10. I will learn AND REMEMBER every kid’s name on the team BEFORE the end of the season.
9. I will only say “come on blue” once per inning. (Will probably be the first one to be broken)
8. I will maintain my cool when one of my players runs full speed to the next base on a caught line drive for the 5th time in the game! (Probably not, but again, sounds good)
7. I will be on time to every practice.
6. I will have a plan for every practice. (Yeah right)
5. I will focus on the field and not the pretty moms in the stands! (Again, unlikely)
4. I will draft kids for their commitment to team and not their ability…(sure)
3. I will not argue with anyone from a city who’s name starts with D…(anyone believe this?)
2. I won’t let uniformed parents with nothing better to do with their lives than complain bother me. (This one I will keep)
1. I will remember that 10 years from now, none of this will really matter except the impact I have on the kid’s lives.

Now don’t go gettin’ your panties all in a ruffle…just a little fun for the end of the year.

What’s your resolution?

Today I recorded my first radio appearance on the inaugural Chuck and Cody Sports Report on wnzf in Flager County, FL. It was a blast! Chuck and Cody are father and son sports fanatics that discuss the local, Florida, and National Sports scene. I was brought on to participate in the local portion. It was pretty fun!

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of going on a radio show w/ a 15 year old kid, but Cody is amazing! He rattles off stats, has bold opinions that he stands behind, and goes toe-to-toe with Chuck, his father, without hesitation. I was very impressed!

My part of the show focused on the upcoming spring baseball season with jaunts into steroids, character, and volunteer opportunities, of course. At the end they play a game of trivia called “Break the Code”, a play on Cody’s name. There you have to ask him a question and if you stump him, you get a prize. He nailed mine! Oh well, I always say only a fool would try to outsmart a teenager!

The show will air Saturday at 10AM on FM 106.3 and AM 1555. Those of you outside of Flagler can listen live on the web at www.wnzf.com. That’s where I will be Saturday morning! Come on, let’s crash the station!

Listen to the show here: http://wnzf.com/archive/chuck_and_cody_022109.mp3

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We had our first round of tryouts tonight and everything went great! One thing I noticed was how well schooled the kids were. We have been blessed with very good coaching across the board and it shows in the mid-range age 8-11 year old players. There were no kids, other than the brand new ones, that weren’t fairly fundamentally sound.

The other part of the equation was that they actually performed those fundamentals properly! This just goes to show that they are learning them and capable of performing them when “in the spotlight”. It is important to make sure they understand they are in the spotlight every time they field a ball be it practice, a game, or in the back yard. Fundamentally sound players will excel more often than not.

Travel practice tomorrow, then final round of tryouts on Thursday!

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This is the first in a series of cool drills that I find that I am going to post. The first is a good double rotation drill in the infield that keeps everyone busy. The key to a successful practice is keeping everyone busy! If kids are standing around they get bored and practice is no fun.

No matter what the drill you are doing think of a way to get the kids moving and then they are conditioning and don’t even know it. For instance, on this drill I may have the kids rotate their positions every few rotations. In other words, 3B runs home and slides, catchers run through first and stop at first, ect. Of course, I do this more in the fall and w/ the younger kids that don’t have positions yet.

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For the first time in a long time we had the entire family together last week at Islands of Adventure. The flip mini and Utube are a lethal combination. Here are some videos:

Arriving

The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride

Dueling Dragons Roller Coaster

Preparing to meet Spiderman

Meeting Spiderman

Incredible Hulk Coaster

Storm Force Accelatron Teacup Ride

The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman

The Cat in the Hat Ride

Obviously, a good time was had by all.

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Every day it seems that life goes by faster and faster, but does it really? How often do you take the time to just sit back and reflect on everything that has taken place over the last year? The last 5 years? The last 10 years? It is amazing how much occurs in those short time spans.

Look back over any period of your life a year or more and it is amazing what you have accomplished. We need to remember this, especially in down times like this. Ten years in my life are pretty major. Ten years ago it was 1998. I was five years into my voice/data company and on the verge of huge success!

The .com revolution was about to begin and we were positions perfectly to capitalize on it. It was a wave that we surfed for about 4 years. Those were some good times! I am still paying the tax man to this day because of the boon we had then!

We had a thriving business, a boat, a condo on the lake, a condo in Myrtle Beach, brand new cars, and 50 employees. It truly was a license to print money. But just as fast as the good times came, they came crashing down as well. I was fortunate enough to be based just outside of Washington, DC and the growth there was exponential. But so was the demise.

During the boon times, we would get calls every day begging us to send fiber technicians out at $125/hour. There were not enough workers to meet the demands. People were building and building and we were installing miles and miles of cable and the electronics to support them. Again, it was out of control. All good things must come to an end.

First it was MCI going bankrupt, they set up there headquarters right in our backyard, they were a huge source of business for everyone in the area, then AOL left town. It was not pretty. The subsequent effect caused many businesses to go bankrupt and we were shorted over $200K in receivables. Could we have survived? Probably, but we would have had to completely reinvent the company, there was no longer much need for wiring, everything was going wireless and we were in no position to compete w/ those companies.

I tell this story not to depress you during the times we find ourselves in, nor to pity myself, but to show you how much can change in that short time. Ten years ago I was on the verge of huge success, why can’t I be now? Why can’t you be now? Look back at your life ten years ago, hell, I only had 3 kids and two babies then! Now I have 3 kids playing ball and another that will start next fall!

Now do this, it is truly a great exercise, look back 10 years, see yourself, where you were, what you were wearing, who your friends were, where you were hanging out, what city you lived it, who your girlfriend or wife was, what job did you have? Then take all that change that has happened in the last ten years and project it forward! Do the same exercise.

-See yourself
-Where do you want to be?
-Were will you be hanging out?
-What city will you live in?
-Who will be your girlfriend/wife?
-What job will you have?
-What career path will you take?

The only thing I know for sure is, wherever life takes you, you control that path. You make those decisions. As Yogi says, “When you come to a fork in the road take it”. One of my favorite sayings back in the good old days of my company was, “the only bad decision is no decision”. Failure to act results in no results. Even if we make bad decisions, we still learn from them and that is a positive. If baseball and softball teach of nothing at all, it is that we need not dwell on our failures, but learn from them and make our successes that much better. For a failure only means we are one step closer to success.

Where will you be in 10 years?

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Now that the season is over, take this week off and enjoy Thanksgiving w/ your family! Then, start planning for next year! Ask yourself, what is the one thing I can do to make my league or team better next year? Then start working towards making that happen. If every coach and board member across the world did that can you imagine how much progress would occur? The power of numbers if phenomenal!

What is the one thing you will do to make your league better? (Firing me is not an option!…lol)

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Two weeks ago we had a major incident in a game that involved a team and a league with which I have very much respect. They are our closest friends, as far as competitive leagues go, and we often help each other out. It was an unfortunate and disturbing situation that could have festered and grown into a long-term feud.

Today we had to play the same team again. Our coaching staff and team made a conscious decision to “let bygones be bygones” and just show up, play our best, and allow the kids to have fun no matter what the circumstances. It seems their team did the same and, even though we lost the game, we had a fantastic time at their park.

Again Ms. Peevie, both teams truly had a choice. I will repeat again what one of my old girlfriends used to say quoting her mother, “If you are looking for trouble, you will find it.” This is so true. I would translate that to this situation as “If you are looking for a fight, you will find it.” Had either team shown up “looking for a fight” they probably would have found it somewhere.

But that’s not what happened. What happened is all the adults involved took the high road and taught the kids on both teams how to put our differences aside, focus on the objective at hand, and just go out there and play the game. This was obvious from the time warm ups started and I am proud to say that I was part of it.

How many times in your life have you had a dispute, argument, disagreement, or outright fight with another person, only to end up being best friends? Why is it that this happens? So often we look to that person next to us and say to ourselves, “How did I ever end up teaming up w/ this guy?” My assistant coach during the spring is a guy I have the utmost respect for, but when we were on different teams we were always at odds. Now together, we are very powerful.

Who was it that said, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?” So what happens when our enemies become our friends? What human dynamic causes this to occur so often? Passion is an emotion from which we derive so much pleasure, but it is also a major cause of dispute. This is prevalent throughout all societies.

My first Real Estate instructor was the most colorful instructor I ever studied under. He used to take the boring legal parts of the real estate game and paint them with passion so vivid that his students would get lost in the particular dispute he was discussing. He would always end every one with one or the other parties saying, “it’s the principal of the thing.” At this point he suggested we pack our stuff up, walk out of the room, and let the attorneys figure it out since they were the only ones who were going to get paid now anyway.

Coaches are passionate about their teams, parents are passionate about their kids, kids are passionate about the game, this is a recipe for conflict. If we recognize and understand this, we can overcome anything that occurs “on the field.”

I preach to my kids every game, “what is the most important pitch?”. The next one of course. We can’t change the one before it no matter what the outcome. Therefore, if we as the adults put prior “pitches” behind us and focus on “the next pitch”, we are certainly better off. If we hold on to hostilities, no matter how justified, we are simply “looking for trouble”. Do we really want trouble? Is this what we want to teach our kids? Do we tell our kids as they go off to school, “go get in trouble today honey.” Of course not, we say “have a nice day”, or some other semblance of good wishes.

So why do we so often show up at games “looking for trouble”? Don’t we know we are certain to find it? Today anyway, everyone involved decided to put our troubles behind us and let the kids enjoy the game. I am proud to say I was a small part of this situation and know in the future, our relationship with this particular league remains in tact, as it should.

Who is your best friend right now that you fought with initially? Please tell us the story, we would love to hear it!

Halloween is one of my favorite nights. In Virginia we lived in a neighborhood where the children filled an entire school bus and our neighborhood in Florida is no different. We literally go through five or six large bags of candy every Halloween. I am always afraid we are going to run out as I am the assigned candy doler-outer. Halloween this year falls on Friday night so it should be a much bigger event. I think I will great all my trick-or-treaters as an ’80’s rock star!

Maybe I will crank some new Crue, Metallica, throw in a little Ozzy and some poser rock for the chicks…lol. I wonder if I will just scare the trick or treaters away? While I once may have looked like a studly rocker, now I would probably be akin to meat loaf. Not that Meat’s music is bad, but I have never said, “man, I want to look like Meat Loaf.”

Anyway, I was perusing Halloween Costumes on the web and I found the awesome 1980’s rock star wig pictured above. With some temporary tatoos I will be stylin! Maybe I will break out the black King V and lay down some whicked Megadeth liches for the kiddies. You can take the rocker of the band, but you can never take the band out of the rocker.

Check out Halloween Adventure to find the perfect Halloween Costumes for your personality. They have everything you could want and more. Hurry over now and order.