Game move

First up, reminder this Saturday to be at Jewell at 2:10 for pictures. If you didn't get a form, you can get one there, but bring a check. And as a reminder, no obligation to purchase pictures. The game is at 3. The field is behind the high school.

Now for a game move. The Jr Hi Dance for this Friday has been postponed to Thursday May 6. We had a game scheduled that night. It is against the Devil Rays, another R-S based team. I know where my priorities are, but I'm guessing the majority of both teams would prefer to go to the dance.

So assuming both us and the DRays won't be able to field a team, we need to move the game. How does Wednesday May 5 look? I know that is church night, but I also know a lot of church youth groups are done by May. So I wanted to find out if that will work or not. Please email me with a yay or nay on Wednesday May 5 to replace Thursday May 6.

(above)Junior High Dance

(below)Bob Freakin Feller of Van Meter, Iowa, one of the all time Indian Greats, and the greatest baseball player ever from the state of Iowa. He ain't a dancer.

Indians vs Pods/Dods

First some pregame stuff...Gilbert had 17 kids out for Juniors BB. Not enough for two teams, but a bit unruly for one team. They did not have enough jerseys for one team, so they are officially the Padres, but some kids wear Dodgers uniforms. They don't all come to every game. They split it up some how. So anyway, that's why the two jerseys.

Nice to see Coach Paul Rhodes there. His son batted 2nd and went 1-4 today.

The field was really wet this morning. The league has a new pump, and Jeff and I took about 40 gallons of water off the field. Was still soggy by 2nd base, but glad we got the game in.

Weird plays at the end....Jerald hit into an infield fly (runners on 1st and 2nd and 3rd with 0 out). He was automatically out. The SS dropped the ball. Jerald was still out. However runners can advance at their own peril, whether the ball is caught or not. With the dropped ball, Andrew ran home. They threw home, but the catcher never tagged Andrew, he just stood there, so the run counted.

Next batter, something happened and Spencer came home, probably should have slid, but in my judgment, was not required to. Found out later, both Andrew and Spencer both missed home plate. The Padres coaches saw, and hollered at David the umpire. However David said I can't tell you, you need to run an appeal. Padres coaches were unaware of that process. That is what we talked to the guys about after the game. If they see an opponent miss a base, they need to take the ball, step on the base/plate, and say, "Mr. Umpire, the runner missed the base/plate". The umpire will then agree or disagree. But the umpire cannot unilaterally call somebody out for missing a base/plate. So even though we never touched the plate, the run counts, per baseball rules.

As for our performance, lotsa errors and walks by the Pods/Dods helped our cause. We only had 4 true base hits today, 1 each by Michael, Jerald, Mickey, and Cody.

Everybody scored today but Matt and Mickey. Jerald and Josiah each scored 2 runs. Everybody put the ball in play today except Josiah, fresh off the DL. Josiah did have two walks tho. Spencer, Jerald, and Michael all put the ball in play 4 times.

Hustle down the line got us a couple runners today. Matt, Jerald, and Spencer all got on base because of Padre errors, that the Padres could have corrected if our guys weren't hustling.

Our base running was much improved today, then Jos almost got picked at 3rd for talking to me, and not paying attention. A couple guys did miss signs tho to steal.

Our pitching was ok today, but not great. Too many walks. Our defense had a couple errors that hurt our pitchers. But our defense also bailed out pitchers too. Andrew had a nice unassisted double play. We had a guy or two thrown out at the plate. Mickey whispered a hint to Jerald that the runner at first was sleeping after a pitch. Jerald took advantage, fired over, and picked the runner off. Nice communication guys! Michael and Cody each caught fly balls in the outfield in the same inning. That's real baseball, they hit the ball, we field it.

Ben and Spencer did a good job behind the plate. They let a couple get by them that scored runs, but for the most part, they kept the balls in front of them.

Practice on Sunday from 1 to 2:30. If you have family stuff, that is fine no big deal. But if you want the kids out of your hair, send 'em over.

Game on

Been working on the field this morning, little soggy by 2nd base, but I think we can get the game in. So game on, 1:30 at East Diamond, be there by 1 if you can.

Still a go

As of Friday night, 10PM, we are still a go for 1:30 Saturday.

News and Notes

Hi gang. Hope the rain doesn't wipe us out this weekend, or we are going to go about 3 weeks without a game. Tough to get stuff rescheduled as we have track, and field space limitations.

Anyway, we have a game this Saturday at 1:30 at East Diamond. We might have a practice Sunday, whether we have rain or not on Saturday, but keep that in the back of your mind.

We got our "formal" picture taking schedule. We are getting pictures at Jewell on May 1 at 2:10PM, ahead of our 3PM game. So please plan on being there at that time. I hope to get forms to pass out to y'all. No obligation to buy. I will also have a family picture day at some future game, where I will line the guys up, and you can take your own pics.

As a reminder, here is our "volunteer" concession stand schedule.
Sat Apr 24 1:30 Neil, Nick
Thu May 13 6:30 Matt, Michael
Mon May 17 6:30 Ben, Cody
Fri May 21 6:30 Andrew, Tyler
Sat May 22 1:30 Jerald, Spencer

We are trying to get last Monday's Giants game rescheduled, no luck yet. Also working on getting a game scheduled with an Ames team.

On the good news front, Josiah will be back to join us for our next game.

Practice Saturday, Monday cancelled

We are gonna have a practice at 9:30 AM Saturday until 11AM. I know it is short notice, but we are working around games and other such stuff. So try to make it if you can. If you can't please let me know.

I also got a note about needing to cancel our game on Monday from the Dbacks coach. There is a track meet in Jewell, and they don't want us playing baseball on that field while there is a track meet going on. They proposed some new dates for me, haven't checked them yet, but I know the East Diamond is busy, so we won't be able to go there. So pretty much plan on the game Monday being canceled.

Moms are safe

Well we didn't 10 run our opponent, so the moms don't have to break out the tube tops.

First the bad. We got no-hit. We also had a couple mental errors on the bases, and in not doing backups while fielding.

We lost 8-1, but really, I don't think we played all that bad. We had some physical errors too, but those don't really bother me. The guys are 13 or 14, they are not always gonna make plays.

The thing is, we had some really hard hit balls tonite, but they were right at guys. Finley, Neil, and Andrew all smacked some hard balls. However, we did have our struggles at the bat too. Everybody struck out tonite at least once, except Andrew. We also left 6 runners in scoring position.

We had some nice stuff on defense. Tops in my mind was the grounder to Jerald at first, who had to go to his right to field it, and then there was Neil, covering from 2nd, at 1st, to get the out. That worked like we had practiced it 100 times. Jerald also had some nice backups at short, when our catcher overthrew the pitcher.

Mickey had some nice plays at third, Matt knocked one down at 2nd, didn't initially field it cleanly, but hung with it, and threw the guy out at first. We also executed a run down between 2nd and 3rd fairly well, considering how we haven't practiced it much. I thought Nick did a good job when he was out running the bases.

Though we as a team aren't negative, we still suffer from some indifference. I was kinda disappointed that when we got some baserunners, our dugout wasn't always appreciative of the effort.

I'm trying to get the guys to interact a little more. I made the warmups today that a 7th grader had to play catch with an 8th grader. I really want to see the guys focusing on the game, while in the dugout, and being supportive of their teammates, whether something good happens, or to give them a boost if something bad happens.

Haven't thought about our next practice much. I'm heading out of town, then have some umpiring. Looking like we will have to go with Sunday. Stay tuned...

Ten run Tube Top Tuesday

In case you didn't know, on any team I coach, it is Ten run Tube Top Tuesday for our Tuesday games. If we ten run our opponent on a Tuesday, all the moms have to wear tube tops to the next game.

It's the law, don't question it.

scrimmage commentary

All in all, reasonably happy with the effort today. One thing I was really happy about, and in all the years I've coached, I don't know if I can say this---every player on the team put the ball in play at least once today. Usually at least one kid either walks or strikes out a couple times. And today, out of 25 plate appearances, we only struck out 5 times. That's great.

We were short staffed, so that made it a little weird, but the guys did ok, and had a nice catch by Ross Barclay of the Rays for us in Left Field.

My biggest disappointment is stranding a lot of runners today. We had our opportunities to score, but couldn't come through with the big hit when we needed it. Or we got our hits with 2 outs, and it is tough to get something going then.

Run down of what I most liked about the guys today....
Spencer did a good job behind the plate today--I liked being able to whisper in his ear alot
Matt got the ball in play a couple times, and got on base both times he hit it
Ben had a nice inning of work on the mound, got himself in trouble, and dug out.
Jerald got on base every time he got up to bat
Cody hustling hard to get on base due to an error by their 3rd baseman
Neil had a heck of a bunt, but got thrown out anyway. If he had hit it 5 feet further, he gets a base hit.
Nick had a nice bloop single to lead off an inning for us. Very important to get lead off batters on.

Twas a good experience for the guys. Glad we got that in before our game on Tuesday--and what a great day today was. Tuesday is looking good weather-wise. Have the guys there by 6PM if you can.

scrimmage today

We have a scrimmage today on Sunday from 1 to 2:30 hard stop. Players are to be there at 12:30 to start warming up. If you can't make it, no big deal. A lot of people have stuff on Sunday, and that is fine. Andrew gets to see the Royals/Red Sox down in KC, instead of our glorious Indians/Rays matchup.

Practice on Saturday was ok. Not the most exciting practice. A lot of standing around, as we did live pitching and hitting. But it was something our batters and pitchers needed. As a whole, we did ok considering the amount of practice we had. Batters didn't get a lot of hits into play, which has me slightly concerned, but it may have been the pitchers weren't throwing as many strikes.

Thanks to Mickey and Jerald for coming down to help on the field cleanup. The field is in really good shape. The big fixes were fence repair and working on the infield--moving dirt, adjusting the bases, and fixing the mound.

Weekend practices

Pretty much official now, we are going to have a practice from 1 to 2:30 on Saturday.

Then on Sunday, we are going to have a low key scrimmage/practice with the Rays on Sunday from 1 to 2:30. However, I'd like the guys there at 12:30 for the 1PM first pitch. They are to wear their hat, baseball pants, and a red shirt. Jeff Crisman has the uniforms yet, but we will get them handed out before Tuesday.

Let me know if you can't make the Saturday or Sunday, if you haven't already. We are already down to a 10 man team, so it also would be very, very helpful if you let me know your son can't make a game.

As for Tuesday, try to have the guys there by 6PM. I know it is tough with track and all, but do what you can.

Also a reminder that East Diamond cleanup is Saturday starting at 9, though people will be around for awhile after that. If you can help even for an hour, that would be great.

no track, no rain, no baseball

Well bummer. Tuesday is our night for the field, but there was a track meet scheduled. Then the meet was cancelled for some unknown reason. So no track or baseball tonite.

So for now, our next Indians events are practice Saturday from 1 to 2:30 PM, and Sunday from 1 to 2:30PM. (Tentative) We may have a scrimmage with the Rays in there that will change some times, but for now, that is what we have. Then our opener is one week from tonite in SC.

Volunteer corner!
This Saturday, starting at 9, we are going to be cleaning up the East Diamond. If you can handle an hour or so, parent or player, that would be nice. We are going to clean up the concession stand, rake up leaves, fix fences, fill holes, and so on. Bring a rake, or a shovel, or some fence fixing type tools. Put in an hour, and leave guilt free!

While the above is optional volunteering, I am also sending out some mandatory volunteering (!). To keep our fees low (Ames and Ankeny are way over $100 bucks a kid for LL), we run concession stands. So we ask the parents to take a shift in the concession stand. We have 5 home games, so I am just pulling names from a hat. Please fill them, and if you can't, please ask another parent to switch please.

Sat Apr 24 1:30 Neil, Nick
Thu May 13 6:30 Matt, Michael
Mon May 17 6:30 Ben, Cody
Fri May 21 6:30 Andrew, Tyler
Sat May 22 1:30 Jerald, Spencer

I will send a confirmation about this weekend in a day or so.