May 21, 2005 - Saturday
The Giants played the Tigers today and the game was a little strange. First, in what seemed to have started last night at practice, the kids on the Giants all seemed particularly unfocused. Sure, sitting down or twirling around in the field, picking clovers or dandelions, and just generally not paying attention to the action are all integral parts of T-Ball, but last night and today there seemed to be even more fooling around than usual. I might speculate that four games into the season the novelty has worn off and they've come directly up against the reality of all the standing around in baseball.

Also a little strange: the Tigers coach had the infielders play way in, with the third, short, second, and first all playing in an arc centered at the pitcher's mound. I guess I have to concede to having fix feelings about this aggressive approach to T-Ball. On the one hand, the coach is trying to teach defense and there's really no chance for these little kids to field a grounder and throw someone out from back on the dirt. On the other hand, getting three outs would end an inning before all the kids have had a chance to bat. Clearly batting and running the bases in a highlight for just about all these kids, particularly Harry, who is one of the worse offenders to sitting in the field. Fortunately, while there were a couple of times when the Tigers got two outs in an inning, they never got three. And, Joe, Andrew, and Katy, three of our older kids and bigger hitters all got balls through the drawn in infield. Unfortuantely, Harry made his first out of the season. The other teams have come close to getting him a few times because he doesn't hit it very fast or far and runs fairly slowly, but it was the Tigers finally got him. I called him over and told him it was OK. Plus, since the Tiger coach had me thinking about strategy, I told Harry to start aiming his hits down the third base line: the pitcher can effective run over to first. Third base and short basically don't have a prayer of making an out at this level, even from a drawn in position.

Ironically, it was the Giants that actually made three outs in one inning today for the first time. In each case the out was a result of a ground ball hit right at or close to a base and the fielder picking in up and touching the base prior to the runner. Coincidentally, the final kid in the Tiger batting order made the third out, so there was no issue about every batting.


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