w****b
发帖数: 623 | 1 ...
While my little son pitched a shutout 2 1/3 innings to secure a next game in
his little league play off, my big son's team had an uncharacteristic day
in the Majors playoff. Their ace pitcher surrendered 10 runs in 4 1/3 of
innings to lose the series opener.
What it means is when they both play again on Thursday, June 6th, they both
need to win to survive: a loss would mean elimination.
Since I watched my little son's game on Tuesday, this time I watched my big
son, MM's game.
Things turned pretty sour pretty quickly. In the first inning, MM, playing
center field, committed an error. It was a hard ground ball for a base hit
with man on 2nd, so while MM was trying to field the ball quickly to hold
runner at 3rd or make a play at home, the ball rolled past him, so the
runner easily score, and the batter moved to 2nd. In the 2nd inning, he drew
a 2-out walk, but being one of the fastest runners in his team,
uncharacteristically misjudged and was late in diving back to 1st base and
was tagged out, to end the inning, when their best hitter was at plate. 1:5
after just 2 innings.
I shook my head, and left to watch my little son, CC's game.
That game took some turn too. To my surprise, CC was the starting pitcher,
despite he closed last game with 38 pitches a day ago (he started the last
batter at 35th pitch, so he was barely eligible to pitch with 1 day of rest)
. The defense committed 3 errors and they were down the same 1:5 after just
1 inning.
He somehow recovered and pitched a shutout inning, and his team scored 5
runs, with his help of a legitimate double, to take the lead.
He must have thrown lots of pitches from that 1st inning. When he started
his 3rd inning, I could see he ran out of gas. His speed came down and was
losing command. But as long as he has the lead, the manager won't pull him.
He hanged on to the lead barely, and mostly thanks to his team's 4 more runs
in the top of the inning.
They eventually pulled him in the 4th, and the next 3 innings were more wild
. Long story short, at the end, CC's team hanged on to a 19-17 victory. In 3
innings of work, CC surrendered 9 runs, struck out 3 and walked 1. On
numerous miscues. Oh well, this was a somewhat ugly game, but the important
part is, they won it to go to Saturday's championship game, and CC picked up
the win. Or more importantly, they used only 2 pitchers for this game, and
so 3 of their best pitchers would be eligible for the championship game. CC
won't be eligible to pitch, but so is opponent's best pitcher, who started
and took the loss.
As I was watching the 5th or 6th inning, MM called me, apparently with some
excitement. It turned out they had an epic come back and won the game too.
He told me, 'dad, I listened to your advice, I probably had my best game in
the season'. This sounds dubious at best, as he was 0 for 2 with 2 walks,
and 1 of the walks quickly nullified with pickoff. So I was my usual
sarcastic tune: 'Yeah I'm sure! 0 for 2 with 2 strikeouts, 1 pickoff, and 1
error committed??"
What he then told me was something I would remember for a long time. "dad,
you told me that I should never give up, and no matter what happened, I
should just focus on the next play. I did just that. My next walk started
the 7 run rally, and I had some great base running to avoid being tagged out
. Then with the score 8:5, men on 2nd and 3rd, 2 out, and their best batter
JJ up at bat, he hit a sharp line drive towards the "death center" (-- I
still have no idea what he meant). Since I'm on the "JJ" shift (-- they
actually have a different positioning for EVERY opponent batter) which is to
the left center, I had to run my full speed and barely made the running
catch to end the inning. You know, that might be the game winning catch. BTW
you should see Richard (opponent manager)'s expression after the catch. " | w****b
发帖数: 623 | 2 The championship games on Saturday were actually anti-climax, to some extent
. Somehow both my son's team have their ace pitcher available, and opponents
don't.
The long and hard battle never materialized. CC's team won on just 3 1/2
innings, 15:3, on the 10-run mercy rule (after 4 innings, if a team has 10
run or more lead, the game ends).
For MM's team, it was just slightly longer. In the bottom of 4th inning,
with a score of 11:2, they only need to score 1 more run to walk off (again
with mercy rule). They had bases loaded, 1 out, but the next batter hit a
line drive to 2nd base, and the 1st base runner (this time, not MM) did not
get back to base in time for a double play to prolong the game.
They then had men on 2nd and 3rd, with no out, in the bottom of 5th, still
11:2. This time, opponent chose to intentionally walk the next batter to
load the bases. The strategy seemed to work beautifully as the next batter
popped out on infield fly rule. And with one out, one of their weakest
batter is up.
This kid was on MM's same team for several years and was pretty decent, but
this year, he struggled largely and was on bench most of the time. But he
hit a solid line drive to the right center for a single, and the
championship game was won in 5 innings.
I probably never had a better Saturday than this, but not for the reason of
just winning. For both teams, this has been a day of redemption. Actually
both my my sons didn't do much in the game. It is true that CC drove in the
go ahead run when score tied 2:2 and they took a 4:2 lead and never looked
back. It is also true that when the score was tied, MM's sac bunt which
moved runner from 1st and 2nd got things started. In the larger context
however, these were insignificant.
For CC's team, the two best players didn't deliver on their previous
Saturday loss. Their best player W committed 2-3 errors at shortstop, one of
which was probably key, and the pitcher B struggled at mound and took the
loss. I've seen how hard these 2 kids worked at their games, and sometimes I
think they deserve success more than my kids. B, after taking switch hit,
had struggled mightily at plate, once going a 10 game drought without a
single hit (this is almost impossible, considering the pitching wasn't
dominant, CC's BA is at .650 or so). But in the final game, B went a perfect
3 for 3, and 5 RBIs. For W, he pitched 3 1/2 dominant innings, striking out
6, surrendering 3 runs, only 1 earned.
For MM's team, their Ace pitcher H was on the same all-star team as MM last
year. He's a kid who could not quite control temper. But then his smile,
when things go well, can also be contagious. He took the hard loss on
Tuesday and he was knocked really hard around on that game. But on Saturday,
he redeemed himself by pitching a complete game in dominant fashion. (
opponent team had a pair of twins, 12 year old, almost my height, and they
are by far not the best player on the team!)
Sports for youth is sometimes intrinsically sad in US. As it gets
exponentially more competitive as you get older. Many will be forced to quit
if they can't keep the pace, unlike in China, many can still happily play
amateur level.
For A who had the walk off hit. He's actually one year older than MM but has
the same puny build as MM, So next year, he won't be able to play little
league due to age limit, and his skills may or may not warrant a graduation
to the next Junior level. If he quit, I just hope that last hit could be a
memory for life for him. And if that hit keeps him going, even better.
And then there is G in CC's team. He used to be MM's teammates, but nowhere
close to the Majors skill (or even Minors). He might be a special kid,
really tall (5'5"?) but skinny, and his every throw or catch would likely be
an error. It almost looks certain to be his last baseball season, as he's
unlikely going to be able to play Majors next year. He originally planned to
skip Saturday game due to boy scout activity, but showed up anyway by
giving up that. The team welcomed him with the same warmness and he
contributed by hitting a massive double and racking up 3 RBIs. Again if this
is your last memory of youth baseball, how can it get any better?
in
both
big
【在 w****b 的大作中提到】
: ...
: While my little son pitched a shutout 2 1/3 innings to secure a next game in
: his little league play off, my big son's team had an uncharacteristic day
: in the Majors playoff. Their ace pitcher surrendered 10 runs in 4 1/3 of
: innings to lose the series opener.
: What it means is when they both play again on Thursday, June 6th, they both
: need to win to survive: a loss would mean elimination.
: Since I watched my little son's game on Tuesday, this time I watched my big
: son, MM's game.
: Things turned pretty sour pretty quickly. In the first inning, MM, playing
| K**7
发帖数: 6610 | 3 Good story!
小朋友享受在体育活动中比什么都重要
如果还能学到点什么，就更完美了
extent
opponents
again
【在 w****b 的大作中提到】
: The championship games on Saturday were actually anti-climax, to some extent
: . Somehow both my son's team have their ace pitcher available, and opponents
: don't.
: The long and hard battle never materialized. CC's team won on just 3 1/2
: innings, 15:3, on the 10-run mercy rule (after 4 innings, if a team has 10
: run or more lead, the game ends).
: For MM's team, it was just slightly longer. In the bottom of 4th inning,
: with a score of 11:2, they only need to score 1 more run to walk off (again
: with mercy rule). They had bases loaded, 1 out, but the next batter hit a
: line drive to 2nd base, and the 1st base runner (this time, not MM) did not
| c***o
发帖数: 1288 | 4 牛！
in
both
big
【在 w****b 的大作中提到】
: ...
: While my little son pitched a shutout 2 1/3 innings to secure a next game in
: his little league play off, my big son's team had an uncharacteristic day
: in the Majors playoff. Their ace pitcher surrendered 10 runs in 4 1/3 of
: innings to lose the series opener.
: What it means is when they both play again on Thursday, June 6th, they both
: need to win to survive: a loss would mean elimination.
: Since I watched my little son's game on Tuesday, this time I watched my big
: son, MM's game.
: Things turned pretty sour pretty quickly. In the first inning, MM, playing
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