Making Your Pitches

Good pitchers make good pitches. In that way, I need to make like Josh Beckett. This year Caz moved up to what is called AAA ball, where the kids pitch to each other, rather than the Dads/Coaches pitching. I believe I touched upon it in an old post during last summer's team. Caz has the ability to pitch and to pitch fairly well (always keep in mind that I have a typical Dad's perspective, even though in my mind, I try to be fairly objective). He rated very well in pitching during Leveling Day. But up until now, he had been hesitant to pitch in a game and actually avoided it like the plague. He had a latent fear about hitting a batter. I tried to not make a big deal about and put even more pressure on him, while internally it was eating me up a bit because I didn't want him not to try something because he feared it. That is a pretty common Fatherly Fear, I would imagine. After a few discussions with RJ, I started feeling Caz out about pitching. He seemed more open about it in the past, but I didn't want to rush it. So I waited until the third game before having RJ ask him to pitch. We told him that we had three games coming up, very close together and had used a lot of pitchers in the previous game. I told that RJ needed help and Caz responded. He said, "sure thing coach." Demi was very nervous with anticipation. In the fifth inning, Caz got his chance. He warmed up and then started firing them in. And he ended up striking out the first batter he faced. Statistically, you would call it a mixed bag, he gave up two runs, walked one, one hit, but he struck out the side. As you probably know, not all success can be measured in numbers. And this was definitely a win for Caz. Not only did he perform well, but he asked RJ if he could pitch in the next game. Mission accomplished.