Thoughts of a Middle Aged Man

For the past two weeks, my wife was asked be the official scorekeeper for the local Little League All Star Tournament and yours truly was the official announcer.  My wife had the tough job of keeping track of not only the game score, but pitch count, who playing, who is not playing and making sure all the coaches substitutions meet all of Little League’s rules including minimum playing.  It actually can get quite confusing during some games.  My job?  Piece of cake.  Announce the batter, announce the substitutes as they enter the game and make sure  appropriate music is played during breaks in the game.  The hardest part was making sure you pronounce a kid’s name correctly, because on your first mistake the player’s family is all over you.  Our local district has a lot of Hispanic names, but I had more trouble with Vojniv (pronounced Vino) than I did with Josue (pronounced Ho-sway).  Dealing with a coach’s handwriting can also be a battle.

Our son last played Little League 7 years ago, but my wife and I enjoy helping the local district and hopefully watching some good baseball for kids this age.  Although its only been three years since I last coached a kids team (I coached a  14 year old team for two years when my son entered high school), youth baseball has evolved.  Over the years, batting has definitely improved.  During my coaching days, all star teams had a few kids with good bats, now even the subs are capable of hitting home runs.  the good teams do not have easy outs and the average teams loaded with power hitters.  Pitching on the other hand appears comparable to my coaching era.  Occasionally you see a hard thrower who can spot their fastball, but that is rare.  Pitchers rely on  curve balls (I hate curve balls at that age, but that is another post).  I would love to work with a league and teach pitchers to work on balance and spotting their fastball on demand.

I digress.  I guess Annette and I did a good job, because they asked us to repeat our duties at the state’s (in our case Southern California is a state) division tournament next week.  Only a possible business trip may keep me away.  Here is where you come in.  I play the standard Little League music during breaks (All Star, YMCA, Centerfield, Put me in Coach, Glory Days, etc.)  I would like to jazz up the breaks.  Leave comments or  Twitter me with some suggestions.