Baseball awakens the senses
Major League spring training doesn’t start until next week, but
Hollister Little League’s version of spring training
– the first practices – got going this week. Baseball is big in
this town.
From tryouts a few weeks back to the major division draft
earlier this week, the calendar says it’s still winter while the
sound of leather gloves popping says otherwise.
Baseball awakens the senses
Major League spring training doesn’t start until next week, but Hollister Little League’s version of spring training – the first practices – got going this week. Baseball is big in this town.
From tryouts a few weeks back to the major division draft earlier this week, the calendar says it’s still winter while the sound of leather gloves popping says otherwise.
Typically, the onset of baseball practice helps wipe away the winter doldrums. Since it has been unseasonably warm for much of the winter, the doldrums haven’t set in. Regardless, dusting off the throw-down plastic bases, searching for the bucket of baseballs and slipping on last year’s hat gets this coach back into the spirit.
I’m in my fourth and final year coaching a Little League major division team of 10- to 12-year-olds. I have had the good fortune of coaching both of my sons, including two years when they were on the same team, which made the hassle of shuttling them to practice and balancing game schedules much easier.
When I took over the team, my older son had already been there for a year and he was 11. Now, he’s a few months away from trying out for the high school baseball team. My younger son was 9 during his first year in the majors, and now he’s getting the speech from dad that he has to be one of the leaders on this year’s team because he’s 12.
A good portion of the players on my team have been there for three years, which in kid years is a long time. Just like with teaching, some of the greatest joys in coaching do not come just from watching the talented kids succeed, but from watching the marginal ones find success that they – or I – didn’t anticipate.
Some youth baseball players have been working out since last season ended, taking pitching lessons or playing travel ball or hitting into a net. Others set their gloves down in June and didn’t pick them up again until this week.
I’m a believer in the “take a break” method of training kids, which means not forcing them to play the same sport year-round. That way, they get excited about the onset of a new season, not burned out by it. It also helps parents, as we can get burned out as well.
Baseball is always discussed in terms of the senses, with references to the smell and color of the grass, the sound of the ball off the bat, the feel of a glove on your hand, the taste of the hot dogs we eat while watching the games (or, as is the case at Vet’s Park, the tacos). That’s what makes it so special.
To non-fans, baseball is boring. It takes a long time and there can be long stretches during which there is no scoring. To fans (and coaches) baseball is a strategic game with many intricacies and layers. Kind of like chess, some say, but chess is boring, so I don’t like that comparison.
On my Hollister Little League team, I have a 10-year-old fourth-grader and 12-year-old seventh-graders. I’ll probably have some parents who don’t like my coaching decisions and others who won’t care what happens as long as their son is not complaining. My coaches and I will have to figure out who is going to play where, who is going to pitch, and who is going to get less playing time than others.
But that is for later. This week, we dusted off the cobwebs and welcomed back the grand game that reminds us that summer can’t be too far off.
The spring-like weather of recent weeks may have left us for awhile, but spring is here in Hollister, the senses awakened once more by baseball.
