So, your child wants to play travel baseball? My son loves the game. He works hard and he's getting better every season. Sorry we don't have images for this post...new computer and I have not loaded any pictures yet.
Great! Here is a look into what his (and my) calendar looked like for the last 5 days.
Wednesday- Short day at work... took him to the fields to work on hitting. 75 swings. Home, cooled down, back to the fields for 5pm - 8pm pitchers camp. Dinner at home at 8:45.
Thursday- Home from work by 4. Travel ball practice with Team B at 6pm until 8:30. Sit down for dinner with the family at 9:15.
Friday- Home from work by 2pm. Pitchers camp from 5pm - 8pm Dinner by 8:30. Nice easy day!!!
Saturday- Another easy day. He has a Strength and Speed workout from 10am - 11am and a 6pm practice with Team B.
Get home from the workout (I left my phone at home) 3 frantic calls from Team C...need my son for the 2nd game of a doubleheader. In and out the door in 20 minutes. Easy day, just became crazy!
Plays all 7 innings in a very long game (goes 2-4 with a single, double and a walk... long fly ball caught at the fence, just missed his 1st homer of the season) Goes home, showers and changes for his 6pm practice. With a whole hour to ourselves, we both nap on the couch. Practice by 6 and it's another 2.5 hour grind. His last 30 minutes and he's mentally and physically wiped out. Dinner by 9 and he is asleep by 10:30pm
Sunday- Doubleheader with Team A. 2 away games approximately 50 minutes from home. Game starts at 1pm, players arrive for a 12pm warm up. It's hot and humid again. The coach wants him to start on the mound in Game 2 (he was hoping for the game 1 start, while he was still fresh) Plays all 7 innings in Game 1 and goes 1-1 with single, sac fly and a walk. We hold on for a 1 run victory.
Game 2 starts and he is struggling on the mound with his landing spot. It's rock hard and his spikes can't dig in, so he is sliding forward instead of planting and sticking. He walks 3, but gets out of it with a strikeout and a 5-2-3 double play. We fill the hole with dirt from another field and his next two innings are 7 and 10 pitch, 3 up, 3 down innings. In the 4th, his 2nd baseman commits 2 errors and fails to cover his position properly on another play and our 4-0 lead has been cut to 4-3. My son's pitch count has elevated beyond where I want him for this day (68 pitches) and he leaves the game with 2 on, 2 out and the lead.
We got out of the inning without any more damage and my son is reinserted into the infield following a short breather on the bench. We end up losing the game by 2 runs. My son plays 13 2/3 innings of the 14. He went 0-1 in the 2nd game (sac fly, flyout to center and a hit by pitch, along with a couple of stolen bases) It's an Applebee's dinner and then the long ride home in weekend traffic. A bowl of ice cream later and he has checked out for the night by 10:30.
We live near the ocean and once again, we spent the entire weekend and much of the week on the baseball field. The next 4 weekend will be more of the same, as his schedule has him playing in 5 tournaments (in multiple states) He indicated during the 2nd game on Sunday that he needs to see his hitting instructor this week and we'll try to squeeze in a session between his strength and speed and various practices.
His mom and I enjoy watching him play a game he absolutely loves. The beach can wait. We should have a weekend or two in the fall when we can go. Maybe...