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Did Someone Order ...
by Dave
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I was at a Little League regular season baseball game this past weekend at one of the regional LL meccas, Toms River, NJ. You might think this was just a pleasant afternoon at the park but I take my job seriously. I was there observing in order to collect more material for my softball blog! I am a student of the game, after all. And that's a good thing because I saw something while I was there which is very relevant to girls fastpitch softball.
I was pretty impressed with the level of play in Toms River. There was one kid on the field who was easily bigger than any adult. Sometimes you see a kid like that and guess that his coordination hasn't caught up with his body yet. That wasn't the case with this kid. He was as coordinated and athletic as he was large. Luckily for the team he was playing against, he had used up his allotment of pitching for the week. He settled for playing first. I wasn't surprised to see the entire outfield standing on the warning track when this kid came to bat. I also wasn't surprised to see him walked frequently by a pretty savy pitcher!
Toms River has some excellent baseball in their town rec leagues. Anyone familiar with Little League knows a Toms River team has made it well into the tournament several times and won the whole shootin' match in 1998 with a 12-9 victory over Japan. Some of those players are just now trying to work their ways through professional baseball's minor leagues. Other towns nearby have produced MLB players too including former All-Star Al Leiter. Needless to say, the area takes its baseball rather seriously.
The game I watched was very exciting. It went to the fifth 1-0 with numerous good plays being made by several players. The pitching was well above anything I have personally seen in terms of 12 year olds. I have seen some good kids working out inside the Toms River indoor facility from time to time. But in general, the level of kids I see in my own town isn't even close to what comes out of Toms River in volumes, even just at that one game. I'm told the Leiter family may have something to do with that!
So the tension was pretty high. Runners on base were at a premium. Several attempted bunts didn't work out. Baserunners were caught stealing. Great plays were made in the field with runners in scoring position with two outs. It was a very well played game, played by focused kids. Then the unthinkable happened.
The unthinkable thing which turned the tide of this game did not involve any sort of play or error made by a stellar fielder. It did not involve a long ball by the big kid. It did not involve a pitcher getting wild or hitting a batter or any other thing you might possibly expect. What happened was one team suffered a mental breakdown. That breakdown resulted in several runs being scored by the opposition in one fateful inning.
I expect many did not know what had caused the breakdown. Coaches were dumfounded, having believed they had prepared this team well for the mental stresses of the game. They were shocked to watch their team fall to pieces because of an external stimulus they had not anticipated. Mental toughness be damned. This team had experienced the unthinkable. Billy's mom brought him a glazed pretzel from the snackbar!
Many present at the game that day did not notice the event. Billy was out of the game at this point. Few saw mom bring Billy the pretzel. Nobody saw him eat it ... except his teammates. I wouldn't have noticed this had I not been standing next to the dugout, talking with one of the team's coaches. There was only one way into that dugout and it was through me. Mom said, "can you please excuse me for a moment?" I replied, "sure" and got out of the way.
The pretzel looked and smelled extraordinary. The snackbar was just about 200 feet from where I was standing. I hadn't had lunch yet and a quick glance at my watch told me it was now about 12:30. My mouth watered and I heard my stomach growl once. I thought about leaving my perch and heading over to the line now forming at the snackbar. But the game was getting exciting and I opted to stay and watch.
A few minutes later, one father approached the dugout and begged my pardon so he could talk to his kid. The kid hadn't done particularly well his first time or two up and now was looking around for a batting helmet to take his next turn at the plate. The father offered probably the same advice he always does. "Keep your hands back. Lay off the high ones. Be patient. Pick a good pitch to hit." The kid listened attentively and then said, "Hey dad? Can you do me a favor? Just one little thing. Can you get me a pretzel?" I won;t repeat what the father said in response but suffice it to say it went something like, "a pretzel? Are you out of your *&^%$#@ mind? Just play the game and we'll worry about eating later."
Then a head popped out of the dugout and the kid attached to hit yelled, "Mom! Mom! Come here, please." When mom appeared, the head said, "can you PLEASE get me a pretzel?" This mother decided she would pretend that she could not hear her kid. She yelled back, "I can't hear you, I'll talk to you after the game."
Next I heard kids arguing about something and the coach yelled back at them, "guys, get your heads into the game. Quit clowning. We have a chance to win this one." he couldn't have been more wrong. The team had no chance of winning from that point forward. The kids were completely distracted by their stomachs. When my own stomach had growled moments earlier, I looked around in embarrassment to see if anyone had heard it. Luckily nobody had. But within a few minutes, I heard some unreal sounds emanating from the dugout.
One kid turned to another and said, "what was that?" The kid looked uneasily back and said, "that was my stomach, I didn't eat anything for breakfast." The kid might have been able to make it through this game but the presence of the pretzel in the dugout had sent him over the edge. All he could think about now was food.
I won't go into what happened after this "event" but things did not go well for the team who had received a room-service-for-one delivery. All the kids except Billy lost focus. But, as I said, Billy wasn't even in the game at this point. The kids who still had to hit and play the field had lost all focus and it showed.
Well, that's my story for the day and it reminds me of a day a long time ago when I coached 8 and 9 year olds. One kid received a special delivery of cheese fries sometime in the 4th inning. I was too involved with the game to observe the delivery but I did come to learn about it when I turned to tell the kid she was going in to play the field. When I found her in the dugout, she was holding one of those warped paper plates with maybe just two or three fries on it and the residual cheese spilling over the sides and onto the ground ... and her uniform. I started to tell her she was going in and realized she was in no condition to play. My first thoughts were "I'll hold your plate while you go run to your mom and get cleaned up." But I knew full well that I would not be able to control myself around those last three cheese fries and I didn't want to embarras myself. So I let her sit for another half inning.
My point today is game time is not meal time. I understand that sometimes you do not get a chance to eat enough food before the game gets going but you can't simply supplement with cheese fries or glazed pretzels during the actual game. You've got to find another way to do it. Perhaps a piece of fruit or a small bag of something in the bat bag. And don't forget a little napkin or paper towel, preferably with a little extra water or something to get the sugars off your little one's fingers. Better yet, bring something she can quickly eat before a game starts. It only takes a few minutes to eat an apple, a bag of pretzels, or maybe half of a small sandwich before you have to be on the field. If you just do not have time to get enough food into your body, how about a bottle of Gatorade to stave off the appetite for an hour?
Tournament players often face a difficult time trying to get enough to eat to keep themselves standing. I know we often have schedules like 8:00 first game, 9:30 or 9:45 second game, 12:00 third game, and 1:45 begins the elimination round. My kids don't particularly care for breakfast mostly because their school days include lunch around 11 or 11:30. I know one kid whose school lunch break is at 9:30 am! And during the week, we tend to eat dinner at 5:00 so we can do our homework and still have time to pitch or take a few swings in the basement. The typical tournament day is not conducive to good eating habits.
What we try to do is get the kids to eat anything in the car on the way to the location, drink a Gatorade during games one and two, maybe eat a Powerbar or some fruit between games 2 and 3, and then, if there is time, perhaps eat something more substantial before the elimination round. Many times our kids have too much adrenaline flowing to allow themselves to eat. The one thing they agree to pick on is some cut up fresh fruit. We either buy something already made up at the local supermarket or, if time permits, buy an assortment ourselves and cut it up. And, and, and we always bring enough for all the kids on the team if they want some.
I have never read any book on etiquette. I am not in competition with Martha Stewart or any other stalwart of the field when it comes to proper manners. Nobody ever said of me, he is this or that but at least he has good manners. However, there is one thing I will not do and that is consume an entire meal while somebody sits next to me without one and drools on themselves. This I learned in Kindergarten.
The way I understand things, the concept of manners developed spontaneously as a means toward promoting good relationships among people. If something is referred to as "good manners," that something usually prevents one from doing something which might cause physical or psychic harm to another and thereby make them angry. We say "please" so the person to whom we are directing our request understands that we will appreciate them when they comply. We say "thank you" in order to acknowledge that we are not some spoiled brat who has absolutely no appreciation for whatever we are thankful for. We refrain from eating glazed pretzels in the dugout because we recognize that while everyone else is also probably hungry, they don't have a glazed pretzel. We refrain from eating cheese fries in the dugout so our teammates do not begin some sort of brawl in order to get in line to ask for "just one of those."
What I'm telling you is it is the height of rudeness to bring your kid some sort of delicious snack in the middle of a game. If you can't be more discreet, don't do it. Not only is it the height of rudeness, it takes not only your kid out of the game but the entire team. If I catch you sneaking food into the dugout, chances are pretty good I'm going to be mad. I'm very definitely going to be mad at the parent and I'm also going to think less of the kid. I understand how things work in rec ball and when I'm dealing with 8s and 9s, I will quickly forgive everyone and not make it into a big deal. But if I'm coaching a tournament team, say 12U or 14U, trust me, you have tried my patience beyond its breaking point. If you're going to bring meals into the dugout for your kid, she had better be not just one of the best on the team but an indispensable member without whom we cannot win, or she is going to sit.
Well, that's it. I'm going to go eat breakfast now. For some reason I'm having trouble concentrating on writing at the moment.Labels: coaching, Conduct, parenting
Permanent Link: Did Someone Order ...
 
Get Up, Stand Up
by Dave
Monday, May 12, 2008
Someone asked the question over this past weekend as to what the best position in the batters box is. I think the answer is easy enough. The further you are up in the box, the better. As to where you are in relation to the plate, that depends on how the pitcher's pitches are breaking. Let's just take a look at why it is important to be up in the box and then go over considerations with respect to positioning relative to the plate.
In fastpitch softball most pitches have some kind of movement on them. Some few pitchers do throw a fair amount of fastballs but most rely on drops, screws, curves and rises. Even the change has relative break on it. And the questions you have to ask yourself before you decide where in the box is best are what is the typical trajectory of a pitch and where does it hit the zone.
There are two general approaches to throwing a movement pitch. One is the back door and the other is the front door. "Front door," a not very commonly used term, refers to a pitch that begins in the strike zone or close to it and breaks or otherwise moves outside the zone. "Back door" refers to a pitch which begins outside the zone and moves back into it.
The principal problem with back door pitches is the ball ends up in the strike zone from which it is hittable. Using the back door requires the pitcher to fool the batter into not swinging because she thinks the pitch will be a ball. Front door movement pitches usually work better because they entice the batter to swing and then prevent her from centering the ball on her bat. There are plenty of pitchers out there who strike out lots of batters but most have to settle for getting the batter to hit the ball badly. If your aim is to pitch to contact and get grounders and soft linedrives, the front door is a better approach. Also, it is probably easier to strike out hitters swinging when the ball is moving out of the zone rather than it is to get them looking when the pitch is drifting back over the plate.
Whether you agree with the foregoing or not, I think empirical observation will show that more pitches use the front door than the back. The remainder of what I have to say is based upon that assumption. In order to decide where the best place to position yourself, you've got to take a look at some of these pitches and figure out how to adjust to them.
The straight dropball is usually thrown low in the zone and breaks out of it. I have heard pitching coaches tell their students that ideally what you are looking for is a pitch which meets the ground right in back of the plate. When you throw the drop, what you are after is a groundball or, alternatively, a swing and miss. You throw the pitch to look a little fat just above the knees and try to get it to turn down as it approaches the batter, ultimately just grazing the strike zone (or going right below it) and then tumbling to the ground between the plate and the catcher. There are drop which have slight lateral movement on them - drop in, drop out and these complicate the picture a bit but most are thrown low and fall outside the zone.
There are a bunch of different curves out there. Two of the best have either drop or rise on them. A drop curve can look almost like a straight drop but it moves laterally depending on the pitcher. Righties throw a drop curve which breaks away from a righty batter. From this point forward, all movement will be discussed with reference to a righty pitcher and batter.
From the batter's perspective, I suppose you could say that a drop goes 12 o'clock to 6, a sweeping curve goes 9 to 3, and a drop curve kind of goes 10 to 4 or 11 to 5, depending on how much drop it has relative to curve. A drop curve is intended to get you to swing and miss or hit a weak ground ball to the right side. Of all the pitches which might be used through the back door, curves are perhaps the most likely. I think I have seen more sweeping and drop curves brought in via the back door that any other variety of pitch. In those instances, the pitcher is trying to get the hitter to step in the bucket and then either take a strike or swing weakly as she recognizes that the pitch is moving into the zone.
The rise curve is a very interesting animal. This pitch usually has less lateral movement than a sweeping or drop curve, its lateral movement tends to be later, and its upward jump is not as drastic as a true rise ball, which will get to in a moment. The rise curve is usually thrown either down the middle and a little up where it rises up, out of the zone and moves off the plate, or on the outside corner of the zone whwere it becomes unhittable as it approaches the plate. It isn't the easiest pitch to learn. Some girls have trouble enough working on the rise and other curves. They don;t need to mess up their mechanics by working an in between pitch. But as a batter, you have to consider the possibility that you may face it sometime.
The plain vanilla rise ball has backward spin on it and it rises up from inside the zone to out of it as it approaches the plate. Good rise ball pitchers can throw it for a strike but it is a difficult pitch to master and be able to have command over. Most average pitchers throw their rises at the top of the zone or just above it. (As an aside, I wonder if the NFCA decision to lower the top of the strike zone will serve to further reduce the number of pitchers who can effectively throw a rise.)
The screwball, in general terms, moves laterally in the opposite direction to the curve. In fastpitch softball I think what we most commonly see in terms of a screwball is less lateral movement and more angle of the pitch. What I mean is, I haven't seen a lot of screwballs which move a great deal inwards towards the right handed batter. Typically what I see is a pitch which is thrown on an angle from the furthest allowable point to the batter's right inside the pitching lane, to a point in tight to the batter and which moves in slightly towards the batter. The screw can be a downward pitch, flatter, or have some rise to it.
Lastly, let me say that the objects of any pitcher throwing a change-up are two fold. First of all, her primary objective is going to be to confuse you with the speed and spin of the ball. Her second ojective is going to be to "keep it out of your eyes" which means, she wants it to be in the bottom of the zome, preferably breaking out of it as it approaches the plate.
So that's enough about the way pitches generally move. The next part of this analysis is to take a look at the plate. If you stand over the plate and with your imagination, cut off the back end, you are left with a square. Now bisect the plate into four equal sized quarters. Not many pitchers are even a little concerned with the back two squares you have made. What they view as the strike zone they are interested in is the little tiny outside corners of the front two boxes. These are the places any good pitcher is going to throw the ball.
In terms of up and down, it is a little harder to visualize but in general a good pitcher is going to try to stay in the upper or lower couple of inches, that is when she wants to throw a strike. The rest of the time, she is going to be preoccupied with throwing poitches which look like they might hit those corners but which move off the plate.
So, if we could create a three dimensional strike zone made out of some material and then sit and watch a good pitcher pitch to it, what we would see is a gradual wearing away of the material only in the front corners, only at the top or bottom. The best pitchers will wear away very little material. They will never hit the main part of your imaginary strike zone unless they make some sort of pitch execution mistake.
The only logical conclusion I can make, based on the foregoing analysis, is if you want to hit, you must be up in the box. If you're going to protect the plate and prevent the pitcher from putting anything past you which touches the zone, you want to meet the ball before it breaks out of the zone. As I said, that's simple enough but it requires the hitter to react faster and make good judgments in less time.
As to where one should stand relatives to the plate, I think that depends on variables over which you, the hitter, have little control. You want to position yourself so as to protect both corners, though whether that is actually possible is a subject for another debate. Most of your decision with respect to this depend upon where the ump is calling balls and strikes. if the ump is giving the pitcher the outside corner, chances are decent she isn't giving her the inside one and obviously, you need to crowd the plate more.
Some umps don't give pitchers that much of the plate unless and until they earn it by showing command of the zone through the first couple of innings. if a pitcher isn't nibbling too much but she is hitting corners, the ump will generally broaden the zone in the middle innings. Batters need to adjust accordingly. Further along in the game, different umps have different tendencies. Some shrink and some expand depending on their particular habit and possibly the game situation. No ump will ever admit to shrinking or expanding the zone but I think we've all seen this done at various times for various reasons. As the batter, you have to at least be aware that the zone could shift furing the game.
Further, the batter must also be aware of the pitcher's tendencies. Some pitchers earn their living on the outside corner and off of it. They will only come in when they want to push you back so they can sneak one over the outside on the next pitch or the one after that. Some pitchers earn their keep by working mainly the inside corner. These often are the screwball pitchers. A select few pitchers will work both corners with equal ease. A smaller set will work the middle of the plate with risers. And an even smaller set will work both corners, up and down with a broad mix of pitches.
What I don't want to convey to you is a habit of shifting your foot position in and out according to the pitch you just saw. If that starts happening, you're dead. But if you know you are battling with a pitcher who throws all drop curves on the outside corner, you should adjust to that. And when she comes in on you after the first pitch strike, you should know that this is just an attempt to get you off the plate so she can throw one for a strike on the outside corner. That's probably going to be the one you want to hit. So don't move back away from the plate. Stay in there and be ready when she throws the pitch on the corner.
Also, when you set your feet up, you want to be consciously aware of where you are. If you are used to setting up in the box to where you can just cover the outside corner with about 3 inches of metal, and you move closer to the plate, you have to recognize that the strike zoine has shifted relative to you. It is closer. So when that pitch with the spin looks like it might just nick the outside corner, it probably is three or more inches off the plate and that's not the one you were looking for. This is true when you move up in the box towards the pitcher and her out pitch is the straight drop. The pitch look up a bit from where it would have been if you were sitting deep. You have to adjust your perceptions of the strike zone when you take up a new position there. Experience will make you better at this but, for now, at least be aware that when you move inside the box, the strike zone stays pretty much where it was - in other words it moves relative to you.
Finally, as a hitter you must be aware that if the pitcher can get you out without ever throwing a strike, that's what she's gonna do. One of the best pitchers I have ever observed throw maybe one true strike per hitter. That may be her first pitch, her second, or her third. Most of the rest of the time she is trying to throw something that looks like a strike but isn't. Sometimes umps give her strikes. Sometimes they don't. When they do, hitters need to adjust but they cannot adjust by swinging at every ball that is six inches or more out of the zone. They have to be aware of an expanded zone and act accordingly but I don't want to be blamed for encouraging batters to become bad ball hitters. When the umps are pinching the pitcher, batters are going to have something better to swing at but, here, I don't want you to become overly choosey. You have to figure out what pitches you want to hit and then go after them. This is a cat and mouse game. Which would you prefer to be, the cat or the mouse?Labels: batting
Permanent Link: Get Up, Stand Up
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