The Little League Coach

Arena Football Season Canceled

In my lifetime I have seen many leagues come and go. Soccer seems to be the most difficult to implement in our country, but the old Amercan Football League, the Extreme Football League, and countless others have come and gone. Today, we lose the Arena Football League. (I know they say they aren’t folding, but we all know that is BS).

This has a direct impact on our league because we are fortunate enough to host a family with a coach from one of the teams. He is not only in our Little League, but the kid played on our travel team as well. It is a tough business he chose, and he makes no excuses for it, they apparently move often. I am not that close with them, but I have spoken on occasion to them about this subject.

I don’t know what will come of the AFL, quite frankly, I wasn’t that big of a fan. It wasn’t really football in my mind, it was more like sandlot stuff more closely related to flag football than the NFL. It makes me wonder though, what about the NBA? What about the NHL? Both of those leagues have a number of teams in very small markets and exorbitant payrolls. The AFL had minuscule payrolls relatively speaking.

Today, we have no real idea what we will be doing tomorrow. Will we have a house? Will we have a job? Where will we be in 10 years? I was fortunate enough to receive a quote today from justsell.com that sums this up. It reads:

“A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Irish playwright and critic

When I read it this morning, I figured it was just more ammunition for me to use w/ my wife about all my prior business screw-ups, applying it to the AFL anyone affiliated with the organization should be honored. I agree. I don’t care if you like it or not, they stuck their neck out and gave it everything they had, win or lose.

I haven’t talked to our friend yet, but I am certain he isn’t sitting around whining about losing his job today. I bet he is making calls, networking, and making sure his resume’ is up to date. As the quote states, mistakes are honorable. As I tell my players, striking out only means you are one swing closer to a hit.

How do you handle your mistakes? Do you learn from them? Are they opportunities?

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General
Arena Football League, Fantasy, football, George Bernard Shaw, mistakes, National Basketball Association, National Football League, NFL, nhl, Sports
16 December 2008 comment TrackBack-URI

Football, Cheerleading, and Soccer Trophies

As the seasons wind down, it is time to purchase Football, Cheerleading and Soccer trophies. A great site to purchase from is Trophiesales.com. They have a wide selection of Cheerleading Trophies as well as just about any other type of trophy you could ever want.

The site boasts secure ordering, great prices, and 100% worry free shipping. They have cups, columns, resins, plaques, and medals and a wide variety of each. Additionally they have Football Trophies and Soccer Trophies ready to go and ready to customize.

You are not alone though, they have live representatives available during business hours to fulfill your orders or answer any questions you may have. They accept all credit cards and ship anywhere in the United States via UPS.

Visit this link for all your Cheerleading Trophy needs.

General
Award, Cheerleading, football, soccer, Sports, Trophies, Trophy
24 October 2008 comment TrackBack-URI

Gameplan Your Season Like The Redskins Plan Their Games

How about them Redskins? 4-1 and 2-1 in their division with all 3 games on the road! In the NFC East, the best division in football, this is huge. But how do they do it? And what can we learn from it?

First, I don’t miss a single play thanks to my DVR and my NFL ticket subscription. This is still cheaper than the season tickets we used to have and better to a degree. Especially in January when the high temperature is expected to be single digits and we have three layers of clothes on.

I did not originally buy into Jim Zorn’s system. I hate the west coast system in general, but I do love Jim Zorn. Growing up, Kenny Stabler and Jim Zorn were my heroes because they were left handed. But a rookie coach on the Redskins with a new system? Oh no, what a recipe for disaster! Fortunately I was wrong as usual.

But how do they do it? Meticulously and methodically. When I think of the west coast offense I think pass, but the ’skins have a balanced attack. They use the run and the pass to keep opponents on their toes, but in the end of the game, they run, run, run, and dominate with ball control.

Why are they able to do this? Because they have a plan, they wear down their opponent, then they take advantage of them in the last 15 minutes as they are dead because the ’skins have controlled the ball the entire game. It is like a boxer that jabs, jabs, jabs, then in the 7th round or so begins big shots that have a detrimental and disastrous effect.

What can we learn? Many things, but the focus of this post is the big picture. It is easy to get caught up in the moment and forget about the big picture. When the ’skins were down 14-0 in the first quarter they could have panicked and thrown the game plan out the window, but they stuck to their guns and in the end were successful.

How does this apply to the big picture? Because it doesn’t matter if you win in the fall. The fall is about building skills and readying players for the spring. The steady and methodical repetition of each player should be the focus of the league. Getting kids to understand all the positions on the field by having them play all the positions when it doesn’t matter enhances their overall understanding of the game. Then they know what others are supposed to do in a given situation and reaction becomes intuitive.

Batting the entire lineup gets every player more at-bats and moving players up a division when they are borderline improves their skills. Enduring excruciating walks while developing pitchers and watching kids steal while a new catcher evolves is part of the process. Win/Loss records are unimportant. Anyone can win in the fall, it is the spring that matters. Developing skills and understanding of the game should be the focus of the fall season. This goes for every level of play.

What do you do to help kids learn in the fall that you may not do in the spring?

General
fall season, football, Jim Zorn, National Football Conference East Division, National Football League, NFC East, NFL, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins
5 October 2008 comment TrackBack-URI

Misc. Ramblings September

Finally Football season is in full swing

Finally football all weekend long! The college kickoff last week was a tease, but now the real thing, the National Football League! My Redskins looked very lethargic, but they had a formidable opponent in the likes of the defending super bowl champions. Hopefully next week will be better. Could be worse, I could be a Patriots fan! Talk about trouble!

Baseball Playoffs Start Soon

I love pennant races, but man, I can’t wait for the playoffs to start! There is nothing better than a game seven in the playoffs. That’s when you see players like Randy Johnson pitching relief!

Story Ideas

Writing for a living is really fun! I am beginning to understand how to do it and it is quite a pleasure. I fire story after story after story off for MyTopiaCafe.com. Very interesting stuff.

$500/day

That’s my goal! It shouldn’t really be that hard either. That is only one ebay sale, 10 stories, 5 sales, whatever, it isn’t that hard to do. You want to make $100K/year? You don’t even have to make $500/day! Bet when you looked at the figure you said, “I can do that”. What is your goal? If you make just $100/day you make $36,000 per year! Want to make $100K? You need make only a little more than $300 every day. You can  do that cutting grass can’t you? Sounds a little more attainable when you look at it like that doesn’t it?

Fall Season Starting

The fall season is starting and I will be coaching three teams! Senior softball, major softball, and minor baseball. With my younger boy starting T-ball next year it looks like I will have three teams for quite a while! I guess I can kiss any semblance of life goodbye.

My Friend Said Spend Time With Her

My friend said to sit down and watch some TV with my wife no matter how tortuous. Said that’s what she wants, but she won’t tell me. I don’t know, is he right? Is it really that simple? It can’t hurt, I spend every waining minute in front of the laptop, maybe a few with her would be rewarding.

Tahoe has Defect

Found out our Tahoe has a defective air conditioning system that will cost $2,750 to repair! Hard to justify that kind of money going into the winter! Have to have air conditioning in Florida though, guess we will be trading it in next spring. I better get making my $500/day!

Local Rules

Every league should have its own local rules that are more restrictive than Little Leagues. My favorite for the fall season is no pitcher shall pitch more than 2 innings. This forces the coaches to develop pitchers.

General
baseball, Florida, football, National Football League, NFL, Super Bowl, The Football League, Washington Redskins
7 September 2008 comments [2] TrackBack-URI

Little League World Series Schedule Finalized

Here is the finalized Little League Baseball World Series pool brackets and play as well as the television schedule. Too much to watch w/ the olymics, the world series, football starting, baseball getting hot! I love this time of the year!

2008 Little League World Series
Williamsport, Pennsylvania – August 15 – 24
(All times listed are local. Box scores are unofficial.)

Winner is the Little League Baseball World Champion

Retrieved August 11, 2008 from the Little League website.

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baseball, brackets, football, little league, Little League Baseball, Little League Baseball World Series, Little League World Series, schedule, Sports, television, United States, world series
11 August 2008 comment TrackBack-URI

Little League to Use Replay!???

I Hate Replay!

First, let me got on the record as a HUGE hater of instant replay! I hate it in football because it slows the pace of the game, it often kills momentum, and it makes referees change the way they make their calls.

The Great Debate

Of course there is a huge debate about whether to use replay in baseball or not. I was watching a Yankees game a while back and I forgot who it was, but they pulled a hook down the third base line. The ball appeared to be foul. The UMP called it a home run! Every camera angle had the ball hooking around in front of the foul poll, it was obviously not a home run! Or so we thought!

There was one guy who was sitting next to the foul poll. He ended up w/ the ball. He was swearing up and down through his body language that it was a home run. They sent their roving reporter out there w/ a camera and on the very far left (foul side) of the poll was an obvious ball mark. The ump got it right! Replay got it wrong!

Absorb It

I don’t really care if the call is right or wrong. Whatever the ump says it is, it is. Move on. Mike Soccia, manager of the Angels, said it best when the ball obviously hit the dirt when they were playing the White Sox in the championship game a few years back, "We didn’t play good enough to absorb it." One bad call does not a game lose, why would you want your momentum killed right after you hit a home run?

The pitcher is shaken, the next batter has a huge advantage, why do you want to stop the game to painstakingly review whether it was a home run or not? The ump called it what he saw it to be. That’s what it is, move on and play through it!

From the Pres.

From the Little League Website I copied this quote from the Little League International President:

“We are able to do this because all 32 games are televised on the ESPN family of networks,” Stephen D. Keener, President and Chief Executive Officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, said. “As we have seen even in the professional ranks, these calls are among the most difficult for umpires to make, for a variety of reasons. Using video replay, in very limited situations and on an experimental basis for one year, simply gives us a better chance to get these calls right. In 2009, we will evaluate the program and decide if it will be used again.”

Do you smell a fish? I do! If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, probably a duck!

I have been watching the Little League World Series since I was a kid. For those of you counting, that makes about 40 years now. I cannot remember one single controversy over a home run in the Little League World Series.

The fence is so short, there are not strange angles or areas as there are in the major leagues, and the 5th and 6th umpires are right on top of the plays. Why do we need this?

The Cynic in Me

hmmmmm….The cynic in me remembers that last year ESPN gave Little League Millions of Dollars to cover their World Series. In exchange, Little League demanded they cover every division. A great deal for both parties!

But, who covers more Major League games than any other network? ESPN, of course, might it be in their best interest to have instant replay in the major leagues? What does that mean for them? An additional commercial spot! The "Chevy instant replay challenge" maybe? Do you think Little League decided on replay or do you think that ESPN sold the idea to them? My money is on the latter.

All for Making Money

Most of you know I make my money in the advertising business. I understand why both parties would do this. Again, win-win for everyone. I just hate replay, it isn’t natural, it doesn’t belong in any games, ESPECIALLY LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL GAMES!

I already have my concerns about 11/12 year olds playing in front of 50,000 people. Talk about pressure! Now you are going to subject them to the excruciating painstaking wait of whether a ball was a home run or not? What about the kid on the mound? What if this is to decide the game? An instant call is devistating, but kids get over it quickly, but are you telling me that if there is a foul ball in the bottom of the 6th of the championship game in a 1-1 tie you are going to stop the game for 5 minutes and review the shot?

He’s Just a Little Boy

Then what if you determine it is a home run? The image of that kid breaking down will be capture for a lifetime! After standing out there in the middle of 50,000 people on national television waiting for what must seem an eternity you are going tell this kid "no that wasn’t a foul ball, that was a home run and you lost the game". He will be devistated! Tarnished for life! And what if the call is so close that it could have gone either way? This is just wrong! Have we forgotten that these are little boys out there? They are not grown men.

I am all about teaching life lesson and building character. But instant replay is not the way to do it. Let the kids play, the umps ump, the coaches coach, and the parents have heart failure. Last year instant replay showed that umpires were consistantly calling strikes 6" off the plate on the outside corner. That’s what we need to fix! BUT NOT WITH REPLAY!

Do you think replay belongs in sports?

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baseball, camera, debate, ESPN, football, hater, home run, Instant replay, little boy, little league, Little League Baseball, Little League World Series, Major League Baseball, Sports, world series
2 August 2008 comments [2] TrackBack-URI

Misc. Ramblings

Clinic On Saturday

We are holding a softball hitting clinic on Saturday and I can’t believe the response we have gotten! Guess we will have to find some additional help! At least the kids are still pumped to play.

Own It

What do you do when you screw up? Do you try and hide it? Avoid it? Or do you own it? This is one of the best lessons we can teach our kids through sports. Own it! Make an error? Apologize and get a hit! Get picked off? Make a diving catch. Own it and make up for it!

Fall is Coming

The fall season is coming! As frustrating as it can be, it is still one of my funnest times. Our fall season is instructive and not competitive. It gives the kids a chance to move up a division and get experience there for next year. The problem is, other leagues keep teams from the prior year together or play too competitive in the fall. In the end, all our kids get better and in the long run, that helps us to excel.

Fall Means Football!

Woohoo!!!! Time to waste away every Sunday for 3 months! Go Redskins! Can you say Jason Taylor? Too bad Sean Taylor isn’t there as well. They would be hurting people very bad! The NFC east is still the greatest division in football. Always has been, always will be. Of course, I hate the Cowboys, hate the Eagles, and dislike the Giants, though I dislike them the least of all.

Fall Means Playoffs!

The fall means baseball playoffs! There is no better time in baseball than the pennant race and the playoffs. Does it get any better than a game seven? Where else will you ever see a team’s ace pitch relief on 2 days rest? I love the fall!

Endless Summer

Of course since I have moved to Florida we no longer have a winter. Yeah, I know, it gets down into the 50’s every once in a blue moon, and people here wear layers! But, really it never gets all that cold. Gotta love it! I moved here because when I was visiting, on a January 15th, I remember the date, I was in shorts, playing golf w/ aligators lounging on the fairway! It doesn’t get much better than that!

Time to Get Busy Again

I have been off and had much time to catch up on chores around the house, online, and here at the site. Very nice! But I am done! I need to get back on the field and start working! Hopefully I will pick up some more individual training clients to keep me busy until we start practicing again.

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clinic, fall, football, Jason Taylor, National Football Conference East Division, NFC, NFL, own it, playoffs, Sean Taylor, softball, summer, Washington Redskins
30 July 2008 comment TrackBack-URI