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Thursday, June 20, 2019

Key to Victory


If you've learned anything about me, you've probably gathered that I hate losing more than I love winning. After wins, I typically yuck it up with my players and their parents. I might talk to a player about something specific I saw or congratulate them for doing something great. We rarely have post-game talks after wins. 

Losses are another story. There's typically a lengthy post-game talk. I still might pull a player to the side and discuss something. More importantly, I usually have some introspection by myself, away from the team and even away from the other coaches. Typically, I start out mad about how bad we hit, then I will cuss myself for base coaching errors, and then I will typically open up the GameChanger App, (you can follow us at AO1 14U) walk myself through the play by play and check the box score.

After a thorough review of this second loss of pool play, before the next game, we have a pre-game talk. First, we discuss why we aren't hitting. We can't win if we can't score and losing 3-2 or 2-0 isn't any different than losing 13-2 or 20-0 because we aren't hitting well enough to make a difference. 

Then I bring something else up for discussion. We shouldn't be losing games with the defense we are putting on the field. From my perspective, it IS about our hitting performance, but it's also about how we are booting easy balls or making terrible routine flaws. More importantly, we are making these impossible plays on defense to keep us in the games and if we could just make the easy plays and put a few more balls into plays, we would win a lot more games.

I call it the razor's edge and this team rides it like no other. 

Let me give an example. It's the last inning and we are tied with two outs. We need to get this last out so we can get back to bat. Batter lays down a bunt, Hay charges, scoops up the ball and fires it a mile over our first baseman's head. Next pitch, runner steals and Key comes up to throw and we get the out. Except the field umpire calls safe because he claims Lindsey dropped the ball, which she didn't. We appeal the call and don't get it. Next pitch, runner executes a delay steal since our pitcher wasn't watching. Key throws a rocket, Hay puts down the tag but the runner cleats the ball out. That's the third time we should have this player out and we should be hitting. If I was the catcher, I'd be losing my mind, first at my own team and second at the umpires.

The base runner is feeling her salt and decides that she's going to continue to mess with Key, our catcher. She dances off the bag the next pitch, just begging to get thrown at. 

She dances too far and Key throws her out at third. 

Great play? Yea. We needed it. 

Routine. At least for this catcher. 

A few months ago, I am talking to a fellow coach and we are talking about pick off plays and what our catchers' throw-out percentage is against base stealers. 

When I gave him my guesstimate of 80%, he laughed. His default response was "well, the base runners at our level are too good to get thrown out like that."

I didn't argue. I don't know what kind of talent he refers to. All I know is what I've seen. I've seen Key hold players at first and third an entire inning because coaches are terrified of what she is capable of doing and does on a weekly basis, or they wouldn't fear her. 

Key, along with her pitcher and shortstop have consistently executed the old first-and-third baserunner steal pick off play to the point that it's become routine. It's so routine, we don't have a visit in the circle to talk about it. We don't even have a sign. If there's less than two outs, she's going to execute it and bait the runner at third to come home. If there's two outs, she's going to throw the runner out at second. I've seen them get both runners out at least three times. In terms of straight stealers being caught? It's gotta be around 90%. Teams don't even bother straight steals, anymore.

What I would give for people to have feared me as a player and keep them conservative. What I would give to have the talent to strike that kind of fear in other teams.  I've been able to do neither in my life. I'd be insufferable if I had. 

So as I sat and wondered how we were staying in games where we were being out-hit 7-2 or 10-5 or whatever, the same thing kept coming up. Other teams could not get free bases on us and when they tried, we got outs. That was all on Key. Key consistently makes these clutch, game robbing, desperation outs.....with the assistance of her teammates of course. We have girls who make circus plays all the time, my own daughter being responsible for a lot of them. None of them as asked to do it every game.

Without Lindsey at short catching those throw downs or Zay's rifle shot from right field, none of those outs happen. Still, catching the ball in that pressure cooker of a situation and catcher's gear is hard enough. Getting that tag down while blocking the plate and doing it consistently is something that few can do. In terms of a team, this team can do the impossible on the field, if they could just do the grind of routine fielding and hitting. 

On the flip side, Key's hitting hasn't been where it needs to be and I've taken it personally that what she does great has nothing to do with me and what she's struggled with IS on me. I pitch to her in the cage enough to know what she's capable of doing to balls, but it hasn't translated to numbers during games. She's getting on base often enough, but she's done it by getting hit, by being walked, and beating out grounders to first. 

More often than not, she's popped up to the infield, not from a lack of power but because she tries to do everything herself, which is the mindset of a great catcher. The other teammates and coaches see the helmet getting thrown, the bat tossed, the scowls, the bad side of her intensity. They don't see the other side of it. There has been nothing more heartbreaking than to be on the other end of the basepath from her as she's having a crying meltdown as she runs to first because she's under-performed again. As far as the team is concerned, Key is emotionless on the field. She's too big and tough to cry. 

Everyone sees the toughness. Everyone sees the grit, ability, and the domination behind the plate. Everyone hears her yelling in the dugout. No one sees her other side. So, in last week's championship game when she absolutely unloaded on a pitch that hit halfway up the wall and never got above 10 feet, I got to see something else no one else saw: the relief in her eyes as she watched that ball soar. 

Key is my Spirit Animal, my Power Creature. If I could be any player on our team, I would be Key. 

She's fearless and relentless, aggressive, quick to forget mistakes but plays with a chip on her shoulder after them. She loves to prove doubters wrong, whether it's about her speed, or her arm, or playing through injuries or errors, she's going to prove you wrong. She wants you to know when you've messed with the wrong player, just as she did with that baserunner. When she doesn't do it, she goes on to the next play. But when she does, which is more often than not, there's no chest beating. It's a point to short. It's a fist to right. It's get back in her crouch and go to the next play. It's getting the catcher's gear off to hit and help her team. 

Obviously, when we desperately need an out, she's one that we can count on to make that out, whether it's just holding on to a third strike, diving for that foul ball, blocking up the plate, or fielding a do-or-die throw from right field while blocking up the plate to save the winning run. And she did all of that just last tournament and she will do it again next tournament, over and over. 

During our tryout last year, Key was the first player to greet me at tryouts and she did so with a hug. Now, I shy away from hugs and I don't like people in my bubble. I especially don't care for any of that to come from a 15 year old girl, especially one that's sweaty and stinky. So after she had jumped in my arms and hugged me, none of which I could stop since she is bigger and taller than me, she smiled as only Key could smile and said:

"Remember when I picked up with your team last year and you said you didn't like physical contact or hugs? I remembered!" 

I was in no position to debate that, though I couldn't really remember her playing and I felt like I would remember her. So, I made an assumption that she must not have been good enough to remember if I couldn't recall a twin blonde braid, all smiles, biggest kid on the field with the biggest smile. 

Almost a year later and I can't figure out why she's still playing for me when she could be playing for anyone else. For that, I certainly thank her and her parents for their trust in me, but coach Alex most importantly for recruiting her and getting her on the field with us. 

I want to bring her out of her shell at the plate. I want her to swing at the first strike and do so without swinging out of her shoes. I want her to see her future and how bright it is, if she will embrace it. I have NO DOUBTS this kid can play college ball, if that's what she wants. She wants me to hug and dance, and wear a tu-tu during games. She wants me to be "extra" when I coach first and dance around. I try to meet her halfway. 

Whether or not she knows it, she's a heart of the team(there are a couple of them) and while she doesn't QUITE embrace it, she's a natural born leader. She has all the qualities if she will just put it all together. She's who we send to the circle to calm our defense. She's who we turn to to get the dugout loud. She's who we will bunt when we need to move a runner, even though she's one of only three on the team capable of hitting a dinger. She's so close to being as good as player as she is a teammate. And what a teammate she is. 

 She's our Key to Victory.
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Monday, June 17, 2019

Fight Through the Night Together

The Importance of Being Well Rounded
I Ain't Never Been Nothin' But a Loser

It was just after game three of the day and I was standing just outside the tent city that our team would call home for 21 hours. I can't recall if we had a team talk as we usually do after games. The hotter and later it gets in the day, the more we typically just let the girls decompress before we reassemble for the next challenge. It was hot and it was late, not in terms of the time, but because of losses that were piling up. 

I felt the losses piling up on my shoulders like the weight of the world. Through three games, we had been outscored 16-1, 2-0, and 6-5. It was essentially the mirror image of the week before and the week before that. Can't hit. Can't score runs. Can't win. 

I sensed doubt in the players. I sensed doubt in the parents. That could be real or imaginary. I had doubts in myself and that was very, very real. I was worried that our players had lost faith in us and the parents wouldn't be far behind. It happens all the time and you can't blame parents for wanting what's best for their players. 

Doubts. Regrets. Questions. 

I'm not saying I know much about hitting. It's not like I went to a hitting coach school and I never played fast pitch softball. I was never a great baseball hitter. As these thoughts piled up, I reached the conclusion that maybe it was time to seek help or accept reality that I had overstepped my bounds and ability. 

In these dark moments, you analyze everything. What are we missing? What's the X-factor? How can we motivate them? How can they grow as a team?

Over the last month or so, we've identified and addressed team chemistry a lot. They weren't fighting for each other or pushing themselves past their preconceived ideas of their abilities because they weren't seeing their teammates doing the same.  "Getting along" has been the focus because we thought that being a family off the field would make them a family on the field, which would likely fix a lot of what we were seeing. They are a group of really good players playing well below their ability. 

All they needed was that galvanizing tournament. They needed that moment when it wasn't just difficult but hard to seemingly even impossible to win. They needed to hold not only their teammates accountable, but more importantly themselves and they decided that 11 girls would push together in the same direction. It's so easy to point fingers and fracture that trust and push each other apart. 

Game four is an elimination game at 6PM. In all honesty, I fully expected to lose and go home. I didn't see a team that wanted to fight through the night and all the way through the losers bracket. They are smart girls. They know how schedules work. I wasn't going to be shocked if they lost and we were home by 9PM. I wasn't going to be shocked if parents and players alike started looking elsewhere. Who could blame them? 

In the pregame we take a different approach. I went right at them. I told them up front that this was the same shtick they've heard from a dozen different coaches a dozen different times but I wanted eyes on me. All of them. And I better have their attention until I was done talking. 

"Do you want to be here? Do you believe in us? Do you believe in each other? If any answer to those questions is no, then let's call it and go home.  Don't get there and decide it's not worth it. Accept the challenge or let's walk away. Decide now if you want to fight through the night together and win it all, or let's go home now." 

And then I did the hard part for a grown man. I had to be emotional. 

"We love each and every one of you more than you know. You have to love each other and us, not in the personal sense but how we coach and believe in you. This is never going to work if you can't love each other and us. If you doubt, you are on the wrong team." 

Instead of trying to be the home team at the coin flip and worrying about that first inning, we decided that we would be the visitor and we would take it to the opposing team. 

And then we went to work. 

8-3 win and we never trailed, but more importantly, when the team scored, AO1 dropped a six run last inning on them and buried the team from North Georgia. Ball after ball is barreled. Three doubles and one triple on the six total hits. 

Then it was the team that beat us 16-1 with first pitch at 9:45 PM. The team from Cobb County Georgia punched A01 right in the mouth in the first inning, dropping four runs after A01 put up 3 in the top of the inning. 

Here is that moment. This has been the situation that has demoralized this team game after game, week after week. Couple that with the knowledge that if they win, it's three more games back-to-back-to-back. In the way lies a one-run deficit to a team that blasted them earlier in the day. 

AO1 scores one run in the second to tie it and hold the team hitless. Something is different with the team. Coach Alyse is yelling at Emma, the pitcher, to keep giving 100% every pitch. It's a reminder for her, but also for the defense behind her to give their own 100% and have her back. Emma pushes harder than I've seen in the years I've known her. Alex has the defense and pitch calling down. The defense is pushing behind Emma. Both teams are hitless and scoreless in the third. 

It's 4-4 in the fourth so we go to International Tie Breaker. Now we have to hit. Now we see if they've responded to me as a hitting coach. AO1 drops a five run fourth inning on them and backs it up with another flawless inning to win the game. Nine hits. Nine runs. Emma throws four innings of hitless ball and has pushed herself passed what she thinks she's capable of. More importantly, it sets the bar for the rest of the team, but most for the next pitcher, Deanna whom I refer to as "Smoke". 

It's 11:45 PM for the next game against another Georgia team. The bats are still white hot and swinging with confidence. AO1 is up 6-0 in the bottom half of the last inning when the team scores two meaningless runs. "Smoke" throws 60 total pitching in the game, 35 for strikes while piling up six Ks and allowing just one walk and two hits. Smoke has always had the capability, but we've never seen her push like that before. It's inspired pitching in front of a defense she knows will have her back. 

It's now 1:10 AM on Father's Day and we are on to the first Championship game against another team that beat us earlier in the day. 

Alex asks the girls do they want to be home or hit? It's unanimous. 

"HIT!"

AO1 throws three runs on the board in the first. Smoke shuts them out in the first. Nothing for us in the second. Smoke gives up a homer with one out. Promptly walks the next hitter. Then the next. Then a triple. It's a tie game. 

Here we go. This is when the wheels come off. This is when the defense fails the pitcher and the pitcher fails the defense and the hitting fails all while the blame game spins in the background.

But Smoke is angry. Weak groundout for out two. Three straight strikes to end the inning. Nothing for either team in the third, so again we go to ITB. AO1 throws up two runs, which would have been an impossibility before now. 

Leadoff reaches on an error and now there's runners on first and second with no outs. It's Gut check time. A past ball puts the tying run in scoring position. Ball hit to second. Aubree goes to Emily at first with it. Emily goes home to Key. Double play at the plate. Next batter ends the contest on a dribbler to Smoke. 

It's 3:07 AM and we start with a Shoot Out game, which is essentially ITB rules for one inning. First two hitters strike out and things aren't looking so hot but Hay is up and she's not only our best over-all hitter, she's been on fire the last four games. First pitch she sees, she destroys. If not for the humidity in the early morning air, she'd have a homer. A01 is up one.

Other team scores one and we are headed for another inning before the umpires inform us they've had enough softball. We are forced to call the "if necessary" game a draw and split the championship. No fancy talks. No trophy presentations. Just one little girl in the car with me having an absolute meltdown about how hard her team pushed and how far they came and had nothing to show for it. 

I feel for her but I'm smiling at 5AM while driving into the sunrise. 

Nothing to show for it? Not true. 

Not when you fight through the night together. 


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Fishing Report for Wheeler 6/13/19

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Hey fishing buddies. Bet yall think I quit fishing. I didn't. Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind, cause it has. But I dismissed the thought pretty quick cause my parents didn't raise no quitter.

But I've been struggling mightily this year. Losing tournaments and struggling isn't a new thing. I'm not a great fisherman to begin with, but when you have a year like this year following a year like last year, writing about fishing two days after getting curb stomped is hard. It's been tough to talk or write about fishing when you are doing your best to forget your performances from 48 hours ago. I'll go into that more in a later post, but let's just say that finally "getting on the board" this past week felt good and it made me feel like writing. 

Some of you will snicker and say that it's easy to write in the good times. Hey, you're right. No one comes here to read "fished again yesterday and didn't catch anything." 

As I alluded, last year was a banner year for me and my partners. While we struggled in the Alabama Bass Trail, we still managed a check in our first year and we absolutely cleaned up in our clubs. It wasn't just me because both Brad, Josh, and Wyatt were striking gold on their own without me. Brad won two really good club tournaments without me in the boat. 

Conversely, we cashed one check in ABT and we've bombed essentially everything else we've fished this year. I mean, we've been MILES out. 

The Thursday night Wildcat out of Ditto Landing has been fairly mystifying for us because of how locked down we had that lake leading up to the ABT 3 months ago and then being unable to do anything afterwards. That stretch of river can be mystifying. All last year, we had the lake clocked but the fish have not been in the same spots. They also haven't been in any spots they've traditionally been in, either. Truth is, the fishing for everyone has been really tough but we were determined just to go have a good time and hope to luck into some fish. 

Josh and I ran up to the dam with no plan. We typically start near or at the mouth of a small feeder creek. Last year, it was lights out all summer but this year we've only managed to catch a fish or two on it each week. With only 3 hours to fish, you can't afford to have that happen. I've made the joke that when that spot is on, I've always caught this one fish on topwater on this exact cast. She's not been there all year and that's been a sign of how the evening would go. But I gotta make that cast, anyway because when she's there, she's a decent fish and she's a sign that we are going to do well.

So, I toss my XCaliber Zell Pop onto this clay bank that has a huge laydown on it and she's there. Slurp. I boat a nice river two-pounder. There's never been another fish there, so I toss my bait back and I'm not shocked that there isn't another blow-up. We fish the point a few casts with nothing to show. Then I decide to throw a Texas rigged worm into that same spot and as I'm swimming it back, the rod loads up and I swing aboard a second keeper. Josh pulls another keeper off the same spot. I snag a fourth on my next cast. We fish it a few more minutes without a bite, but don't get bit. Still, it's 5:47 and we have four good river fish.

The point doesn't produce, which it's struggled to do all year so we decide to make a move. We fish about three other spots that have consistently held fish in the summer without a bite. Since we have four decent fish, we don't mess with The Nursery, a spot that holds small fish in big numbers, but never any good ones. We decide that we need a kicker and with 45,000 CFS of current, a solid number in this time of year, an offshore rockpile smallie would fit the bill. 

So, we motor over to a stretch of river that has four consecutive rock piles in 14-16 feet of water. We make some casts to the bank and bring it back to the boat. I lose a small fish, as does Josh. Then we begin working the main channel drop that has the rock piles on it. Josh picks up a jig and starts dragging it along the rocky bottom. I pick up a Strike King 6XD and start chunking and winding. 

This spot is super sticky and IF the fish are there, the quickest way to make sure they leave is to get stuck and retrieve your lure. So, when my crank starts dredging the bottom, I slow it way down. As I'm crawling it, I get a slap but the fish doesn't hook up. I make the same cast but when I clear the boulder, I hit the brakes instead of crawling it. Rod loads up and I boat swing number five. I do it again and catch another. Then another. Because I am on the back and fishing at specific angle due to Josh's presentation, he re-positions the boat so we can both effectively fish. 

The next 15 minutes were like what we experienced last year. Fish after fish after fish. It didn't matter what we threw, as long as we found the rockpile. The highlight was a 2.75 smallie I caught on the 6XD that went skyrocketing to the moon when I set the hook, which is totally a smallie thing. We catch a few here and there. Make some small culls, but the bite dies eventually and we didn't catch another fish the rest of the evening. 

All told, we caught around 20 fish with our best five knocking on the door of 10 pounds. It wasn't the best bag and the struggles to find a good fish continue, but it was enough to pocket some money and finally get on the right side of the board. Winning bag was a little over 11 pounds. There aren't a lot of quality fish being caught on that end of the river. Don't know why. We know they are there!
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