Starting a few weeks before opening day, Logan's team had a lot of scrimmages. The coach and a few parents have shown concern that it looks like the team is still rough around the edges.
I can see what they're talking about, but for the most part, that's what the scrimmages are for. The season doesn't start for another week, and for the most part, all the other teams will be in the same boat.
It doesn't take much observation to realize that natural talent is the biggest factor in sports. No amount of work, effort, dedication, is going to overcome a lack of basic natural tools. (I know this from firsthand experience. 99% of an athlete's success is determined at the moment of conception, in my opinion. It's honing the remaining 1% that determines how far most athletes will go.)
Last night, we scrimmaged the other Sylvania U9 Mavericks team. The way things went, the best 12 players from the tryouts are on Logan's team. They are the "heavy" team (because our travel schedule is heavy with out of town tournaments and more games played) or the "blue" team (blue uniforms).
They played the "light" team, or the "black" team last night.
I was curious to see the level of play for the other team. After all, the two teams comprise the top 2 dozen players from a tryout of between 150 and 200 kids. I'm proud that Logan made the heavy team, but probably would have been just as happy had he made the light team.
The light team was motivated, which is to be expected. Kids are competitive, even at this age, and I figured the kids on that other team would really, really want to show that they were every bit as good as the kids selected for Heavy.
We arrived, and because of spring break, we were shorthanded. We had just 7 players.
As our players rolled in one after the other and we wondered if we would have enough to even have a meaningful scrimmage, their team was already there, looking sharp, listening to coach's directions and running through drills.
Almost any observer would have thought that they were better disciplined and simply wanted it more.
I went over to a batting cage to warm up Logan. He struggled for a little bit, then started crushing the ball. I am astounded at his progress at bat in the off-season. Last year, he had a perfectly flat swing. Better than an uppercut swing, but not quite what you want to see. This year, he has a gorgeous, major league swing. Probably the only thing he needs to work on is getting a little harder hip-turn on the ball, but other than that, his swing is a beautiful thing to behold.
When we returned, our kids lined up to warm up throwing, then line up for fielding drills. These kids have always been talented, but the off-season work and another 3/4-year of growth has produced a dramatic difference.
(We had indoor facilities to practice in all off-season and practiced twice a week.)
They were fluid and crisp in fielding line drives and their throws were remarkable. Logan has gotten to the point where, at age 8, he plays baseball better than I ever did, and probably ever could.
I glanced over at the other team and saw that they were doing the same drill, but had more difficulty fielding cleanly and making the throw.
A few of the other dads and I expressed relief that our kids were actually better. Not so much because we wanted them to be superior, but to validate that our kids belonged on the Blue team. Nobody wants to see a situation where their kid was selected, but didn't truly deserve his spot.
I think each of us had a worst-nightmare of seeing the black team and thinking, "Oh my... there's half a dozen kids on that team that should have beaten my kid for a spot on blue/heavy."
I also think that it's awesome that the rec district is sponsoring two teams, not just one. For one thing, Sylvania has two High Schools. So, they should be trying to cultivate two capable teams. For another, kids develop at different ages and breakout at different ages. So, some of the kids who are currently playing heavy might drop off and some who are playing light may move up over time.
The more participation, the better. Every one of the kids selected for Mavericks baseball should be very, very proud.
During the scrimmage, our team's skills really came through. Our pitching was faster and more accurate. Fly balls were handled routinely. The team made good plays on line drives. It wasn't perfect, but it was very, very good.
This is the 4th team we've scrimmaged, and against 3 of them our team was so far ahead of the other team, it was difficult to make a comparison.
In fact, I found myself thinking, "Wow, we should really be doing a lot better against this other team."
Really, that was the wrong emphasis. I should have been happy that our team was demonstrably better.
The only team we weren't clearly better than was the Maverick's U10 Heavy. Frankly, we held our own. They were clearly the better team, but it's not like we didn't belong on the same field. And one year, at this age, is a huge, huge advantage.
In an interesting note, we played an entire team that's playing in the U9 league, but whose players all qualify to play U8. (U9 means "under 9" and U8 means "under 8"). Our team was clearly better, but again, those kids were competing. I was thinking, "Wow... we're really not all that good... those kids are 8 years old."
It wasn't until later that I remembered that Logan and 3 other kids on his team (out of 11 players) also could qualify for U8 if they wanted to. So, it's not like everybody on our team was a lot older.
The format of these scrimmages makes it hard to tell how well/poorly the teams are doing, too. Basically, every inning, both teams bat their entire lineup. So, at the end of an "inning", we might score 6 runs, and the other team might score 1 run. However, we might have gotten, say, 8 outs during that inning where they may have only gotten 2.
So, when it seems like our kids should be doing better, the reality is that during a real game, they won't be out there facing 11 batters if they get 3 outs on the first 4. At this age, their attention tends to wander later in the inning after they've been out there for, say, 5 outs.
We scrimmage 2 more times before next Tuesday's opener. I fear that the opener will be one of our tougher games.
It is against an independent Sylvania team, the Copperheads. They played together last year. So, they've established a chemistry that our kids won't have until they've played a few games together.
To boot, Logan and a few members of the U9 Heavy tried out for the Copperheads and were not selected. A couple apparently were offered spots on the Copperheads, but chose to play Mavericks because that's where their friends play.
They're a Sylvania Team, but I don't know much about them. The kids don't go to Logan's elementary school that I know of, but Sylvania and Sylvania Township is about 65,000. So, there's a lot of folks I don't know. I think they also allow players from some of the more rural areas west of town to play.
I think our team can compete against anybody, but it would have been nice to play the Copperheads later in the season after we'd played together a little while.
Ultimately, though, I think we'll do fine. The suspense is half the fun, anyway.
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