emmett's big hit

emmett is playing aa little league. this is the first time that the kids are pitching (boys and girls) to each other. there is a rule that says if a pitcher throws 4 balls, then the coach takes over and finishes up the pitching. some of the coaches are awesome picthers (who could easily strike out little leagers) so a coach from the same team pitches to the players.

emmett's team is called the nationals. the manager (head coach) is coach joey. coach mark and bryan are assistant coaches. so far this season, the nationals have played three games. coach joey and coach mark have done a fine job of pitching when the time came to fill in for the pitchers who were pitching too many balls.

during the last game, when emmett was up to bat, he had 4 balls pitched to him. coach joey gave me the nod and said that I was up to pitch. as a pitcher, you never want to have a coach come in to sub for you. they are under a lot of pressure to pitch for their team so i acknowledged the other side's attempt at pitching and gave the little man a high five and told him he did a great job. baseball at this age is all about having fun and encouraging players to fall in love with the game.

it's an interesting feeling pitching to your own son. of course you want him to do well but there are nerves in your stomach thinking about the possiblity of striking your little guy out (or, heaven forbid, throwing more balls). as i approached the mound i told emmett that my first pitch may be a bad one and if it is, don't swing. my first pitch was miserable...a grounder that rolled by emmett's feet...oh oh. one thing we say to pitchers when they are struggling is to simply pretend they are playing catch with the catcher. my second pitch to emmett was fine and emmett smacked the heck out of it. emmett has always been a big boy. he towers over the rest of his team. the sound the bat made when he crushed the ball was a high fidelity mixture of aluminum and baseball. the ball soared to the outfield. it could have been a double but we were being conservative on base running (to be polite) and ended up being a single.

there are not many times that a pitcher high fives a batter for hitting a good hit but i gave emmett a huge high five for his awesome hit.