One Thing I re-Realized Over the Weekend ** UPDATE** and Chatting of Youth Baseball
... ex-atheists make the best Christians.
This is but one example of a general principle.
** UPDATE **
Of course, the comments section rapidly degenerates into a conversation about the Next Generation's baseball skill sets.
Maybe that's for the better.
Also it can be said ex-Christians make the best Athiests. *wink*.
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That would be in line with the general principal, I think. It's just that, this weekend, I was hanging with the ex-atheists. (double wink)
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Lax Jr.'s team(Padres) just won their playoff game with the hated Doy-ers.....14-9. Jr. had a ground rule double,single and a strike-out. not bad,going from a 1-19 travelball team to a 17-4 Champion....I'm happy for the kid. ..................... triple wink.
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Go, LAX! In related news, our DH Wry Jr. (AKA NATO Jones) took home ROY honors today from the varsity baseball squad (elected by the players, not the coaches)... evidently they went with offensive skill versus defensive skill, since our other 2 rookies were, respectively, defensively skilled and defensively willing to be catcher when no one else would.
Nato posted a .600 OB% in league, .500 OB% overall, improving as the year wore on, and displayed an uncanny eye for the strike zone (better than the umps, to be sure. Next year, I have to teach him to ask himself "can I hit it?" rather than "is it a strike?"). He logged 6 walks and 2 HBP in 15 plate appearances, taking 80+ pitches in the process -- wearing out opposing pitchers.
His lone hit (his first) was a double down the 1st base line, a lazy Texas-Leaguer that he miraculously stretched into a double with an RBI. Miraculously? Yes -- with two bad ankles and a bum shoulder, Nato makes Sid Bream look like Rickey Henderson.
This year.
He played an inning or two at 2b, and we hope to turn him into a 2b next year (his arm won't permit throws longer than that). Maybe with some PT, his joints will come around, or maybe if he stops growing (he is still growing at a rate of about 1.5-2 inches per 3 months, on average, over the last 18 months).
Interestingly, to me, Nato took up baseball in 9th grade -- the very same year I retired from the sport in my youth.
Tell LAX I am busting my buttons for him, and his grittiness. To hang in there and turn into a winner is much more sweet than just joining a winner without having to dig for it.
And I hope Nato gets to experience that next year; we lose our top four offensive players and our top 5 defensive players, and all 3 of our starting pitchers -- but we only went 3-11 this year, the year we should have by all rights won the pennant, so -- maybe that's a good thing. Maybe next year's crop of rookies and misfits can put together a better year than the skilled seniors did this year.
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Wry: To your wise remark ("I have to teach him to ask himself 'can I hit it?' rather than 'is it a strike?'.")
I would add this corollary by Roberto Clemente, responding to accusations that he swung at too many bad pitches: "If I hit it, it's not a bad pitch." :oD
I'm proud of both of my nephews making such an impact on the field, but I regret that it seems that NATO Jones has inherited his uncle's good-for-infield-only rag-arm. Sorry about that, kid. Take it up with Gregor Mendel. I myself made a decent 1st baseman and an above-average left-handed 2nd baseman. (Possibly the ONLY left-handed second baseman).
All-in-all, great news from California!
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Way to go,Wry Jr! Two bum ankles and a bad shoulder??? At what,14?...Better tell him to lay off those video games.......
As far as hitting,it'll come around soon enough. He just needs more AB's.Lax Jr. takes the wood bat(still a novelty with his teammates)to the cages and takes about 75 cuts.Or if'n the team rents by the hour prolly more than that.
This was done the day before the game,and really worked well for his bat speed with the metal bat.
Jr. finished 33 for 49 for a .673 BA,with 1 homer and 9 BB's. I attribute most of that to ALOT of BP. Wry Jr. will prolly get more playing time next year,and with more experience,bigger numbers.
Have you thought about 1st base for Wry? Thats where I played most of my career,because mainly the left-handed thing,and ,well,I couldn't throw worth a shit either,even with a good arm!
He will definitly learn defense there,guaranteed. Lax Jr. learned 1st base this year.(finally a position I could teach him)He had better teachers(coaches,Clyde Wright,other dads ) help him out with pitching and he turned out ok.
He wants to learn catcher next........As for ROY honors that's a very great accomplishment. It shows tremendous respect for NATO by his teammates.You can't beat that.Either that or the Coach gave all the players A's in their math finals.But besides that,who knows?maybe an MVP in the near future?
ok........Raymurgy's turn.
Lax.
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agg. I'll have to wait, I only get 30 minnits at a time here at the libary... the home network got laid waste by AntiSpyMaster virus. Taking two computers to the doctor for who knows how long...
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Haven't enough of a knowledge-base to comment here, but it is an interesting paradox. C.S. Lewis rocks!
Am attempting to apply yer general principle to dieting. I am telling myself that ex-dieters eventually make the most committed healthy specimens. Over and over. It makes a good mantra. I am grateful. Dr Bob - tell me if there is good science behind it.
Howevurrr...I guess the principle applies to people who have never dieted, and not serial flubber-shod types who bounce off from and on to the proverbial wagon. Sigh. A true ex-dieter would be someone who has already moved to a new way of life, and is determined to stay there. (As the status of the ex in my analogy is so open to interpretation, it is hopelessly flawed. I could retreat and delete, but am among friends, so am coughing and moving on.)
The baseball stuff is also way over my head. I would just like to say that it did my heart good to read, though, as you guys are such great dads. Whatever shoulder and ankle-joint genes youse huv donated to the next generation, you have clearly given them wings.
I would like to get my daughter involved in a team sport. I watch her taking charge in the park after school, running around,inventing games, organising the other kids. The discipline of following the rules of a sport would be really good for her.There is just so little out there for girls, though. Wait... I think I have just invented a new one. Tidying up after herself. New personal bests to be set against the clock. ;o)
Raymurgy - I am sorry about your computer virus. I have never heard of that one. Am recalling an hour-long peak rate call with a frantic tech guy, talking me through installing the Trojan Horse patch, before the thirty seconds were up, and the computer restarted again - for the fortieth time...
Bob, you are right. I gotta learn to touch-type. :o)
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