.::discover::understand::be::.

johnny bench and the bunch.

i think one of my greatest summer memories as a kid was watching the "baseball bunch" with jonny bench and all the all stars that show up... like reggie, brett, robin yount, gary carter, steve garvey, the goose, and of the real star of the show, the san diego chicken.

i remember that following the bunch was "this week in baseball". i always felt like it was a "big person's show", maybe because it was pure highlights of great plays and collisions and home runs that were in the week previous. it was awesome!!! ya gotta remember, that this was before ESPN and sports center really took off. cable was just being introduced in my neighborhood. (do you rember those boxes with the long cord and the slide channel selecter and all the cable channels were letters...wow!)

with that little memory pressed in my mind i am bringing you my own version of "t.w.i.b". i guess this will be my "twib notes" enjoy.

tuesday:
the knicks had thier first game. (the knicks would be ryder's t-ball team, which i coach) we did a great job. i don't kow what i was thinking, i made a line up through all 6 innings. we were lucky to get three in!! in our league every kid bats...every inning. there are no outs... ever. no matter how far the hits go, which usually isn't more than a ball glove past the pitcher, the players may only advance one base at a time. all that being said... it is a VERY LONG GAME! thankfully there is a time limit of 1 hour.

our kids did a great job. we have the kids "stretch" before the game. we get them to count as loud as they can. i am finding out quickly that we are the only t-ball team in our league, maybe the country, that stretches before a game. but... our yelling is always fun and it proves to be kind of antimidating. (is that ok in t-ball?) before our game i went and met the other coach and he said to me, "hey my guys are a little scared of your guys. they heard you all yelling over there before the game." i replied... "we came to play. don't expect any mercy!" (actually i didn't say that, but that would have been cool.)

of course the game ended in a tie... when you look at the rules... there is no other possibility.

wednesday:
the watermark softball team played better, but we still ended up a few runs short losing 10-8. but on the positive side of the field, we did play all seven innings! hofma must be our lucky field. both games that we played there we went the distance. yes... moral victories may be all we get.

thursday:
game two of the knicks season was AWESOME!! even though we don't record outs, we would have recorded 17 outs!! that is just unheard of in jr. t-ball. it was quite helpful that the opposing team hit 80% of thier balls to the pitcher and to second. short throws are always to the advantage of the defense. ryder played great. he had two put out of his own, one was a hot shot up the middle and he went to his back hand and did a leaping derek jeter type throw from the edge of the grass to beat the runner by a step and the other he was playing second and was going to his right, scooped up the ball and took it himself to get the force at second and just missed turning two... the hitter was a lefty and took advantage of the two step head start. the ryder man has a future in the bigs... heads up jeter!!

NEXT WEEKS GAMES:
tuesday 6pm @ ferrysburg elementary
wednesday 7:30 @ HOFMA
thursday 7:15@ ferrysburg elementary

think of mel allen as we sign off.

"we'll se you all next week on this week in base-ball. take care everybody."

posted by nathan sean @ Friday, June 16, 2006