No one should get overconfident, but there is a chance Big Blue might actually get to play some baseball games this weekend. The weekend slate begins with a Friday night scrimmage against the Blue Sox. That begins at Hank Anderson Park at 6:15, with BP scheduled for 5:30. We are wearing the navy all-star practice shirts (with the number on the back) and gray pants.
Beginning Saturday, we will play in a five-team machine-pitch event, the AAU Fall Super Regional in Clemmons. Game times can be found here. We are wearing blue jerseys on Saturday and white jerseys on Sunday. Coach Sean will be wearing this jersey and rooting on Big Blue from out of town.
In order to prepare for the five-game weekend, Big Blue went through a strenuous practice on Tuesday. You will note the in-state players are on the field, while the out-of-state players can't be seen. That is because they are waiting in their individual team-issued RVs. As soon as an in-stater made an error, they were immediately escorted from the field and the next Florida/California player was brought out from the RV. The departing player was sent off with a salute from our special guest coach.
Big Blue gathered Friday night for a solid 90 minutes of practice, featuring some stellar pitching by Coach Ken and quality relief work by Coach Eric, who picked up the save.
But the highlight of the evening was the arrival of the blue uniforms (the whites will arrive later). I was able to snap a photo of Coach Sean wearing his jersey at practice:
What? You don't see Coach Sean in the picture? That's OK, because that's the same view you're going to get of Asher when he sprints around the bases in his adult medium jersey. However, I do expect him to be a defensive wizard, since we can position him right behind second base and use the shirt as a tarp to catch any balls hit into the outfield.
That reminds me: please check your shirts and make sure you got the right size. We are also looking into having the hats embroidered, so stay tuned for more information on that.
Big Blue is off until Tuesday's practice, at which time we hope to have more information about next weekend's plans.
Just kidding. We all know we won't really know for sure until next Friday around lunch. But let's continue with this charade until Tuesday.
Not too long ago, Coach Sean devoted a few minutes at practice to explaining the finer points of baserunning on the left side of the infield. "Always see daylight between his hand and the ball," he advised the players, meaning before you take off for the next base, you should make sure the defender has actually thrown the ball.
As we saw this summer, even major league players sometimes make a mistake on that play. And based on last night, it looks like they can do it even in the heat of a playoff chase. This time, it was Baltimore's 20-year-old third baseman, Manny Machado, who made the tricky play, catching Rich Thompson off third base and even fooling the TV cameraman:
"That is a veteran play by a raw rookie...an unbelievable play."
You're probably wondering why we are writing blog entries and not emailing you with a schedule update for this weekend. It's because we don't really have an answer yet, but you'll be getting an email later today with a final verdict. In the meantime, we do have practice tomorrow (Friday) from 4:30-6 at Ephesus.
In the course of recorded history, there have been numerous important "firsts."
Well, now you can add to those momentous occasions:
Yep, the first fall Big Blue practice. You will notice that Coach Kevin, Coach Ken and Coach Bruce are not in the above picture. You may also recall that at the last all-star practice, Coach Sean orchestrated a water balloon sneak attack on the coaches. Coincidence? You decide.
After a few minutes on the field, it was obvious that some of the group was a little rusty...but enough about the coaches.
The highlight of the early part of practice was the around the horn drill. Now, by "highlight," I mean "Never let Coach Sean set the rules of a game that involve you." Because he decided that if the players got the ball around the horn five times, the coaches had to do 10 push-ups. And if the players got the ball around the horn 10 times, the coaches had to do 25 push-ups. It was around this time that I noticed Coach Steve slinking off the field and moving safely to the "fan" side of the field as opposed to the "coach" side. The rule was that if the players didn't make it five times, then they were the ones that had to do push-ups.
Despite multiple tries, the players didn't meet the requirement of five consecutive trips around the horn (and no, no push up-wary coaches tried to make interceptions). Unfortunately, because Coach Sean believes in teamwork or positive reinforcement or some such nonsense, the coaches did the push-ups with the players. Can't wait for next practice!
Practice concluded with a quick scrimmage. Sadly, the 9U team needed the field, so Adam didn't get to give his quick speech on the wonders of the three-hole punch. Parents are reminded that if you haven't turned in your uniform information, please do so as soon as you get a chance.
By the way, if you do nothing else today, you need to watch this video, courtesy of Dan, who somehow managed to hold the camera steady even when Ben came up with the big walk-off hit:
Almost as much fun watching it the second time as it was being there the first time!
