Note from Sat and Sun

Something I forgot about Saturday's game. Grant had a great steal of home. He was on 3rd, and gave me the look of "I want this one", and didn't say a word. I simply said, "If you feel it, take it." He got a running start, and with an assist to Zach, Grant was able to steal home.

So how did Zach help? Well from my angle at 3rd base coaches box, with his ample girth, Zach caused an eclipse of the Grant. The catcher could not even see Grant, as Zach was basically in the catcher's line of sight, as Grant ambled down the line. By the time he noticed, it was too late, run scored.

On a note from today, Kudos to Grant's mom (she has a name, but is widely known as Grant's mom) came in 2nd place in the home run derby at the end of practice. One of the hits was one crushed to center field, well over everyone's head. If we are down to 8 sometime, I might slip a Brewers jersey on her, and send her out to the field.

Jeesh, another wild one.

Lotta stuff to comment on, on this one. First, and it is unusual for us, I was more happy with our hitting than our defense. The D was kinda shoddy today. Maybe that is lack of practice, or the tireds. I don't know. I'm not mad, because I can deal with physical errors. But it is frustrating.

But on the bright side, we did have some nice defensive plays. Grant made a nice play at short over to Will at first. Matt had a nice catch in foul territory at 3rd. Cody to Grant, C to SS on steal attempt in the first, and the other way around in the 6th, Grant to Cody SS to C to get the out on the steal attempt.

Our pitching was pretty solid. Mickey did a solid 4 innings on a warm day with 8Ks. Jerald and Spencer did a good job in relief.

On the batting side, the obvious one is Jerald's bomb. I've coached or umpired well over 100 games at the Carousel, and I can only think of 2 or 3 hit balls over the tennis court fence. That was neat to see.

Everybody put the ball in play today except Spencer and Zach. Spencer's day at the plate is the weird one. He walked twice, doubling his season total. Matt had a nice shot to CF, unfortunately caught. Will has come around with the bat. Kent has really worked with him, and it seems to be paying off. Cody and Grant each had extra base hits too.

And who can forget the new Dylan? A little mixup left Spencer back in Roland (and thanks to Chad Hartzler to go to fetch him) So since the real Dylan was gone today, and we were down to 8, so I called up Dylan Rivers (Mickey's brother)from our farm team, the Rockies, and he played a solid right field for us, for one inning until Spencer arrived.

And much like the movie, Field of Dreams, Dylan played the role of Moonlight Graham, playing one inning in the outfield in the majors, and never got the chance to bat. However unlike the movie, unless Dylan goes to medical school next year, he will get a chance to be in the majors in the NSCLL next year.


Practice tomorrow at RMS from 1 to 2:30. We need it.

Game at Gilbert at 6PM on Monday. Maybe if we get rained out, it will get moved to Tuesday. I hope so, because we still have not had a chance to implement Ten Run Tube Top Tuesday. (Any time we 10 run an opponent on Tuesday, all the moms have to wear tube tops to the next game)

Year end tourney update. We now are going to finish 2nd or 1st. If we finish in first (still a chance) we will play in Ankeny on Saturday June 13 at 2PM, and if we win that, on Sunday in Ankeny at 1PM. If we finish in 2nd, we will play in Roland or SC at 6PM (possibly 8) on Friday June 12. (and then Saturday, and then Monday if we keep winning)

Year End Tournament schedule

Our last regular season game is Monday June 1. Though long term forecast is indicating dicey weather for next Monday. If we get that one rained out, we have until June 6 to finish any regular season games.

For the post season, we have two scenarios. The least likely is that we somehow pass the Braves in the standings, or that we end up tied with them, and then with a coin flip we win the league championship. If that happens, we will play in the District 3 Tournament of Champions in Ankeny on Friday June 12 and/or Saturday June 13. It is a lose and you are done tournament. Win, and you keep playing, pretty much the next day. The bracket is not out yet, but our first game would be the 12th or 13th, depending how the bracket is laid out.

The more likely scenario is that we hold our place in the standings, and finish 2nd. (we still could finish 3rd too, but the sitch remains the same) If that is the case, we will play in the local tournament on Friday June 12 in Story City or Roland. It is also a lose, and you are done tournament. If we win on Friday, we will play sometime on Saturday, probably with a start time in the 10AM to 1PM range. Then if we win there, and assuming rain doesn't back the tournament up, we would play in the championship game in Story City at 8PM on Monday June 15. Rain would back everything up by a day, so keep the 16th free if possible too.

Nice win, kids drove me crazy

Nice win tonite. What I really liked about it is the kids that have been struggling with the bat, were the ones that did the best with the bat. Will looked awesome with his 3 hits (one was caught, but that is fine). Maybe it sunk in to him to stop dipping. He stopped that, and got hits. When he doesn't dip, he has one of the best looking strokes on the team.

Zach had two good hit balls, again one was caught, but that is fine. Matt had a nice base hit. Looked kinda goofy, but it did the trick. Spencer had a super bases loaded double. I love that.

Speaking of Spencer, great job by him pitching tonite. In two innings of work, he struck out 6 (he did allow one base hit tho). He hasn't pitched since opening night. He does a good job for us catching, so I kinda forget about him pitching, but I thought I'd give him a whirl tonite. He did great. I pulled him because as long as he stays under 40 pitches, he can still catch later in the game.

Mickey got in the zone to finish it out, He struck out 7 of the 9 batters he faced. Mickey also had a solid base hit in the 2nd inning. Best looking hit ball of the night.

We put the ball in play 18 times tonite. I like that. We struck out only 7 times. So for the most part. we hit it, they made the plays. I'm good with that. Our pitchers only walked one tonite (Jer had the one). Considering David's strike zone seemed a little on the small side tonite, that is an excellent job by our guys.

As for the kids themselves, they drove me crazy tonite. They wouldn't shut up in the huddles pre and post game, and just generally acted squirrly. I shouldn't say all, if I am going to point fingers, it was the 5th graders. The 6th graders actually were pretty decent in the huddles. As a whole they didn't seem into the game in the dugout. I'm not going to go Bobby Knight on them tho. At least not yet.

The next Brewers event is Saturday at 1:30 (note the time change) at the Carousel. No practice Friday--no field space. Schmidtty is going to be gone and/or still on the IR, so if your son is going to be gone, please let me know so I can attempt to score a pool player.

Brewers player stabbed today

By himself. Dylan apparently thought it was a good idea to try to open a box of mac and cheese with a butcher knife. Anyway it looks like he has some stitches in his left hand for now. For you bettors, his status for Monday has been listed as "Questionable" by the league.

As a reminder, no practice on Sunday. Enjoy the weekend (with some at home practice). Game Monday in Roland at 6, be there by 5:30. Also bring cameras, we will take team photos after the game, if it is nice, and not dark.

Game time change and photo night

We have moved our game on Saturday May 30 from 3PM to 1:30 PM. There was an 11A and 1P game at the Carousel that day, but the 1P game got moved. So to keep my umpire busy, and not leave a hole in the field usage, we just moved the game up. We may start a little earlier than 1:30 if the game in front of us gets finished up quickly. So 1:30 is an estimated start time. So if possible, have the guys there at around 12:45 on that day. I'll get you a reminder as the day approaches. Let me know if that time change poses a problem.

As far as I know, everybody will be in Roland on Memorial Day night. And if the weather holds, we are going to make that family picture night. We'll line everybody up for a post game team picture, so you can get one, if you didn't buy an official team picture.

I wanna add something else

Despite my below comments about our hitting, it did improve over the Mets game. We tried to talk and work with the guys about being more aggressive at the plate. I saw that tonite. I didn't see guys backing out, and we were getting our hacks. Hits will come if we keep that up, and don't go back to dipping, and backing out, and other stuff like that.

Also wanted to point out something that happened to our opponent, that we preach about to our guys. On the game ending hit by Jerald, their right fielder first came in on the ball, then it went over his head, as we all saw. We tell our guys to step back first, better to have it fall in front of you, instead of over your head. And you saw what over the head did, Jer was off to the races. So remind the guys, step back first, don't step in first.

Well, that was interesting....

I didn't know what to say to the boys in the post game huddle. What a wild finish. We've played better games, but not more fun games. Twists and turns and weirdness.

Our batting was a little better, we put the ball in play a few more times. Still not quite enough hits as I want to see.

Our defense made some nice plays-still a few errors, but stuff I remember....
They jacked one to right field, and their runner attempted to score from first. We were able to throw the ball in quickly, and threw their guy out at the plate.
Ed had a goofy play at 2nd base to throw somebody out at first. Had a weird bobble, but he hung with it, and got him. Schmidtty had a nice play at shortstop on a hard hit ball to get the out at 2nd in the 2nd.

Here is the inside skinny on some stuff going on during the game. First the play at the plate, that may or may not have been interference. First off, our umpire, Anson did a good job at the plate on ball/strike, safe/outs. Nice to have umpiring like that. But anyway, on that play, I thought there might have been batter interference on the play, where Spencer got into the batter. So I asked if that might have been the case, as a play like that is relatively easy to correct.

Then Anson initially agreed there was interference, but sent the runner back to 3rd. But with that call, is why I asked for time, and went out to talk to Anson. There is nothing in the rules on that, about sending somebody back. If there is 1 out (which there wasn't), the runner would be out, if interference were judged. If there is 2 outs, which there was, the batter is out, and the inning ends. Anson agreed with my point. The Royals coaches then argued that it was not interference, that the batter attemptted to get out of the way. At that point, I left the discussion, because I am not going to argue judgment calls in a LL game. (I will discuss misapplications of rules, but not judgment calls)

Anson then decided it was not interference. That was a tough call. I could go either way with it. A batter cannot magically disappear, and we did have a crazy pitch, so we caused the fracas on our own bad play. But the batter could have had a bit more of a clue as to what was happening, and got out of the way. So that is why there was no further peep out of me on the matter.

On another case, the Royals had runners on 2nd and 3rd and their #5 hitter (Darland) up in the 7th inning. He had already hit a bomb on Jerald. I instructed Grant to throw them high, cause I know Darland likes them high. And if we walked him, no big deal. I heard some fans encouraging Grant to throw strikes. He was actually doing exactly as I told him--an unintentional, intentional walk. They were in the perfect spot, and Grant executed my instructions perfectly. So we got the bases loaded, and were able to then get an out at the plate. However Grant struck the next guy out. Then we had an error on a ground ball to Grant and the throw over to Mick at first. So we played it out well, just didn't quite execute it.

To that, I thought Grant did a great job in relief. Jerald pitched a good game, up until the 6th when he started pitching batting practice instead of getting outs. Other than the 2nd inning, he had been pitching well. So Grant came in, and finished out the 6th. He had some roughness in the 7th, but our batters bailed him out in the bottom.

I made Grant's dad, Brad, earn his pay tonite. He had a lot of bangers out on the field for safe/out. I thought he got them all right (even those that went against us). So thanks to Brad for his effort on the bases. That reminds me of the nice swipe tag CJ had at 3rd, where Spencer threw the ball down on an attempted steal attempt by Rader. Good job by those two.

No game or practice til Monday. As a team. But my expectation is that the boys find a buddy, and play catch, and hit wiffles, or bounce tennis balls of the garage door, or something. Our hitting is still subpar, and it is always good to keep the arm loose.

Anemic hitting

Not really happy about the hitting today. Getting no hit by Alex Good and the Braves. I get that. Getting 1 hit by this outfit? I don't get that. The Mets starting pitcher was not throwing hard, but was throwing strikes. But collectively we think we are going to walk our way to victory. We need to adapt to the umpire, and he had a big zone for both teams today. We need to think aggressively when we are in the box. Didn't happen today.

We had one ball hit out of the infield, and that was our only base hit, by Jerald. We only put the ball in play 8 times out of 27 plate appearances. I understand, if they are throwing balls, we need to let them go. But I don't see a sense of aggressiveness, and with this team, we should have been pounding the heck out of them. The Twins put up 11 on these guys. But then again, the Twins swing the bat, as evidenced by our game last Monday.

Now I will cease my ranting, and talk about the good things. Again, super pitching performance by the Brew Crew. Everybody did their job. CJ gave up a couple runs, but he was doing as he was told--throw strikes. And he did. We didn't walk anybody today, tho CJ did bean one guy. I'll take that over six innings any time. And that is what got us the win. We are not giving them free base runners. Except for the one plunking, they earned every one of their base runners.

Our defense took a step backwards from last Monday night. We had a couple errors, and that causes some problems. But again, our pitchers were able to work through it. Mickey owns the Story City mound. He may or may not be ok elsewhere, but his pitching has been top notch in Story City this year. I am keeping that in mind for the rest of our pitching rotation.

Practice Sunday at 1PM at RMS, to 2:30. Game at RMS on Monday at 6, be there NLT 5:30 please. As a reminder, let me know if your son is going to be gone for any future game. We are short a player on May 30 (Schmidtty), so that one is key if someone else is going to be gone.

Thanks again for those of you that make the Brewers go--from working the books, pitch counting, concessions, and umpiring. I do appreciate it.

reminder-no practice tonite

No practice tonite, as there is no field space. Have the guys at the field tomorrow no later than 12:30 please. And another home game, so thank you to the "volunteers" for running the concession stand.

Other thing of note

Tonite, Spencer walked for the first time all year. In his 25th plate appearance, he walked for the first time. Otherwise he has either put the ball in play, or struckout. Our leader in walks, CJ, has walked 11 times. The next lowest, other than Spencer is Matt with 3. As a team we have around 65 walks on the year. Doesn't mean any one kid is better than the other. Just kinda funny--Spencer is always up there hacking away, he also has the 2nd highest number of base hits on the year for the team. So kudos to Spencer for his long lost patience and his first walk!

Bigger wins, but not better

I have so many things to list what went right tonite against the Twins. We've defeated opponents by bigger scores this year (Rangers and Pirates), and we've had more satisfying wins (at least to me--the Braves) but this was just a great team effort, and baseball how it should be played. I would call this our best win tho.

First off the pitching. I didn't pull Grant because of any issue with him. I just wanted to get CJ some work. Those two guys combined for only 47 pitches. Grant had 43 in 3 innings work. I'll take 14 pitch innings any time. But CJ topped him. He got out of his only inning on 4 pitches. Nick Moore managed to get the count to 1-0 before popping up to Jerald. For CJ's other two pitches, he got Parker Witthuhn to line out to Grant, and CJ took care of biz himself on the last pitch, on a ground out to him, which he threw over to Will at first. So CJ really didn't get much work after all. But he was one pitch from a perfect inning.

Now the other thing about the pitching is that it was not blow them away, strike out baseball. Grant only struck out one Twin tonite (and CJ none of course). That is almost unheard of any LL baseball for a winning team. Another case of rarity popped up tonite. I cannot recall a team winning a game, and having striking out their opponent once. Amazing. Half of their team only batted once tonite.

And the win is totally on the team, not just one guy. Our defense was outstanding tonite. Heck, since the game was short, I will review the Twins at bats. Matt with a nice catch in right field, then Grant to Jerald for the 2nd out. Then the Twins got a base hit. We had our only crazy throw of the night at that time. Then Mickey ended the inning with a great play from 3rd to 1st for the out, so we stranded their runner.

In the 2nd, Jerald caught a line out, then the only other base hit of the night for the Twins to right field. Cody came in on it, then it went over his head. We remind the guys not to do that, Cody knows better, but he has all sorts of credits with me for his nice catch in left in the Braves game. Then Grant had his only strikeout, then CJ fielded the ball at SS, and stepped on 2nd for the forceout.

In the 3rd, a popup to Grant, a popup to CJ, our lone walk allowed, and then Will with his kooky barehanded fielding at first base for the out. And then we already reviewed CJ's 4th. Just great defense.

And that is why I hate walks. When the pitcher is throwing strikes, the defense stays awake, and is more prepared for hit balls. When they have to stand out there for ball after ball after ball, they fall asleep, get bored, and are not prepared to field balls when they do end up getting hit.

And to that, the Twins walked us just enough times to cause them problems, because we were able to hit the ball well tonite, surrounding those walks. Everybody but 2 guys scored tonite for us. Jerald had a nice 3 for 3, Grant was 3 for 3 in on base percentage, with 2 walks and a hit, and Mickey reached both times he was up--for a walk, and a reach on an error.

So it is the Mets on Saturday. I might do family photo day that day if it is nice, so stay tuned for that. We will not have a practice this Friday, due to field space issues. But encourage the guys to keep working--play catch with their buddies (or parents), have them hit wiffle balls.

Fun day at the I-Cubs

Fun day at the I-Cubs. Here is my favorite pic that Vicki took today. I supposedly am getting a photo emailed that the I-Cubs took when we were out on the field. I will send that out when I get it.

If you are my Facebook friend, you can see more of my pics from today.

The boys were complimented by the I-Cubs staff for their good behavior while on the field. We got our team name on the big screen a couple times, and Spencer also got up there for having his 12th birthday. We also got on the video board a couple times as well.

A reminder of our home game on Monday at the Carousel. Picture night, so bring the forms if you want to order something, and please have the boys there at 5:20 tomorrow if possible. And thank you for whoever "volunteered" to run the concession stand tomorrow night.

Nice comeback win

For those of you who had been anxiously waiting for my blog update, I had to umpire the game after ours. It was Twins/Mets (our next two opponents). It was a painful game, 13-11 Mets. Lotta errors, and it took just over two hours.

Then I went to the new Star Trek movie with some co-workers. My boss and I wore Star Trek uniforms, so we are extra nerdy. Great movie--like Die Hard in Space.

But I am home now, thinking about baseball again. Overall, I was pleased with the effort. We got a little sloppy mid game, and we had a few errors, mental and physical. But the boys never gave up, and came back for the win.

Ed did a nice job on the mound. In fact, I am changing that to great. In the first 3 innings, he faced the minimum. 1-3, F3, F3, K, K, K, K, K, K. Then things got a little kooky in the 4th. Ed gave up a walk, and I yanked him. Then Jerald gave up a hit, and a walk, and a beaning. But the good news is, we only gave up 1 run in all that. Jer struck out the next 3 batters while the bases were loaded.

Cody had some trouble in the 5th, not all of his doing. Then in the 6th, it was the opposite of last Tuesday. Mickey came in to relieve Cody, and shut down the opponent to seal the deal--though not exactly, because today, we were still behind.

But the boys put together 3 singles and 2 walks to score two, and come from behind to win. Jerald started it off with a base hit, and stole 2nd. Grant was told to bunt Jerald over, when Jer was at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. But Grant's bunt stance caused the Cards pitcher to throw wildly, which got Jerald to 3rd and then home. Grant really made that happen with being able to pull his bat back on the wild pitches. Then with Jerald in for the tie score, Grant faked a bunt, and slapped a hit over the pulled in shortstop. Spencer got off the schnide with a nice hit to follow that, and Zach and Will coaxed walks, which forced the winning run in.

Unlike some previous games, I was more happy with the offense than the defense today. We put the ball in play today 15 times in 29 plate appearances. We were also walked 5 times--which means 9 strike outs. I'll take that. Everybody got on base today, and all 5 of our runs were by different people.

With 4 different pitchers, 2 different catchers, and 5 different run scorers, and everybody getting on base, this truly was a team win. I am really proud of that.

Hard to believe, but we are already in the 2nd half of the season--8 down, 6 to go (not counting year end tournament)

Looking forward to the I-Cubs on Sunday, and seeing if we can put together a good effort against the Twins on Monday.

No practice tonite

You should have been called, but just in case not--Friday practice has been canceled.--Lotta standing water on the RMS field. Seeya tomorrow.

4 days, 4 events

We will have enough bodies, so Friday practice is on. From 6 to 7:30PM at RMS. Saturday game at 11AM in SC, be there by 10:30 please. No practice Sunday, but we have the I-Cubs. Monday game in SC, picture night, be there by 5:20 please.

Both of our games are "home" games. So a reminder if you "volunteered" for the concession stands on those dates.

I like that

Very fun game. Again, I like those low scoring affairs. And of course it is more fun when we win.

First I'll start off with my grouch. We did not have a base hit tonite. Our batting needs to improve. But with that said, we faced, when he is on, the best pitcher in the league. But we still should be able to put some balls in play, and we did not do that. Alex faced 19 Brewers, 11 Strikeouts (the 12th out was my mistake in sending Cody to the plate), and we got walked or hit by pitch 8 times. No balls put in play.

However, with speed, comes some wildness, and we were able to take advantage of that. And to our batters credit, we did get those walks. So our leading batters of the night were CJ with 3 plate appearances, 2 walks and 1 hit by pitch, and Schmidtty, with 2 plate appearances, and 2 walks.

Now on for what I really liked about the night. Great defense. We did not have an error. Grant pitched well against the Braves the first time we played, but didn't get much help from the defense. Tonite, error free. Spencer made a couple nice plays in front of the plate to throw runners out at first, he also had a great throw down to 2nd to start the game, enough to make their runner turn around, and then we ran a great pickle play (I think Mickey did the eventual tagging.) Will did his job at first on one chance there, Cody made a nice catch in windy conditions clear out in left field, and Jerald made a heck of a snag on a hard hit ball to close it out. And of course Mick was there to catch those throws, including the clincher, when Jerald's throw was a little on the low side.

Our pitching was great, obviously with the shutout. Jerald did a very nice job. Mickey pitched himself into and out of trouble in the 5th. I am not very keen about walks, especially with the bottom of somebody's order. Mickey looked a little off, despite striking out the first batter he faced in the 6th. So I brought Cody in, fresh off his good effort in Gilbert on Saturday.

Cody is Mr. Efficiency, he is averaging 2.3 pitches per batter on the year. That means he is not striking people out, he is letting the other team hit the ball, and our defense field it and get the outs. Good times.

I have not decided about practice on Friday. I need to talk to my coaches. Game on Saturday in SC. I will be sending out an email regarding the ICubs in the next day or so, with details. Thanks for your support this season, I really like the group of kids we have, and their good attitudes.

Good game, practice Sunday

I was very happy with our performance today in Gilbert. I wasn't that impressed with our 10 run win in Gilbert 2 weeks ago. But today I was. We hit the ball well and we played pretty good defense.

We only had 5 strikeouts today, so that means 7 of the times we got out, it was them making the play on us hitting the ball. I'll take that.

Now, we still aren't superstars. In talking to their coaches, we faced their 4, 5, and 6 pitchers. They toasted their 1&2 pitchers on Thursday. Then after the game, the mom of #3 pitcher told the coach, uh, my kid isn't going to be there Saturday. Doh! That is why I ask that if you know you son is going to be gone, let me know as soon as possible. In that case, he could have pitched his #3 on Thursday, and saved his #2 for us. Good for us, bad for them.

Everybody scored today for us. Everybody scored for us in the 4th inning, except for Zach, who got stranded on 3rd. But everybody made their outs except Grant. He was the only one that didn't get put out sometime today, he went 2 for 2, plus a walk. He also did a good job of swiping home on a sleeping pitcher early in the game.

Jerald and Cody both did well today pitching. Cody had his first pitching chance of the year, and made the most of it. He only threw 18 pitches in 2 innings. He started with 2 pitches and 2 outs. Cool! It is nice when our defense backs up our pitchers. We have struggled with that at times this year. And Jerald "only" threw 38, so we have everybody available for Tuesday. Granted this was only a 4 inning game, but we only walked one, so again I like that.

Right after the game Paul brought up another cool point. The 2 run single. We had runners on 2nd and 3rd, and CJ hit a nice base hit up the middle. We didn't need a homer, just good fundamental baseball there.

So practice on Sunday from 1 to 2:30 at RMS. No practice Monday. Game in Zearing on Tuesday at 6PM.

I think Vicki got all the picture forms handed out, if you didn't get one, let me know.

Brewers Bonus!

Brewers fans and families,

This is Mickey's mom (aka Mary Rivers) and I have a deal for all the Brewers and their friends and families. I work at a hair salon in downtown Ames, Turning Heads Salon. I would like to extend a 5.00 off any service to anyone who makes an appointment with me and mentions they're with the Brewers. I've been in the business for 25 years, and have recently moved back home, and would love to get to know the community better and be able to make you look great!
Hours: Wed, Thurs, Fri.
evevning apts. available(when the boys aren't playing!)
some Sat. upon request(when the boys aren't playing!)

Mary Rivers
Turning Heads Salon(across the hall from Downtown Deli)
328 Main St.
Suite 120
515-233-3950

p.s.GO BREWERS!!!