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May 27, 2004
Gus's team lost its second baseball game. The umpires failed to show up, so Gus talked Nick into being the umpire. Since there was no protective gear available, it was thought to be a bit safer to stand behind the pitcher. That also was a better position to see plays in the field. Nick was concentrating so hard on keeping the ball-strike count correct that he sometimes didn't even remember how many outs there were. Some umpire, eh? In addition, his strike zone was a little smaller than it should've been, even though he tried to open it up a bit, and after a while the walks started adding up, the game dragged on, and the players in the field lost their sharpness.
The dilemma is thus. By having a long game with lots of walks and few pitches hit, you risk having kids quit playing because the game is boring. On the other hand, by calling as strikes pitches that were actually balls, you risk having the batters pick up bad habits like swinging at pitches out of the strike zone.
Gus batted twice in the game. His first time up, he lined a two-run single into left field. He advanced to third on passed balls and later scored. His second time at the plate, he ducked out of the way of the pitch that should've been ball four. Alas, he left his bat sticking up; the ball hit the bat and went foul, so the count went to 3-2. The next pitch was strike three. Daddy has been reminding him to get the bat down, too, when he ducks, and maybe this will etch that into his brain.
In the field, Gus played third base and shortstop. He also pitched at the end of the game. His time at shortstop was rather uneventful. He backed up a play at third nicely, eliciting a "Good job, Gus!" yelled out to him from the coach. Third base, however, was another story. He misplayed a pop-up by trying a basket catch (E-5); he bobbled a grounder by looking away at the last second to see where the runner was (no E-5; he probably wouldn't have had time to throw the runner out at first anyway); and he took a grounder off the shin and the chin after it hit the bag and bounced up. A true tough-guy, he stayed in the game.
Since there are 12 or 13 players on the team, several have to sit on the bench when the team is in the field. One inning while Gus was sitting out, he practiced pitching to the coach. Cindy said it didn't go well. Thus, we were surprised when the coach brought Gus in to pitch near the end of the game. It was fun for Nick to watch Gus from his vantage point right behind the pitcher. He also could talk him through the rough pitches ("Three deep breaths! No emotion! Pretend there's no batter!").
Gus came out throwing flames and struck out the first batter. Unfortunately, the next five (we think-see above about Nick's concentration on the ball-strike count) batters walked, even though Gus got two or three of them to two strikes. (It's a long way from the pitcher's rubber to home plate, and Nick thinks they should have these boys pitch from about five feet closer. This way, the pitchers' accuracy would improve since they wouldn't have to throw so hard just to get the ball to the batter. As always, Nick could be wrong.)
Gus's batting line for night: 1-2 with a single, 2 RBI, 1 run, 1 strike out, 2 SB
Gus's fielding line for night: 3 chances, 0 assists, 0 put-outs, 1 error
Gus's pitching line for night: 6 batters faced, 1 K, 5 BB, 2 earned runs allowed, 3
inherited runners, 3 inherited runners scored, 54.0 ERA, 27 K/9
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