Monday, Mar. 07, 2005
Beautiful day, posted at 8:30 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today was beautiful. We practiced until there was no more daylight, did our sprints, and headed home. I'm feeling much more confident about the team after today. I had my six pitchers all pitch a half inning to live hitters. Tom was his usual reliable self; he'll probably pitch opening game. Ben looked terrible, which was disappointing, but no one can be harder on him than himself, so I'm not going to add to it. But the remarkable thing was the four other kids. All threw strikes, all got hitters out, and none pitched for me last year.There was unfortunately too much sitting around today during practice. I have to do a better job of giving tasks to all the kids. I've also got to cut some kids. It's torturing me inside right now, but I've got about 30 kids, and practices with all thirty are tough. I have also decided to keep the two mediocre players who I had cut twice before, so I'm certainly going to run into a spot where I'm going to cut players who are slightly better than those two kids. And then it turns into an age thing, which I think makes it easier for the younger kids to accept; however, I want to keep some younger kids because I have reaped the benefits of keeping 9th graders who weren't very good in each of the previous two years.
Here are the kids I'm debating about:
1. Lee, 9th grade. He's an infielder, and seems to have really solid baseball skills. I like his defense and offense; he's been taught well, but he's raw on both. I've already decided to keep his friend, who is a very similar player to him but seemed to have a slightly quicker bat. He also happens to have two really good bats that he brings to practices, and we're short on equipment.
2. Thomas, 9th grade. He's a 6'3" 14-year old who was a star on the JV basketball team. Great athlete, someone I'd really like to get into the program so I don't lose him to lacrosse. I teach him (he was one of my 8 A's in all the 108 9th graders I teach) and pressured him to try out, but his baseball skills are pretty raw. Not bad, but raw. He hasn't played in a couple of years. I was happy to see him hit the cutoff man today, but his swing is all arms right now.
3. Bobby, 10th grade. I cut him last year. Talks baseball to me all the time in the hallway. Gumpy white kid, reminds me of Bobby Hill from the sitcom. Not a great player, but not a bad player. Second baseman, not a natural athlete, but seems like a smart player. He has age going for him, plus the fact that I cut him before.
4. Max, 9th grade. One of my students. A nerdy, skinny kid, he's surprised me by being able to get around on fastballs by my hardest throwers. Has played baseball since he was three years old, as his mother told me in a worried e-mail. Really nice, quiet kid, would bark like a dog if I asked him to.
5. Victor, 11th grade. Very raw player and a transfer student. Because he's a transfer student (from a bad school that didn't even have a baseball team), and because he's older, I think of him as more at risk than the other kid, and that sports are more important for him. Has been very nice in practices, but his baseball skills are lacking. I think he'd be the kind of kid who would be a quality teammate throughout the year, though.
6. Everett, 9th grade. Hulking 1st baseman type. Smooth in the field, but haven't gotten enough of an impression yet of him at the plate. Very quiet. Not very athletic, but you can tell he knows his baseball.
7. Johnny, 9th grade. Earnest kid who has a quicker bat than I expected. Is basically the white version of Max (#4) - a nerdy, nice kid who isn't a bad little player, especially for a 9th grader. Johnny seems to have very good mechanics and has thrown some batting practice with some measure of effectiveness; he could develop into a solid pitcher if he gets some muscle on his skinny bones.
I have entertained a lot of possibilities in my head; in fact, I'm debating it to death. I've thought about keeping all seven, which would give me 27 kids - the same amount I had last year. I didn't mind it too much, but we ordered our uniforms last year, so we were able to get by the problem of not having enough. This year, we have 22 uniforms and there's no budging that number. Twenty have made the team so far. In addition, practices would be much more effective with less kids; I'm starting to get fantasies of having a team with just 15 guys on it, all bonding and knowing that they have to count on the guy next to them. That won't happen, but it comes closer to happening with 22 than with 32.
I've thought about doing it just by age, and keeping the two non-freshmen in the bunch. I've thought about taking the two kids I think have the most potential - Thomas and Lee - or the two kids who might help out the most in practices - Johnny and Max.
In all honesty, though, I cannot imagine myself cutting Thomas or Lee. But when you get right down to it, I don't want to imagine the conversations I'm going to have with any of these kids. Cutting Bobby for a second time when all year he's telling me how excited he is about baseball? Cutting Victor so he can go hang on a street corner after school instead of playing baseball? Cutting Max when he's been one of my best students all year and isn't a bad baseball player? This is torturous. Torturous, I tell you.
What a big wimp I am.
And damn the city for dropping JV baseball teams.