taxpreparer said:
lobopride said:
rab79 said:
Pretty accurate. My criteria as a Little League coach for putting someone at 1st base was whether or not he could catch reliably. That was all I cared about.
Mine for right filed in girls softball was someone who paid attention. I wanted someone who would reliably back up throws to first; whether during a hit, or a pick off by the catcher.
Ditto on the previous post - I played first because I could catch anything thrown my way and I was the coaches son (through 4th grade) but did not pitch. I was also bigger so I had no fielding range but I could hit.
On the second one.....
Then you were extremely lucky to have 9 (10 in softball) competent players if you could afford to put someone that paid attention in right field. We were always challenged to hide 1 or 2 players and hope nothing went their way in softball and baseball (youth levels). Once you get to 6th grade or higher though the ones that suck have been weeded out as they don't enjoy playing any more once they realize they are the weak link.
I say this as the father of a terrible baseball player - whose Aspergers and ADD did not help - he was done after 4th grade. My daughter played softball through 5th grade and she was good played shortstop or 2nd base but we never had a field of 9 or 10 players that all paid attention.
My son was big and strong for his age and renowned for being able to hit the ball to the wall and still get thrown out at first. Not kidding. But we worked on that, mostly an attention thing, after he hit he would be completely distracted and lollygag to first until we started yelling out the seconds and challenged him to make it before we hit 6. Then he would usually not get thrown out any more.
My son also made the greatest unassisted triple play in the history of baseball. Well it was great anyway:In his last season his coach, who was just great and a former minor leaguer who had a few callups to the majors, decided the last game of the year (before playoffs) that my son needed a chance to play infield - he was always in right field due to his lack of attention. He asked me about it and said he was nervous cuz he didn't want him to get drilled by a line drive or something. So we put him on 3rd for one inning late in a game and I was on the side behind the fence keeping him focused before each pitch.
The game ended up with bases loaded and no outs in the last inning. My son was literally standing on 3rd base as he didn't understand positioning (and we told him to play 3rd base) but we didn't care that much it was just to get through the inning - if we lost the game it did not hurt us in playoff seeding.
So sure enough a line drive is hit right at my son. It would have missed his head but miraculously I have no idea how he just sort of reacted with his glove hand and wham the ball went right into his glove.1 out. The guy on third left the base when the ball was hit and just kept running and since my son was already standing ON third base that was 2 outs. The guy from second - not realizing he had caught the ball as he was just standing there not knowing what to do and the base coach was distracted by the guy that took off from third - ran from second to third and ran right into my son still standing on the inside of the bag with ball in glove. 3rd out as the contact occurred before he got his foot to the bag.
Bam. Triple play. End of the game. My son was literally the hero. lol. He had no clue what he did except catch the ball. That was actually the last year that he played. A good end to his "career".
