Hecubot

09:06 pm: Little League Final, Game 1
So over the last two days there was a furious volley of emails between the Mets coaches, myself, Chris and Elliot, about how to play this game. We had to take into account: (1) inning restrictions on certain pitchers (primarily Reed - who had pitched the most for us); (2) whether Eian and Jallah would be available on Friday night (No on Jallah, Probably on Eian); (4) catching corps; and (3) defensive assignments. To reiterate, we were 3-0 and had two chances to win the final. But after much palaver it was clear that we really needed to play to win tonight.

We decided to go 3 innings with Reed pitching, then stretch Jallah as long as possible. If we had the lead, we'd go to Eian to close, but if we were behind, we'd save him to pitch in Friday's game with Emmett. I argued to put Liam in the outfield where he's been very succesful catching fly balls for us, and away from his recent assignment at second where he had contracted a bad case of ball-avoidance in the last couple games. I also argued for Emmett behind the plate as much as possible because he's the best at stopping the low pitches from skipping away from him, and when they do, he's very quick to get the ball. Nobody had scored from third on Emmett on a passed ball in 8 games. Eian's an excellent receiver, but when the ball gets by him, he's so slow to get it that it's an automatic advance for the baserunners.

Emmett's also been locked in at the plate. He hadn't struck out in about five games and had been pounding the ball and making regular contact.

Home team is determined by seeding, and since we're 3-0 and the White Sox are 2-1, we're home team. We get last ups.

We start with Reed on the mound, Eian catching, Nathan at first, Emmett at second, Jallah at short, Joaquin at third, Liam in center, Tony in left and Dario in right.

Now the White Sox have some good hitters, but they don't go as deep as our hitters. That is, they're very dangerous 1-4, but we can hit 1-7, and our other guys can all come up with the occasional big hit.

White Sox lead off with Matthew (Emmett's teammate from the tournament team, and son of the tournament team coach, Marcelo). He leads off with a clean single, advances on a passed ball, and the next batter walks. Two on, no outs. Doesn't look good. And indeed, their best player, Noah comes up and drills a double into right field gap, scoring two. Their cleanup slugger Sammy also gets a hit to move Noah up. Noah scores on a passed ball that, bangs off the backboard and rolls way up the line. Reed starts to lose it on the mound a bit, and Chris (his Dad) calls a timeout to go out and calm him down. Strikeout, pop-up, strikeout and we're off the field. Our ace has pitched and we're down 3-0 already. Strong hitting by the White Sox and passed balls killing us.

Our whole team is down in the mouth. We leadoff with our speedster, Nathan, who's been slumping at the plate. Getting a lot of walks and using his speed to score, but late with his swings. Nathan strikes out. Jallah comes up and hits a hard shot to shortstop, deep in the hole. Their shortstop makes an excellent play and throws him out with a long, strong throw. Reed comes up. He's our best player by far, but he's only had one big hit during the whole playoffs. Getting a lot of walks and an occasional strikeout from being over-eager. Jallah and Joaquin and Emmett have been our best hitters recently. Reed's usually ahead of the pitches and has a hard time slowing his swing down. But he makes good contact, hitting a hard shot to third base. Against most teams that's an automatic infield hit, but Sammy fields it for the White Sox and throws a rocket across the field. Reed beats it by half a step. Eian - like Reed - one of our best hitters, has also had only one big hit over the playoffs (admittedly it was the go-ahead double that won against the Rockies). Eian drills a hard shot to shortstop, and again their shortstop makes a pretty play to throw him out.

The White Sox are an excellent defensive team.

Top of the second inning, now we're into the easier part of their lineup. Reed induces a soft bloop from the first batter and Emmett comes in to make a running catch behind the pitcher's mound. One out. Next play, a hard chopped grounder that Emmett has to jump high to field. He makes the play to Nathan at first. Next batter gets a good swing on the ball and launches it high into centerfield. Liam camps under the ball and makes the out. All the defensive assignments paid off.

We do nothing in the second. Emmett strikes out for the first time in many games. He's back in his passive mode that caused his slump earlier in the season, taking the first strike. Noooo!!! We worked on this for months. He's got to be aggressive, because when he takes the first strike, he either (a) chases a bad pitch or (b) gets a bad call and he's down 0-2 and he gets frozen at the plate. Terrible time to cold at the plate.

After two innings, we're down 3-0.

Top of the third. Matthew leads off the Mets again with a sharp grounder up the middle. Reed gets a glove on it, which slows it down. Emmett picks up the ball, and has time, but his throw pulls Nathan (who isn't tall) just off the bag. Gah! Easy first out, and we can't afford to make errors. Passed ball and Matthew moves up. Clean hit by Noah and he comes around to score. Oy. They get another run before Reed gets a last strikeout. He's pitched three innings and we're down 5-0. Fuck.

Bottom of the 3rd, Matthew still pitching for the White Sox. We're down 5-0. Nathan strikes out. Jallah drills a clean single. Reed comes up. He swings through the first pitch. Jallah goes to second on a passed ball. Reed wants to win the game with one swing, but it's just not possible. He's pressing. He works the count. Fouls off a pitch. Then he gets all of a pitch, it's soaring deep into left field. I'm the third base coach. I'm wheeling Jallah in to score. The ball bounces just in front of the fence. Very nearly a home run. Reed's on second. Eian comes up and launches a ball deep into center. Reed comes around to score. We pinch-run for Eian (which doesn't take him out of the game under these playoff rules - as you can sub in and out and can pinch run twice from your bench. Odd rules, but we're taking advantage of them since Eian is so incredibly slow). Joaquin comes up and gets a hit, and the runner comes around to score. Emmett's up. He walks. They both advance on a ground out. One out, we have men on second and third. Now it's a cat and mouse game because the pitcher is throwing in the dirt and it's a case of go! stay! I'm the third base coach and I'm constantly talking to Joaquin, who's been a great player for us this year, but has been doubled off on soft liners twice this season. Two passed balls come hard off the backstop and back to the catcher. Joaquin breaks, stops, and scampers back to third. Finally a ball gets away, and he scores easily, and Emmett advances to third. He's bouncy and excited. We've scored four runs. The White Sox get a strikeout, and then throw out a baserunner at first so Emmett doesn't score.

After three innings, it's White Sox 5, Mets 4.

Top of the 4th, and Jallah is pitching. We desperately need him to have a good game. He hasn't given us two good innings in a row in many games now. We need at least two from him tonight. Emmett's catching now. Eian's at first, Reed's at short, Liam's at second. Jallah strikes out the first batter. Next is a hard chopper that goes up and over Liam's head (he's also fairly short) and clips off his glove. Runner on first. The White Sox are being fairly conservative about baserunning in this game. Ball gets away from Emmett and the runner advances. Noah rips another gorgeous liner, that scores the runner. Comebacker for an out, and then a pop-up into short center-left that Reed ranges back to get. We're out of the inning and only gave up one run.

We do nothing in the bottom of the fourth.

After four innings, it's White Sox 6, Mets 4.

Top of the fifth, Jallah is pitching, and Emmett's catching. We get a first out. Then we walk a runner. Their slugger Sammy hits a towering shot to centerfield. Nathan moves under it and makes the catch. Two outs. Runner moves up on a passed ball. Emmett's very active back there and making a lot of saves, but Jallah is in and out of the strike zone. Every at bat seems to be going to full count. Ball, ball, foul tip, ball, strike. Runner at third with two outs. Ball in the dirt squirts away, but Emmett gets it quickly, and Jallah's right at the plate to cover. They don't send the runner. We get a strikeout. No runs scored.

Bottom of the fifth, Reed leading off. Reed gets behind in the count, and then hits one through the infield. Eian looks hapless in his at bat, he's quickly down 0-2. The umpire has been consistent all game, but he's been calling a strike at the ankles which is flummoxing our hitters. We're getting that same call for our pitchers but it's definitely hard to hit that pitch, and it's really too low to be a strike. Eian digs in. Fouls off a pitch. Takes a close one for a ball. Fouls off a pitch. Pitch in the dirt and Reed moves up. Count goes full. Another pitch in the dirt, and Reed moves to third, and Eian has earned a very difficult walk. I'm the first base coach in this inning. They send Eian, who moves slower than the average pensioner. Eian toddles into second uncontested. We have runners at second and third with one out. We're down two. This is our chance. Joaquin and Emmett are both excellent contact hitters. One clean single can even it up. Even a grounder will score a huge run. Joaquin is up. There's a pitch in the dirt that gets away and Reed steals home. Then Joaquin strikes out looking. Gah! So frustrating. We've got the tying run at third, and just a grounder will even things up. Emmett comes up. He takes an easy first strike right over the plate. NOOOOOO! You've got to swing at that one. Next pitch is low and away, but is called for a strike. Fuck. Emmett takes a pitch. Works the count to 2-2, and then watches strike three without a swing. FUCK!

He walks back to the dugout. "What are you doing! You have *got* to cover the plate in that situation. You cannot be taking on anything close!" He gives me a dirty look.

He's sitting on the bench looking very disgruntled, when I remind him that he needs to suit up in his catcher's gear for the last inning. White Sox get a strikeout to end the inning. We only get one run out of a second and third with nobody out situation.

After five innings, it's White Sox 6, Mets 5.

Jallah goes out to pitch the sixth inning, which is the last. We still have last ups. I walk Emmett towards the plate where he's going to catch. "You need to focus and stop every pitch in the dirt. We can't let them score this inning." He's still pissed at me and gives me a shove away without saying anything. Okay. Fair enough. The sixth is much like the fifth inning. Jallah gets an out after battling to find the strike zone. Emmett's leaping around making saves and catches. We get an out. They get a runner. The runner moves up to second. We get another out without the runner advancing.

So it's still top of the sixth, man on second, two outs. It's another long at bat. Throw in the dirt. Emmett scrambles after it. Their runner gets a late break, but the coach is yelling for him to get down to third. Emmett comes up with the ball and fires it down to third. Tony makes the catch, lays down the tag and gets the runner on the foot. Emmett shot down the runner to make the last out in the top of the sixth. He comes running off the field all smiles and jumps into my arms.

Jallah has given us three quality innings, only giving up one run. It's huge.

Bottom of the sixth, White Sox 6, Mets 5. Our last chance. Dario leads off, then it's top of the order with Nathan. They're still pitching Noah - their best player and one of the best players in our league. I'm the third base coach. Now, surprisingly, I'm not feeling all that dire at this point. Because Jallah has given us three strong innings, which means we never had to use Eian. Which means if we lose, we can come back on Friday and pitch Emmett and Eian and still have a really good chance.

Also, I know two things about this particular match-up of Noah vs. Dario. Noah has been getting a lot of low-ball called strikes, but Dario is a free-swinger who has a real talent for reaching down and hitting nine-iron shots off the top of his shoes. Dario's this gangly, freckly kid. Fast, and with good reflexes, but hasn't played a lot of organized baseball. He looked kind of helpless at the beginning of the season, but he's definitely the most improved player over the course of the season. He had a huge hit for us in our win against the Rockies. We absolutely need for him to get on base. His helmet's too big and kind of flops down over his eyes. He bats left-handed. On the third pitch he shoots a hard shot right over the third base bag - it's fair! It should be extra bases! I look down the first baseline and Dario is jogging slowly to first, very content with his single. Go, go go! We're yelling. He looks up, surprised, as he rounds first, and trots rather slowly a third of the way to second. GO!!!!!! He turns it on just as their left fielder (who overran the ball) picks it up. But the leftfielder throws to the cut-off man, instead of to second base, and Dario does (barely) make it into second. Phew.

Okay. Man on. No outs. Top of the order coming up. Nathan up. He hasn't been hitting much lately. He's down in the count. He takes a close pitch. He makes contact and hits a grounder to short. Dario starts to run into the play, but is smart enough to hold at second base. The shortstop throws to first, but it tails away and gets past their first baseeman. I get Dario down to third, and Nathan's safe at first. It's cat and mouse time again. Jallah is up. Pitch gets away. I desperately need Dario to score to tie up the game. Look for a chance, I tell him. Don't get doubled off. Tag up on a fly ball. Blah blah blah. Dario's nodding, and his helmet's flopping down over his eyes. Nathan's at second now. Jallah strikes out, flailing at a low pitch way out of the strikezone. Two on, bottom of the sixth. One out. We're down by one run. Reed comes to the plate.

First pitch, and Reed pulls it hard, but foul. Next pitch a ball in the dirt. Go! No Stay! The ball bounces right back to the catcher. Aghhhhhh! We just need to tie it up.

I'm talking to Dario the whole time. Noah winds up, and fires a hard one, right over the plate and Reed crushes the ball. It makes a gorgeous, long arc to deep center field. I see it's going to drop. Go, go go! Dario goes in to score the tying run, and Nathan's almost to third. I look out to center and their fielder is just picking up the ball. Go, go, go! I'm windmilling my arm so hard and jumping up and down, sending Nathan in. All the parents on the Mets side are standing up and screaming. I'm hopping and hopping and hopping with my arms in the air as Nathan scores the winning run.

Pandemonium! Our whole dugout crashes out onto the field, tackling Reed and jumping all around. Emmett comes running at me and flies into my arms, and I swing him around and around and around in centerfield. Sheer jubilation. On our side. On the White Sox side - absolute devastation. We give them a quick cheer and go to shake their hands at home plate, and every single playeer on their team has tears in his eyes and they can barely stand to shake our hands. Noah's openly weeping. It's tough. They're an excellent team and played well. Interestingly, they made the finals by having two come-from-behind, last inning wins where their opponents had victory slip away at the end.

We wander around the outfield feeling dazed and drained and giddy. The parents join us and are jabbering away. It was an unbearably tense game for them to watch. Reed gets the game ball by unanimous proclamation. A spontaneous, "Dario! Dario! Dario!" cheer goes up from the team. What a fucking a game. We take a team picture in front of the outfield scoreboard with the final score, White Sox 6, Mets 7. The only time we were in the lead was when we won the game. We're the champs.

Tags: baseball, emmett, little league

10:39 pm: Triple A Roundup
Hmmm, looking at my previous Triple-A assessment is interesting in retrospect.

Emmett's pitching problem was basically that he'd invented a new windup in the offseason ("It looks cooler!") and was much less effective. We want back to his old fashioned (like from the 30s) high windup with his arms pumped over his head and shorter leg kick and voila! he was in the stike zone again.

Hitting was exactly the same problem we had in transitioning from Single-A to Double-A: he'd grown so much he needed a new bat. I coughed up a $100 for the extra special bat that just felt the best - 2 inches longer and half an ounce lighter. Suddenly four other kids on the Mets were borrowing Emmett's bat too. And they started hitting as well.

Also, I started wearing my lucky shoes and we had a three game winning streak to even our record at 4-4. The interesting thing about this team is that just about everybody had *something* to offer. Morgan couldn't hit a lick, but early in the season he was our go-to guy for middle relief. He'd come in and throw strikes instead of walking people and keep us in the game. Joaquin started making some very sharp plays in the field and became a very effective RBI producer in the five slot. Liam and Tony were making plays in the outfield. Dario surprised us with some plays from third, and the occasional key hit.

Emmett's hitting slump got so bad (no hits for about three games) that he got dropped in the batting order. I was very proud of him that he didn't pout about it but came back with some key hits in that game from lower in the order. (This was shortly after we got the new bat.) Emmett's pitching slowly got better too. He wasn't quite in the form he had been last year where he was pounding the strike zone relentlessly with fastballs, but he was poised and around the plate and good enough to be effective. He got moved back to leadoff.

He started hitting better, particularly with men in scoring position. Nothing exciting, just sharply hit grounders through the infield. Elliott, our manager, loves Emmett behind the plate so he often spent two or three innings back there. Which, exactly as I learned last year, was very helpful to the team, but left very little to report about Emmett's defensive prowess. He did get adept at catching foul-tip third strikes, which isn't easy. I pointed out how Jason Kendall and Mike Matheny (A's and Giants catchers, respectively) didn't so much squat as crouch. Emmett started doing that (it's *very* hard on your quads) and was soooo much more mobile behind the plate.

The Reds have the best record in Triple-A this year and we came up *just short* - losing to them in two games. Otherwise we were up and down. We'd pound one team for 20 runs and then cough up the lead in the last inning the next game while making stupid baserunning errors. Eian hit two home runs. One them was a MASSIVE shot that cleared our fence, then the 15 foot high fence of the practice diamond, landing near the pitcher's mound in the next field. The more I got to know Eian the more I liked him. He's Elliot's son and an excellent pitcher and hitter, but he's very heavy and can barely run and get around the bases. He had a bit of a chip on the shoulder as the season began but I've come to appreciate his sense of humor (and I think he appreciates mine as well now).

Reed continues to be (as JZ's mom put it while watching a game) "a very sophisticated player." It's always weird when he comes off the field, where he moves with the confidence of a tiger, and suddenly he's goofy and ten again.

The weekend tournament has made me revise my opinon of Emmett again. Last year in Double-A he was dominating toward the end of the season. This year it hasn't been that way, and with Reed on view every game I didn't really peg Emmett that high. He was good but not elite. But then Emmett turned around and was absolutely dominant in all phases during the weekend tournament. So I think I need to back up and remind myself that he's 9, playing with 10-12 year olds in Triple A for the most part. Put him back playing with his age group and he's kicking ass.

The Mets are probably a game above .500 at this point. We've got games on Friday and Sunday and that's it for the regular season. We wound up losing 5 games from an 18 game season due to rain in March. There will be a Triple-A tournament for The Mets and we'll have one last chance to show off our talent. I think we're pretty competitive with the top teams so it will depend on how our pitching comes up for the last games. Reed's slowly mastered his arm as the season went out (he throws extremely hard but has a hard time pulling it into the strike zone. When he does, it's lights out. Sort of like the young Koufax. Except Reed's a rightie.) Eian was dominant as our closing pitcher early in the season, always throwing strikes and almost throwing as hard as Reed (except when Reed really wanted to blow one by). But Eian wobbled a bit late in the season. Jallah has developed into a very good pitcher and all-around player. I'm really glad we chose him for the team. He had a bit of a reputation that kept other coaches from drafting him, but he's been splendid for us. Serious and intent and full effort. So if Emmett can take his tournament success back to the Mets for their last games we could be formidable.

Tags: baseball, emmett, little league

04:14 pm: Tournament Season
I'll give a rundown on our first baseball tournament of the year, then go back and catch up on our abbreviated Triple-A season.

Emmett plays for The Mets in Triple A in the Albany Little League. He's also on the traveling tournament team for 9 y.o.'s, the Albany Eagles. The tournament season overlaps just a bit with the regular season, but basically runs through the summer as different communities host their kid sized baseball tournaments. It's not just Little League but Pony League and JOBL and it's a different world for me. For one thing, I get dragged off to outlying communities in which I have very little interest like Concord and Fremont and Burlingame. I think of these excursions as traveling to The Land of the Tri-Tip. It's all about the tri-tip steak sandwiches out there for reasons which are mysterious to me.

The Eagles first tournament was in Sacramento over Memorial Day weekend. This is the only tourney where we stay overnight since Sacto is just outside a comfortable daily driving range (about 90 minutes one way if you're lucky). Most of the kids stayed in a hotel with their coaches and families, but we stayed with my best man, Alex, his girlfriend of many years Kris and their 18 month old baby daughter, India. We'd stopped by to see them on our way back from Tahoe this winter so Emmett and JZ already feel comfortable with them. They came out to the games and supported us, and gave us a place to flop. Emmett and Alex and I had Nerf dart-gun wars in the front yard around the inflatable baby pool. After our first game, we attended a cookout with their friends who had a gorgeous little pool. Emmett spent the entire four hours in the pool (especially impressive since he can't really swim yet). What did they serve at the cookout? Tri-Tip! Very tasty.

There are times when your life seems to telescope and time contracts, and I had that moment watching Emmett play in the pool with Alex while I dandled baby India on my knee. I've known Alex since we were 15 years old. We went to college together, drove across country together. He lived with me and my parents for part of high school. It was his girlfriend I was hugging at the moment my Mom died. I've watched him and Kris both struggle to sobriety and rebuilding their lives over the course of their 20 year relationship. He was the best man at both my weddings. My friendship with Alex is so wrapped up with the core of me, with the beginnings of my adult self. It was odd and beautiful to sit there with his pretty babygirl in my lap while he swam up and down the pool carrying Emmett on his broad did-the-butterfly-in-high school swimmer's back.

First game was mid-day Saturday. Gah! Our manager, Marcelo, picked Emmett to be the first pitcher in the first game. It's always stressful watching your kid pitch, but it seems harder when they start the game. Emmett gave up a hit to the first batter. Then struck out the side. First time he's done that this year. I should note that our team was the only 9 y.o. team in the tourney. All the other teams were 9-10. After that I don't remember much except that Emmett made two excellent plays at second base in one inning. One was a hard shot which took a freaky bounce off a pebble and almost took his head off. He snatched it anyway and made the play. Next ball was hard hit and low. It's very common to shy off a grounder after you've handled a bad hop but Emmett stayed down on it and got the out again.

Emmett hit pretty well in the first game, continuing the trend he's had with the Mets of hitting hard grounders through the middle or the hole to get on. He knocked in the tying run with two outs, which would've been more significant if we didn't go on to win 12 to 3. The pitching requirements in these tourneys are difficult to finesse. This one had strict rules about who could pitch and when, so Marcelo used one pitcher per inning in the first game. We're fortunate to have six guys who can pitch on our team (LL games are six innings long, incidentally). The rule was that if pitcher a threw more than one inning then he couldn't pitch the next day. Very tricky in a three day tournament.

After the first game we went to the cookout with the pool and the tri-tip, then back to Alex & Kris place where Emmett made them watch Invader Zim.

Sunday we had two games. The first was at 8am. We had to be there at 7am for warmups. Ugh. We played a team called the White Sox and they were excellent. We played them even-up for five innings. It was tied 4-4 when we went into the sixth. Early in the game Emmett hit the ball harder than I've seen him hit it all year. A screaming liner that went 155 feet on the fly, took one bounce and went over the fence for a ground-rule double, scoring two runs in front of him. Their team was well-coached and talented - though a bit bigger than we were. They had a girl on their team playing catcher and firstbase and she was one of the best catchers I've seen at this level. Not only an excellent receiver but she had a gun for an arm and picked off one of our players at second base. She was tall and strongly built - pretty, with brown wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail. Good hitter too.

The whole game was extremely well played and had many excellent defensive plays and timely hits. Our left fielder caught a ball going over his head, and two pitches later our right fielder made a running shoe string grab coming in. Then they threw out one of our runners at home the next inning on a relay play. They scored two in the third. We fought back and went ahead on Emmett's ground rule double. They scratched back and took the lead. It was 4-3 when Marcelo brought Emmett in to pitch the fifth. First pitch and the batter pops up high and shallow, in the difficult to cover area between catcher, pitcher and third baseman. Emmett called off his teammates and made a reaching nab for the first out. Second pitch and an easy groundout to second. Amazing pitching efficiency! Next batter walks. Next batter drills a clean double into the gap and it's first and third. On the steal, our catcher foolishly throws down and they steal home on the back end. Stupid! Next batter hits a soft liner to our third baseman. Easy out! Except...not. He drops the ball. Then neglects to tag the runner right in front of him. Terrible. But Emmett maintains his poise and strikes out the next batter. All tied up.

Then they scored three runs in the top of the sixth, all well earned with rocketing shots to the gaps. We couldn't catch them in the bottom of the sixth and we lost 7-4. Some of our guys were crying - it was a really hard fought game until we made some defensive lapses. Still, it really was a pleasure to watch and Emmett had been nails. JZ was getting a big ol' parental crush on Emmett again, just watching him be so poised and strong and on top of the game.

Our next game wasn't until 3:30 so we went back to Alex and Kris' place and shot each other with Nerf-darts. Emmett crashed and napped on the way back. Back to the fields for our second game of the day by 2:30 after we'd lunched. JZ's cousin Gia, and Gia's daughter Nicole - who live in Sacramento - came out to our afternoon game. They had attended our wedding and we'd put teen gothlet Nicole at Jilli and Ple's table. Emmett and Nicole had bonded strongly over the family Easter celebrations so it was lovely to see them. Also, the ten year old Tournament team from Albany was hanging around and that included players from Emmett's teams from this year and last. So we had Eian and Nathan from this year's Mets, and Eli from last year's Angels. It was great having them sitting in the stands rooting Emmett on.

He responded in force by absolutely crushing the ball all game. He's been batting second with the Eagles this year. Matthew got on first with a clean, sharp single. Emmett smoked a line drive right at the third baseman, who dropped the ball, but had the presence to force Matthew at second. So Emmett was at first. Then Jack, our catcher and slugger came up. Jack is Coach Wayne's son (and we love coach Wayne). Jack's a tall, strong, freckly faced, flop haired boy. One of Emmett's good friends at school. He'd been slumping a little bit lately, but came up and got every bit of a pitch, driving it deep into center. Emmett took off running, got waved in and scored from first on Jack's double. We batted around that inning. Next time up Emmett walked, and Jack hit a triple. Emmett again scored all the way from first. We batted around in that inning. Next time up, Emmett scorches yet another liner - a real Willie McCovey job - into the deepest gap toward center. He rounds second and the coach is wheeling him into third, but telling him to get down. Emmett slides in ahead of the throw, the ball gets away and Emmett comes into score. A triple with an overthrow error, but his teammates all run out to mob him at home plate like it's a home run and his friends are all yelling in the stands we've got about seven people just in our group whoooping and hollering.

At that point, I got him a root beer and went with Nicole to deliver it to the dugout. He was red-faced and winded, but had a big smile when he saw Nicole. They traded Tombstone quips (She muttered, "You ain't no Daisy!" at the pitcher when Emmett his his triple). He played centerfield for much of the rest of the game and ended two innings on flyballs out there. He also did an excellent job of cutting off two hits in the outfield to stop the runners from taking second - one time making a very flashy bare handed grab-and-throw after a high bounce. I almost forgot - Emmett made a great play at shortstop too, nailing a runner at the plate on a relay throw from centerfield. It was a particularly tough play because the ump and the pitcher were between him and the catcher so he had to turn and throw the ball up and over them but with as little arc as possible. Jack showed great concentration by following the ball, making the catch and getting down the tag. We won the second game 18-8 and fully expected to go to the championship rounds on Monday.

Alas, another team that went 2-1 had a better tiebreaker (which was based on runs-allowed, instead of run-differential. I think we would've gone forward if it had been run-differential). The kids were bummed but they played exceptionally well - particularly against teams of 9-10 y.o.s. And Emmett played his best baseball of the year by far. (This will become more apparent after I update on the Triple-A season.)

Your 2006 Albany Eagles (That's Emmett's dyspeptic "I hate getting my picture taken" face. He's far left back row, of course. Jack is second from the right, back row. Matthew - Marcelo's son - is second from the right, front row.)

Emmett in his Mets uni

Tags: baseball, emmett, friendship, little league

08:55 am: Little League 2006
Our Little League season finally got underway after getting rained out for the entire month of March. Emmett's in Triple-A this year, which is a step up and another adjustment for him. I got roped into coaching again, which I will definitely not be doing next year. I do enjoy it, but it's a huge time commitment (particularly adding on to my commute since I have all these extra days I have to travel to the East Bay for games and practices). Also, Triple-A is advanced enough that you don't get the same upward curve in coaching you get with the younger kids. There's less opportunity to guide a player from gormless to great. They all have a notion how to play by now.

Emmett and his best friend, Preston, are the youngest guys on the team at age 9. The oldest is Joaquin who is 12. This is a huge difference in age to wrangle. Most of the kids are 10-11. Actually the best player on the team (perhaps the best in the league), Reed, is also 9 - though he's about to turn 10. Two weeks ago he hit a homerun at South Field - something no 9 y.o. had ever done before in the 40 odd years of Little League in Albany. Last week he hit back to back homeruns. Centerfield fence is about 200 feet away, so these are massive shots and really impressive at this level.

We have two players from our team last year on the Mets this year. Nathan and Albert. Nathan's a skinny little multi-skilled speedster. Maybe the fastest kid in Triple-A. Albert's a big, strong, easy going, easy-to-coach, slow slugger.

Emmett's gotten off to a slow start again this year, particularly with pitching. His first outing was his worst ever and he kept throwing pitch after pitch into the dirt. We'd spent most of the rainy month of March doing pitching sessions, so this was unexpected. It's not the physical act of throwing the ball - it's that he has to relearn how to pitch on a mound, in a game, pressure situation. It's about maintaining composure, breathing between pitches, pulling yourself together after a bad call, fighting back to find the strike zone.

Pitching's hard. Last year at Double-A they still had coach-pitch when the kid pitchers went to four balls. I wound up doing most of coach pitching last year and there were excruciating periods where I couldn't find the strike zone. Put me on a field warming up and I could throw a strike 95% of the time. In a game? Oy, the veil of self-consciousness comes down and your body and mind are at war.

Anyway, Emmett's gotten a bit better in his last couple outings, though nowhere near where he was a the end of last season or during the tournament season.

Emmett's been the leadoff hitter. First game he had two hits and two walks, scored four times. Then he got very passive at the plate - which was okay because he was getting a lot of walks. But then he started watching too many strikes go by and was striking out. Very unusual for him since he's really a contact hitter. Finally in the last game he took a more aggressive approach and drilled a pretty single into center.

It's almost like relearning the game for him every season. There are the physical skills, and then there's learning how to manage them in a game situaition.

On the plus side, the manager, Eliott and the other coach Chris (Reed's dad) both love Emmett as the catcher. He's very active back there and aggressive about stopping the opposing baserunners. At this level there's not much limit on the stealing, so if your catcher can't keep the ball in front of himself, you're going to give up a ton of runs.

Our last game was a heartbreaker. We played the Rockies - who have five players from my Double-A Team The Angels, last year. Eli's gotten so much better. He's now a superior shortstop and hit two line drives over our centerfielder's head. Anyway, we were down. We fought back. Finally took the lead on Reed's two homeruns. Went into the last inning (6th) just needing 3 outs to close the game out. And then we gave up 17 runs. There are two slaughter rules at this level, but they don't apply in the last inning. 1) no more than five runs in an inning; 2) if one team is up by more than 10 runs after 4 innings the game is over. 17 runs. It was a nightmare.

It was very disheartening. Poor Nathan (a sensitive kid to start with) was on the mound and walked and walked and walked baserunners. Then he started serving up soft batting practice pitches that were crushed to all corners of the outfield. We finally pulled him and he kept it together until he got to the dugout and started crying. He was still down at our practice the next day too.

So our record is at 1-3. Two of those games we should've won, but had meltdown innings. Oh well, our team has talent and I think we'll get back on track. I think Emmett will be pitching at least an inning today so I hope he can get into his groove.

Tags: baseball, emmett, little league