Joey Baseball

I'll cover it at length at some point but for reasons that were out of my control, Joe and the remaining "Junior Dodgers" - Ram, Trey, George, and Nico - ended up without a baseball team to play on this spring a week and a half before the signups for WNSL closed.  Through a fortuitous set of circumstances and after I spent a week working the telephone - and with absolutely no help from Oliver Davis, whom I had coached with on the Diamondbacks for three years - I found a spot for the boys on the Nationals in the WNSL Majors (11 - 12 year olds).

It's been an adjustment to be sure, for Joe and me, playing with different boys and me watching and not coaching.  Again, another story for another time, in terms of how it all went down.  For now, though, we're moving on and enjoying playing baseball with the big boys.

Early in the season and as was the case last season, too, Joe has lost velocity when he's pitching.  I'm convinced he threw harder from the mound when he was nine years old, almost ten, then he has the past year or so.  There's nothing wrong with his arm because he makes all the throws from shortstop and I've seen him throw runners out at home as the cutoff man on balls hit to the outfield.  Also, when he warms up or we long toss, he hums the ball.

What I've decided is that when he pitches, he aims the ball rather than just letting it fly.  There are probably multiple reasons for that but it's been frustrating - for him and for me - to have him take the baseball to pitch and end with balls that have a noticeable arc to them.  This is especially true when he one of his 10 year old all star team's most dependable and durable pitcher last summer.  

JP and I took Joe to David Lipscomb last Sunday for a pitching workout.  I caught while JP stood with Joe and fine tuned his delivery a bit.  Then, JP and I switched, and he caught Joe while I modified his starting position from the stretch, the position of his feet, and worked with him on balance, driving with his legs, and allowing his momentum to take him toward home plate as he finished each pitch.  One workout with more to come because we agreed that Joe was pitching his best a couple of years ago - during the pandemic - when JP was throwing with him every day.

Last night, because he's Joe - and I'd like to think because he's my son - he told Coach Troy he wanted the ball against the Dodgers.  I love that about him.    

Joe is the youngest player on our team.  He's young enough that we could have played him down this season with the 9 - 10 year olds but he didn't want that and I didn't want that for him either.  JP and the Dodgers always moved up early and that's what we wanted to do with Joe.  Better to struggle, early, against 12 year olds, hitting and pitching, then to dominate 9 year olds.  

At any rate, Joe's work over the weekend immediately paid dividends last night.  It was clear he was throwing harder from the get go without sacrificing much control.  I had told him, multiple times, that I was okay if he walked batters as long as he was throwing hard.  He may have walked one or, maybe, two batters last night, but he also struck out seven batters in three innings.  

Now, the Dodgers we played were not very good at all but, still, Joe was throwing hard and piling up the strikeouts.  It was a good, confidence building game for him.  His hitting was average, at best - we're working on that, too - but his pitching was much improved.  The outing was something for him to build on, for sure.  

The key thing for me, of course, is that Joe wanted the ball.  It's the same with JP, too.  He wanted the ball - and he'll get it - this afternoon when MBA plays David Lipscomb in the first round of the HVAC middle school baseball tournament.

Gamers, both of them.  And I love it.