Fall Baseball Practice

As I did with JP's Dodgers, Joe's Dodgers are practicing twice a week during the fall season.  Not everyone can make the Tuesday night practice due to conflicts with other sports and the fact that it runs late, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm.  The ones that make it on Tuesday nights, though, are the ones that really love baseball.

That was the case last night, when I had Joe, Ram, Troy, Nico, Bennett, Huck, and Henry.  Five of my original guys and two of my other, more recent favorites.  I'd like to think that my love of baseball and my style of coaching has something to do with the fact that these boys I've coaching seemingly forever - since they were five years old - are making the effort to get a late practice in on a mid-week, late August night.

The suffocating August heat finally has broken, perhaps because we're about to turn the page on August and begin September.  It felt like fall was, maybe, in sight at last.  

As I told the dads who were helping me - Ben (Huck) and Brad (Bennett) - there is nothing better, to me, than a mid-week fall baseball practice, under the lights, with 11 year old boys who love baseball.  There is such an innocence about the boys that's ephemeral.  I could sense it last night, as the boys threw to each other to get warmed up, then sat on one knee around me as we discussed how the season has gone so far.  I love holding court with the boys, talking with them, and answering their questions.

The boys long tossed for arm strength and worked with a couple of them, individually, on throwing with their shoulder and not their elbow.  We took some infield and, afterward, had time for two rounds of batting practice.  One longer one, then one shorter one.  One of the advantages of having fewer boys at practice - seven last night - is it's easier to get more work done.

When we finished right at 9:00 p.m., I gathered the boys around me.  Sitting on my bucket of balls, I told them how much I loved practicing baseball with them.  I told them I'd had a bad end to my day at work and that it really lifted my spirits to spend time with them on the baseball field.  I thanked them for giving me the opportunity to catch them.  

For an old baseball coach like me, it was a perfect fall night.  A perfect fall baseball night.