for example. And / or, you can use any number of fingers near the hat or visor as also indicating a change up. So 1 finger in the middle of the back is a fastball but one finger on the butt is a changeup.
What is not advisable is changing the signals every inning or even every game. That is just plain too much to think about. The change is the only pitch I get really concerned about the other team picking up since it can be hit a long way and change the game entirely. In general follow the KISS method - keep it simple, stupid. And provide multiple signals only for the change and only in interests of defeating somebody standing in the outfield to pick up your signs.
So that's enough about how to do it but before you decide to signal your outfielders about pitch and location, you have to do some serious soul searching to decide whether or not you should. This really depends on the level of maturity and game intelligence of your fielders. As I said before, you don't want your outfielders to move before the pitch based on selection or location. That is too easy of a tip off to the batter. You want them to be prepared for a liner down the line but you don't want to position them as if that is what they are expecting. If your outfielders have demonstrated an understanding of this simple fact, I suppose you can go ahead but only if you are comfortable that they will use the knowledge about the pitch effectively. This is perhaps the hardest question of them all.
When I was a lad, I was fortunate enough to attend a football camp where I received instruction from an NFL linebacker. He taught me not to commit too early. He said wait one second (not really a whole second just an under-the-breath counting of "1") and see where the play develops, then move to it. That momentary hesitation taught me to not over commit and get beat by being out of position. I applied the same sort of reasoning to my limited baseball outfield play. I always waited until I was sure where the ball was going and I never took my first step in the wrong direction. The same rule certainly applies to playing the outfield in softball but an outfielder can still use the knowledge of pitch type and location to her advantage. She just must use the knowledge with caution.
The only way I can explain this further is through example. The best example of knowing the pitch I can think of is a line drive straight at a fielder on a drop ball. The outfielder should know that the ball is going to sink rapidly and perhaps even skip after it hits the ground. That knowledge can permit a girl not to rush in and try to make a catch but rather to be prudent and play it on the hop while expecting the ball to skip. Similarly, knowing that a pitch is a rise ball up in the zone tells an outfielder that the ball is going to have back spin on it so she should charge and try to make a catch since the ball is not going to go anywhere after it hits the ground.
I began this discussion mentioning the spin on hit balls on curves and screwballs. I think this is a great place where outfielder knowledge can make a difference. If you've got a lefty up to bat and your pitcher is throwing a screwball down and away, your leftfielder chasing a ball hit down the line knows the ball is going to bounce into foul territory perhaps reach the corner if she doesn't get her mojo on and get to it. Similarly, the rightfielder on a curve hit by a righty knows the ball is going to hook more than usual causing her to miss it unless she hustles and gets over there.
There are myriad other pitch types and locations which change hit ball spin and direction. You can work these out for yourself but I wanted to at least give you a couple so you understand what I'm talking about. As a coach, perhaps you will want to either make a big chart which your outfielders have to commit to memory or limit the types of pitches you want them to consider so as to keep things simple. Knowledge is a good thing if it is within the context of full understanding but, beware, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. So the deciding factor regarding whether or not to signal your outfielders on pitch selection and location is really going to boil down to the coach's assessment of the outfielders' game intelligence.
The fact is we play "a game of inch." Every one inch makes a huge difference to the outcome of a game. You want every advantage you can get. That includes the tiny piece of knowledge an outfielder can put to use if you signal her what and where. Well coached teams in highly competitive softball tell their outfielders what the pitch is going to be. It is very simple to signal your outfielders but be wary of what they will do with this knowledge and in all events, don't hand your opponent the advantage by providing them the same information.
Permanent Link: Home Schooling The Outfield
 
Defensive Fine Points
by Dave
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
There are a number of very boring, mundane tasks your fielders need to be well schooled in to build a better team. All the top teams take care of this business routinely. Poor teams generally appear to be disorganized or tired when it comes to the finer points of the defensive game. If you work your players hard and never accept lazy, heads down play, you can save your team runs and possibly pull out a few games you might not otherwise win. These important but simple concepts involve backing up bases well and always hitting cutoffs appropriately.
Backing up the basesI always see this in college, sometimes in high school, but rarely in youth games. What I'm talking about is aggressive backing up of plays. When girls are very young and playing recreational softball, most often you hear parents and coaches gently telling girls they should back up plays long after the actual play is over. That's all fine and good when girls are still learning to throw a ball a reasonable distance or accomplish the other fundamentals of the game. But once they are playing competitive ball, it's high time to establish in-game discipline and get them to see they have responsibilities on just about every play.
Often what distinguishes well coached teams are the little hustle plays made by the defense. Every team makes errors. No team makes a perfect throw on every play. Hard hit balls sometimes slip through infielders' legs. Sometimes the ball just gets away. But this seldom hurts good teams because they always seem to have a player in position to make a recovery.
CatcherThe first place I want to start discussing backups is with the catcher. With nobody on, or a runner on first, and an infield grounder, the catcher must always back up first base by running down the line. Obviously the right fielder must also back up the throw to first but there is no way for her to get there if the ball bounces to the homeplate side of first. This is clearly the catchers responsibility. To go a bit further, when balls are hit through the infield and there are plays at first (say chasing a girl back after a hit) or at second, the catcher should be in position to back up over-throws or balls which get past another fielder backing up the base. Obviously her first responsibility is to guard the plate but if there is no risk of a runner coming home, she needs to be otherwise employed at all times.
PitcherOften the pitcher in youth and even high school games sees her responsibility ending with the release of a pitch. That is a bad and lazy habit which should be broken as early as possible in a girl's career. On fly balls with a runner possibly tagging from second, the pitcher must be in position to backup the throw to third. Similarly with a fast runner on first and a base hit to right or center, she should be in position to backup third. Also when there is nothing going on at third but there are likely to be plays at other bases, she should position herself wherever she sees an open space in the field where an errant play can allow a runner to move up. Say there's nobody on and a batter lines a single to right, there exists the possibility the rightfielder will try to make a play on the batter heading to first or even try to throw behind her if she rounds the bag. The catcher should be coming down the baseline behind the runner and the pitcher should put herself into a good position in case the ball bounces off the first baseman or runner and back towards the infield. Finally, on plays at home, assuming you've got a backstop more than five or ten feet behind the plate, the pitcher must be in position to back up the play and prevent the ball from rolling away, allowing other runners to advance. If the backstop is in tight, the best place for her to position herself is going to be just up the third baseline since likely the hustling first baseman will be backing up the play at the plate on the first base side.
First BaseThe first baseman has far more responsibilities than merely catching a throw and stepping on first. Obviously she's a key player on bunts but on other plays, she is often free enough to make a difference. Say a girl lines a hit into one of the alleys, reaches first and rounds toward second. As soon as she sees the runner breaking for second, she must position herself in line with the outfielder making a throw behind second base. If the hit is into the right center alley, she'll likely be on the first base side of second in case the throw is off towards first. Presumably in this situation the second baseman is out getting the cutoff and the shortstop is covering the bag. If the outfielder pulls the ball towards the first base side of the bag, the first baseman can pick it up and nail the runner at third. If the ball is hit in the left center alley, the first baseman can easily position herself to back up the cutoff throw to the short stop. A lazy first baseman will hang around near the bag when there is no runner nearby.
Remainder of the infieldThe middle infielders always have something going on but that doesn't mean you shouldn't evaluate what they are doing on a given play. I watched a high school game recently where I noticed that with a runner on first, the return throw from catcher to pitcher after each pitch was reluctantly backed up by a short stop who shuffled in from her position and then shuffled back. She was not in position to back up the pitcher when she actually caught the ball. Not only that, the second baseman barely even took a breath let alone moved her feet. On every return throw from the catcher with runners on base, the middle infielders should sprint to back up the throw. Both fielders should be positioned directly behind the pitcher with one in front of the second base bag and the other behind. You work it out which one is where but you should never tolerate one player staying at her position while the other shuffles reluctantly to back up the pitcher. This is a sure sign of a lazy team and one that will one day allow a runner to move up on the mundane throw from catcher to pitcher, let alone on a delayed steal that catches them napping.
Aside from this simple backup, the middle infielders are generally kept busy with other duties but if you think of a batter lining a triple down the left field line, after the runner rounds second, your middle infielders are out of the play. If you have active, intelligent middle infielders, they can find something important to do. Presumably your shortstop has gone out to get the cutoff from your left fielders who is digging the ball out of the corner. But what's a second baseman to do? the answer is back up third. Your pitcher should be standing in foul territory between home and third. Your first baseman should be running towards home in case the necessity of a play there occurs. Your second baseman should be in position to take a cutoff throw from the shortstop to home if that becomes a need and that should put her in position to back up third should the ball come loose and get knocked towards the center of the infield.
A different situation occurs when a triple gets line down the first base line. Basically your second baseman is out getting the cutoff throw from the right fielder. the short stop is letting her know whether the runner is staying at second or digging for third. The first baseman is helping out by making sure that if the throw is offline towards first, she has that backup. But unless the second baseman is way out and can't make a throw to third from her cutoff position (which should never occur), the shortstop's duties seem to be done once she tells the second baseman where to throw. But rather than standing around by second base, she should close in towards the second baseman's position in case the throw is errant towards the second base side.
The third baseman has fewer backup responsibilities than other fielders. But that doesn't mean she should fall asleep. On doubles lined into the right-center alley, she should be a more or less final backup to second base since she should be able to retrieve the ball while also covering her back. She should saunter away from her base and just towards the left field side of the infield so she'll be in a good backup position. Aside from being a normally heads up player and keeping alert about where the runners are and where the throw is going, she has little additional backup responsibilities.
OutfieldersOn just about every play two of your three outfielders have very little to do besides backing up plays. Good, aggressive backing up by outfielders is a discipline which is most analogous to running out infield grounders. Most of the time it amounts to nothing but the few times it really matters are an opportunity for either glory or embarrassment. Coaches must motivate their outfielders to always backup aggressively. Continued lazy play should be sufficient reason to sit a girl down for at least an inning while pondering the specific reason she is sitting - because she dogged it in the outfield. Maybe you're winning 10 - 0 in the last inning and your pitcher is rolling along. Pull your lazy outfielder and tell her she is sitting for failure to hustle while backing up a play. Let her know that her playing time is completely up to her. If she hustles, she plays. If she dogs it, she sits.
I recently saw a game where with a fast runner on second who was very much a steal threat. On each pitch the left fielder took about three lazy steps towards third base. She was, like the middle infielders on the return throw from the catcher, reluctantly backing up third. It is difficult to continually back up third when 9 out of 10 times the runner doesn't steal and 9 out of 10 times that she does, there is still no play for the left fielder. But this is a discipline which while having infrequent benefits, has a big time payoff the one time all season the ball gets away. The runner breaks from third and you nail her trying to score one time out of thirty games. But the left fielder will always remember throwing the runner out at home. The alternative is having the memory indelibly etched in your skull of being lazy about backing up third and allowing the winning run in the championship game to score because you weren't there in time.
Outfielders shouldn't need to be told what to backup and when. After a year or two of rec ball, they should automatically know. But in your early scrimmages, you should probably point out an outfielder's failure to back up at least once. Ask them what they can do to back up a particular play. Then remind them once when they don't do it. A third offense is a reason to have a lengthy talk and even, as I said before, sit a player down for an inning, even more.
Making good cutoff playsI learned an invaluable lesson during my youth baseball days. I recall that there were a number of decent athletes spread among five of the six teams we had in my league. These five teams all had fathers as managers and coaches. These fathers knew who the athletes were but they knew little more. the sixth team always drafted the castaways, the least athletic kids. That team was coached by a young guy who was rumored to have been a good player in his day. he was a real student of the game and knew the fundamentals cold. He schooled his non-athletic band of brothers in all the classic fundamentals including cutoff plays. That team remained intact from the time I was nine until I reached fourteen. the first year they got killed by every other team. The second year they won a few games. After that they proceeded to contend for the title every year. They were fundamentally sound AND they knew exactly where the ball should go on every play.
We have all sorts of examples in professional sports of teams with all the high powered and expensive talent which never win titles. They are spectacular to watch and do all the really exciting stuff. But they break down on mundane things like effective cutting off. The teams which invariably win are the ones which always do the little things, like this, right.
So what can I tell you about cutoff plays which you don't already know? Probably nothing much other than that your players do not automatically know how to do them. Also, these kinds of plays need to be practiced and practiced frequently because, in the heat of the battle, there is little time to think. You, as coach ought to practice these at least as much as you do ground ball or hitting drills. Sure they're boring even at practice but they do pay off and you need to make them automatic.
Say a ball is hit into the right field gap, your second baseman probably knows it is her responsibility to go out and get the cutoff. But does she know she needs to line up with second and stand with her hands in the air to provide the best possible target? Your shortstop should position her by continually advising "left" .. "left" .. "left" .. "right there." And if this is going to be a triple with a play at third, she needs to advise the second baseman "three" .. "going three" at which point it becomes the third baseman's responsibility to line up the second baseman the same way the shortstop did. the same applied to a liner up the left center alley. the shortstop goes out to get the cutoff, the second baseman lines her up or tells her the runner is going to third. But notice that in both situations, the middle infielder who goes out for the cutoff does not stand in no man's land lines up with neither base but rather positioned between each.
The same circumstances apply in sacrifice fly situations. The middle infielder on the ball side goes out to get the throw, the other middle infielder advises her where the play is going to be and lines her up if it is going to second.
The far more interesting, and stressful, cutoff occurs when there are runners on first and third or second and third. This presumably involves a fly to a medium depth in the outfield. Your cutoff is most likely going to be your first baseman since third has other responsibilities. The first baseman should be positioned about 30-40 feet from home and the catcher positions her in the same manner as previously discussed, "left" .. "left" .. "right there." But in plays to home, the catcher also has to advise her whether to cut or not and where to throw the ball if she does cut it. The choice of which words to use is entirely up to the team coach. I like "LET" or "THROUGH" for allowing the ball to proceed to the catcher and "CUT _, CUT _, CUT _" for cutting it off. "CUT" should be followed by the base as in "CUT THREE" .. "CUT THREE" .. "CUT THREE" for cut it off and throw to third. Catchers should be schooled in allowing throws that are slightly off line but in time to come through without a cut. It takes time to cut the ball off, get a grip, turn around and make a throw. It is often easier for the catcher to move a step or two catch the slightly offline throw and run to home to tag the runner. Only if the ball is more offline than that should she call "CUT HOME" etc.
I've discussed what to do on the sac fly so the next thing is logically the other sorts of cutoff plays. But these other plays are identical to the sac fly. For example, with runner on second and a single to the outfield, the first baseman again positions herself to make the cutoff at home. Note that there is less time to position the cutoff in this circumstance. The first baseman must sprint to position and move rapidly when the catcher advises her "LEFT" or whatever is necessary. Obviously the run is all important but the catcher must judge the likelihood the run is going to score and the opportunity to nail the runner moving from first to second. if there is no chance to stop the run, it is definitely a good idea to clear the bases by preventing another runner from getting into scoring position.
So what about the outfielder making the throw to the cutoff? Well, what can we say about that? I think Tom Hanks said it best in "A League Of Their Own" when he was left trembling and speechless by an outfielders inability to hit the cutoff. Your outfielders crave glory and presume they can throw about twice as well as they actually can. There's a reason why softball is played by a team rather than a bunch of individuals. We're all out there to help each other. An outfielder who continually fails to hit the cutoff should be penalized by reduced playing time the same way one who doesn't back up bases should be. It is simply unacceptable to miss the cutoff repeatedly.
The outfielder's approach to making a throw to a cutoff person is not to make a high arching throw. She should throw to hit the cutoff right in the face. Low throws are better than high ones. A cutoff can much more easily retrieve a ball from the ground, spin and throw where desired than she can jump for a high throw, regain her balance, turn around and make the throw. The perfect cutoff, the one I like to replay in my head in quiet moments is a line drive throw right at the cutoff's head which she lets go through to the base, the ball bounces once and the fielder covering the base picks up the throw on one hop, tagging the runner for the out. that's what you are after.
So to sum up cutoff plays, the fielders must work in unison to align themselves up properly by using a few choice words. the outfielder should aim to hit the cutoff person in the head and not try to throw the full distance. Lower is always better. the fielders continue to talk to each other so the proper play can be made even when the player receiving the ball has her back turned to the infield. It is all about bang, bang, bang. Softball is not about one heroic girl making a great throw and saving the game winning run.
ConclusionSure, softball is about the stud pitcher who strikes out two or three each inning. It is also about the stud hitter who averages a homerun every four at bats, the star fielder with the cannon arm, etc., etc. But you cannot in one season teach a girl to throw 65 or your batters and fielders to be ready for the Team USA. What you can do is teach your girls good discipline in backing each other up and you can easily teach sound cutoff fundamentals. These things are far more frequently the hallmark of good coaching than are the other more exciting things. They are also what all great teams have in common.
Permanent Link: Defensive Fine Points
Catch A Game
by Dave
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
I've always been a huge advocate of taking the kids out to see high quality softball games. Watching players play the game the way it is intended to be played provides an invaluable lesson to young aspiring softball players. They can get similar experience playing high level competition but one's attention is distracted when trying to survive a game against a really good team. Many of the lessons are lost as a girl tries to get on against an overwhelming pitcher or not make the error which leads to her team being run-ruled. Besides, girls are far more likely to take lessons learned from older girls. If they are comfortably watching the action from a decent vantage point, they can watch the whole field and see that, yes, the left fielder actually does move on a grounder to second or that, yes, the SS and/or 2nd baseman really does run to back up the pitcher on every pitch return from the catcher. They can watch good base running, solid defense, and perhaps how pitchers deal with adversity in tight games. The everyday lessons learned by watching good players are invaluable and should not be missed.
I like to try to keep my daughters' attention focused on the game when we are spectators but that's not always easy. If they get fidgety, I encourage them to go run off some steam. They can't always sit still for the whole seven innings especially when the game drags on. But for at least some of the game, I try to make them watch so I can point out things. As long as I can get three or four pointers out of a game, I figure I've been successful. Years later I find myself saying remember how Sally J. reacted to such and such play or remember how Jane K. deliberately hit a sacrifice fly instead of looking for a pitch she could hit over the fence. I remember picking things up as a young baseball player by watching high school and college players on the field. I still retain most of those lessons all these years later. I want no less for my daughters.
If we can, we try to get over to see a really good local junior college team play but often their schedule doesn't fit ours. The other college action can be fairly poor except in particular years when they manage to draw good players. An alternative is the local high school scene which includes some outstanding, some very good , some OK , and some pretty bad teams. I am a softball junky so I regularly read about all the local action in the morning paper and to the extent that coverage is incomplete, I consult several web sites of other papers in the general area. I like to keep abreast of all the big time teams and players in my state so that if they are playing a game within a reasonable driving distance and our schedule permits, we go to see a game where we can learn something.
Finding high school games can be somewhat difficult and frustrating but there are more of them than anything else this time of year. Our local paper does an adequate job of reporting results of games and a just OK job of providing the coming schedule. Usually they only give yesterday's game results, sometimes the standings in local conferences, and generally only the games scheduled for today. If today happens to be Friday and what I am trying to figure out is what to do tomorrow because we have a break in our schedule, I'm out of luck until tomorrow morning. Often that means we'll plan to go to "some game" tomorrow and we'll figure that out in the morning. Then we'll get up on Saturday morning and discover that this week the local high school schedule is empty. Once we checked the paper and found there was a game at "X" high school but not "Y" so we took a drive past the area of "Y" and arrived at "X" to find no game. It turned out that the paper had been wrong. That game had been scheduled at a high school outside our area. So we got back into the car and headed home. On a whim, we decided to at least stop by high school "Y" since it was on the way home. Of course, the paper was wrong again. There was a game going on so we stopped and watched. This can be very frustrating.
Fortunately, I recently discovered HighSchoolSports.net. This web site provides pretty much data as everywhere else, combined. If I were to purchase every newspaper in my state, every day, I might be able to get the same information this site provides. They don;t cover every high school today but apparently they are able to gather information regarding a large number of them. And they provide the complete schedule as it stood whenever they gathered the information. If you know for example that you have no practices, games, or tournaments on May 6, you can go page through some local teams and see if anybody is playing. It is a really nice service. I highly recommend you check it out and see if they provide decent coverage for your area. Remember, there is no form of entertainment cheaper than attending a high school softball game. There is also nothing more readily available during the current season. If you want your girls to see high quality games, do your homework, find the good local teams and plan to attend a game between two of them. HighSchoolSports.net provides you the tool to find good games.
Permanent Link: Catch A Game
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