Sunday, June 22, 2008

All Stars - Game 1


The All Star Tournament is a double elimination format and seems to encompass about 14-16 different leagues. I will go in greater detail in a later post, but let me clearly state how frustrated and angry I am with the way this is being run. It is a joke! We did not know the time or location of our first game until 22 hours prior to first pitch! Anyway, on to the game.

Our first game was against Orange Olive. We expected them to be a good team, and they were. They were also huge! Add in the fact it was well over 95 degrees at game time and I think our boys were intimidated. At least I hope that is the excuse, because we were awful. Our outfielders had no idea where to stand and the strikezone was so minuscule that any ball that could have been called a strike was drilled to the fence. Add in some other miscues, such as 4 players letting a popup drop between them and we were trounced. It was a frustrating day.

For bonus measure, I ended up as the assistant coach. This was different since I had not been helping at the practices and had to spend some time learning the players names. The manager had 2 assistants, one of whom we knew was not going to be available and another who did not show. So when I was asked to help I did what I could, but it did not have a dramatic effect the 14-1 final score.

Rabbit was OK, but was playing LF for the first time ever and had no help from the CF so he got to run after balls that were not his responsibility. He went 0-1 with a strikeout and a walk and played some 1B and handled himself well there. He was going to pitch the last inning, but the "mercy" rule applied so we did not need him. I expect he will pitch in the next game.

Not a lot of good things to say about the game other than it is over. If these boys want to play more than just two games they really need to get aggressive and play smarter.

On the personal side, Rabbit starts with a hitting coach (the previously mentioned Jason Corapci) on Monday. His new swing looks better and I think it will be a good thing for him. But if I was that smart I would be a major league hitting coach. ;)

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