Citrus Park Victorious!

A team from Citrus Park Little League in Tampa, Florida just defeated a team from Mobile, Alabama to advance to the Little League World Series . The league has only five majors teams in it to pick from. What did they have that Mobile didn’t have? Pitching! Pitching! Pitching!

Mobile was averaging 1 home run every 5.5 at bats during the regionals! The total home runs tonight? -0-. Neither Little League had EVER sent a team to the World Series.

Pitching Rules Have Changed the Dynamic

I have written about this before, the new pitching rules have completely changed the dynamic of the Little League World Series. Pitch count limits and mandatory rests mean that every team will need to rely on their 4th, 5th, and 6th pitchers. Gone are the days of pitching 2 pitchers until their arms fall off. Gone are the days of 15 strike out games.

Want to get your league to the World Series? Start working pitchers now!

Weekly Practice Schedule

When should you be working pitchers? During the regular season w/ a minimum schedule of:

-Every Practice at least 3 pitchers from each team should be working
-At least once a week every team should hold special pitcher/catcher practices
-Pitchers should have individual coaches that work with them once a week as well

These are minimums! Of course, you should watch their arms as well!

When game are on you should stick to this schedule for a pitcher and work it into the schedule above:

Day 1-Game Day Pitching Ice Arm immediately
Day 2-Day off after game day
Day 3-Soft throwing next day ending w/ long toss
Day 4-Pitch again, or hard throwing if not pitching

This is a good 4 day rotation, but remember, alway adjust depending on whether you pitched a game or simply practiced.

Watch the arms!

Sore arms are normal. The key is determining whether it is just normal muscle soreness or joint/tendonitus soreness.

My Limited Knowledge

The Washington Redskins trainer used to visit us each year at my prior league. He would point out that the reason arms are sore after throwing is that tiny tendons in the muscle are being broken when you throw and that creates soreness. The best way to cure this is run after every practice. This delivers oxygen to the muscle and speeds the healing process. Also, icing immediately to stop the micro swelling is very important.

If the soreness is in the muscle meat part of the arm that is normally not an issue. It needs a little rest and it will be fine. ANY soreness in the elbow or shoulder should be IMMEDIATELY looked at. If you take the point of your finger and apply a little pressure to the joint of the elbow you should get a flinch from the player. BAD SIGN! Stop immediately and see a doctor! If you raise the arm and apply a little pressure on the shoulder or have the player resist your pressure after he makes a fist similar to boxing, and you get a flinch, BAD SIGN! Stop immediately and see a doctor!

The main thing to take away from this year’s world series is Develop Your Pitchers!

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The Little League Mom

(AKA E. Peevie of the Green Room )

You’ve been following the debate , of course, about whether or not I should bring C. Peevie back to Chicago from our idyllic vacation resort in South Haven for the final Little League championship game.

Well, as I reported in The Green Room (http://greenroomthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-are-champions.html ), the family was supportive, so we made the hot, un-air-conditioned drive, and arrived with about an hour to spare. I got comfortable in my folding camp chair in prime real estate behind the Brewers’ bench, where I sat for exactly one scoreless inning.

Then C. Peevie got up to bat with one runner on base and one out in the top of the second. I’ve mentioned that he’s been struggling at the plate, and when he whiffed the first pitch, my stomach lurched.

Moments later my boy scorched a line drive over the third baseman’s head and past the left fielder for a triple—driving in the first run of the game. I left my middle-aged mom self behind and jumped about 17 feet in the air. “Go, Zeusk*!” I screamed. “Run like the wind!”

C. Peevie has many strengths, abilities and assets. Speed is not one of them. And yet that boy—my boy—pulled off a triple, setting the stage for two more runs that inning. The Brewers led until the fifth inning, when the Twins pulled ahead by one run. By the end of the fifth inning, every fan on both sides of the field was standing, cheering every pitch, every play, every blink.

Coach Lou moved C. Peevie around, starting him in left, playing him in center and right, and a couple of innings at first base. Sometime around the sixth inning, he fielded a sharply hit ground ball about eight feet from the first base bag. He knocked it down, and fumbled it for a second. The crowd roared.

Then we saw the kind of smart teamwork that coaches dream about: C. Peevie realized he couldn’t pick up the ball and get back to the bag quickly enough to make the out. Abandoning his feckless fumbling, he darted to the bag. Meanwhile, the second baseman, in heads-up play, scooped up the ball and tossed it over to C. P. at first for the out. On the Brewers’ sidelines, we passed the defibrillator down the row.

Finally, in the bottom of the seventh, the Brewers faced a desperate one-run deficit. Batting for the last time in regulation play, the Coach’s son Tommygun led off, smartly accepting a walk. He easily stole second on a dropped pitch, and the fans urged the batter, my friend ChefKat’s son and wielder of a Big Bat, Nick, to bring him home.

Another dropped pitch, and Tommygun headed for third! We all stopped breathing, and yet somehow we were screaming at the same time! The Twins’ catcher threw the runner out, and we were two outs away from earning a respectable but disappointing second place trophy.

Big Bat Nick came through with a crucial single, and the next batter drove him home, tying the game four-four. We held them in the bottom of the seventh and went into extra innings. Honestly, I do not even remember any details after this point, probably because my brain was too deprived of oxygen, except that there was no score in the eighth, and the Brewers scored three runs in the ninth, and held the Twins scoreless to take the crown.

The boys celebrated with zero-proof champagne, and the adults celebrated with real bubbly. I was so grateful that C. Peevie had this experience, and I do believe the Little League Coach is right: it will remain distinct in his memory for many years, and perhaps even for the rest of his life.

And now I’ve made a deposit in my memory bank as well, one that will make me grin every time I revisit it. The trip was definitely worth it.

*Zeuskarelli is my weird and unlikely nickname for C. Peevie.

(Read more from The Little League Mom, AKA E. Peevie, in The Green Room , where she writes about parenting, politics, and other p- and non-p topics, and even posts a little poetry periodically.)

Guest Post for The Little League Coach

by Little League Mom (AKA E. Peevie)

Here’s the thing. We’re leaving for vacation today. Unfortunately—well it’s actually great, but the timing is unfortunate–C. Peevie’s team, the Brewers, starts the league championship tournament today.

I’m sure this happens all the time to teams and kids and coaches. I remember missing my team’s trip to the state championships when I was playing varsity softball as a sophomore back in the Mesozoic era. My parents made the executive decision that my cousin’s wedding was more important than the state championships. I’m still not sure I agree with them—even from the perspective of a parent facing a similar dilemma.

Actually, it’s not really a dilemma. We’ll leave a few hours later than planned so that C. Peevie can play in his first-ever championship tournament. But the Brewers will have to field a different first baseman for game two of the series, and game three if they split, because C. Peevie will be hitting the beach, not the ball, in South Haven, Michigan.

I’m sure that C. Peevie is disappointed. Whatever. He’s young. He’ll get over it.

But this is really about me, the Little League Mom. What about my feelings? I’m the one whose feet swelled to clown size, whose ankles disappeared, and whose belly was sliced open to get that ball-player on the field today. That’s MY boy out there, pointing to the left field fence and smacking one into the bleachers. Or not—but it’s still my boy making his championship appearance.

I’ve watched him learn lots of life lessons in five seasons of little league baseball—but I’ve never gotten the chance to see him get this close to a league crown and team glory. It’s the right decision, to head up to South Haven after game one. It’s not really much of a choice—the reservations are made and paid, the extended family will be there—but still. The heart breaks.

TTFN, readers, and I’ll catch you on the flip side of the tournament.

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The last two Saturdays we had the honor of hosting sectional tournaments. For those that don’t know, the Little League tournament you see on TV starts at the individual district level and about two months later concludes in Williamsport. It is the greatest tournament on the planet! Likewise, this tournament is held for every division.

The sectional is the portion of the tournament that follows districts. In our section, we have three districts. They play a 3 team, one day, round robin tournament . The first game is 1v2, then the loser plays 3. Then the winner plays 3. The games are at 10, 1, and 4. Needless to say, it is very hot!

What we did right:

1. We had a fantastic city worker to prep the fields for each game
2. We had a fully stocked and staffed concession stand
3. We assigned 2 hour concessions slots to all-star teams that played in the districts
4. We iced down drinks in coolers
5. We had a full blow public address system
6. We played lots of music in between innings and games
7. We sold roster t-shirts to offset the costs of the tournaments
8. We raised concessions prices for the senior boys tournament

What we did wrong:

1. We underestimated the demand for t-shirts for senior boys
2. We overestimated the demand for t-shirts for major girls
3. We didn’t raise concessions at the major girls tournaments

All in all I think we did a fantastic job! While the sectionals tournaments are money losers because you have to purchase the banner, medallions, and pins, they are an opportunity to show off your facilities, city, and an audition for the lucrative state tournaments that come around every few years.

Additionally, our District Administrator gives all of the rain outs and championship games to us for our district top team tournament and all-star tournaments when we host the sectionals for him. We have done very well over the last couple of weeks having to make many trips to Sams!

As I watched the people leave they sincerely thanked us for hosting their kids and had smiles on their faces. That is all that really matters isn’t it?

What is the best thing you have every done hosting a tournament?

What is the worst thing you have ever done hosting a tournament?

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Sorry about missing last night. I turned on the all-star game to watch it and when I woke up it was 6AM. What a game eh? At least that is what I hear. What are they going to do about that? I think they should have a pitcher reentry rule like juniors/seniors. One time only. It puts a manager in quite a quandry.

What do you think? What should they do about extra inning games in the all-star game?

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It’s after midnight and I just got in! Umped major championship after getting field ready. Well, the city guy did most of the work and he wasn’t even supposed to be there! Learned a pretty cool trick w/ a pump to get rid of water, but that will have to save that story for later.

Anyway, losing team was up by 8 in going into the bottom of the 5th and lost on a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the sixth. Amazing. I think we will see more of this with the new pitching rules. Teams are on their 5th and 6th pitchers this late in the tournament.

Sectionals tomorrow have to be there at 7:30! Gotta run!

What’s the greatest ending to a game you have ever seen?

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I think tonight I figured out when things get really ugly. It’s not when the parents yell at the ump, or for their kids, it’s when they yell at each other or at the kids or coaches on the other team! The most amazing part? They are usually wrong! What happens is once you yell at someone else, they are going to yell back, then we got ourselves a fight!

My solution? Tonight I warned each coach that if their parents said another word other than positive to their team that I would clear the stands and we would let the kids play the game. It stopped instantly. The funny part? One coach said, "that might be a good thing!"….lol. Guess he has been getting trouble from his parents as well.

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I saw an all-star coached ejected today for chewing tobacco in the dugout. The use of tobacco products of any kind is strictly prohibited in Little League . While I am not a big stickler on this, I don’t know why anyone would think they could chew in the dugout. At least the smokers know to go to the parking lot.

Should chew be allowed in a little league dugout? What do you think?

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A Noble Effort?

Tonight I witnessed the president of a league argue with a district administrator to get one of the leagues player’s ejection overturned because he would miss the championship game. While this may seem a noble effort on the surface, what does it actually teach the kid? And what kind of leadership is being displayed?

The Circumstances

The player was ejected because he lowered his shoulder and plowed over the catcher when a play was being made on him at home. Little League rules specifically state that you must slide or attempt to avoid contact when a play is being made on you. He chose to initiate contact and was ejected. This ejection would have taken place at just about every level of ball except the major leagues .

To further support the validity of the ejection, there was not a peep of an argument from the player’s manager, coaches, teammates, or spectators. It was truly a "no-brainer" ejection.

Winning or Life Lessons?

With all of this knowledge, the fact that the president of the league in question could argue at all means that more emphasis was being placed on winning the championship in the next game, than enforcing rules, respecting authority, and teaching good sportsmanship. Regardless of the words he was speaking, the results of his actions were saying, "it’s more important to win a championship than assure that the catcher is not injured". Is this what we are supposed to be teaching as officials of the leagues?

A Better Response

A better response would have been to take the attitude of "hey this stinks, but our player made a mistake, he must pay for it, and now each of us has to step up our game a notch to make sure we get to play tomorrow". I was an umpire in a game a couple years back where a senior player was out at first. He took off his helmet and threw it down slamming it into the ground. Again, an automatic ejection. The president of that league was there that time also and I heard him in the stands saying "he had no choice, that’s an automatic ejection, they warn them at the plate conference". That’s how a president should conduct himself. His actions probably averted confrontation from the parents because they were very upset with the ejection.

The team in question this time is coming out of the loser’s bracket, they must win twice before the other team wins once. This means that if they pull off a victory in the first game w/o their player, he will be fresh for the second game. The officials of the league should have this positive attitude about the situation.

A Suggestion

I hope the manager and coaches will have that attitude going into the game on Monday. If they whine and complain, this will be reflected on the bench and the players will give up before the game even starts. Encouraging each kid to step up and play even better than they were before will teach the kids that no matter what challenges they face, they can overcome them.

What is the worst offense you have ever seen an official commit?

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Image by alandberning via Flickr

The softball Gods really don’t appreciate you breaking their rules and they almost always make you pay dearly when you do! Rule #1 of tournament play, you can’t play tomorrow, if you don’t win today, so you can’t save anything for tomorrow!

I tried to make sure all my pitchers were ready for tomorrow’s game. Guess what?! I will be watching tomorrow’s game from the sidelines. I tried to out-smart the softball Gods, and they made me pay dearly. I deserve every bit of it as well. Our #1 was on fire, she was happy, and would have dominated.

I bow to the power of the softball gods and hope that I never cross them again! Hopefully, they will not hold a long term grudge against me!

What is the stupidest coaching decision you have ever made?