Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
That's one of the reasons why I've always like golf. I rely on myself and myself only.
An example of my inability to trust teammates: When I was in little league, I would often run from first to back up second on steal attempts because they would **** up the catch so often that I didn't want the ball to get through and have the runner advance to third. It pissed them right off.
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I coach catchers (still the best position in baseball IMO!!!), and my kids get a dose of my 1970s/80s upbringing by learning that you backup 1st. Once we got it through their heads, we actually built plays around it. Not that it worked a lot, there were those cases when the kids called for an overthrow of first. Hardly a usual play, but the kids loved it.
And from 13 years old and up, I often times turned the game over to the pitcher and catcher to call. Some of the parents hated it, but they didn't get how much more the pitchers and catchers learn to communicate, the whole infield actually, when the adult is taken of of the mix. The pitcher know that if the call came from the coach, don't question it, but if it came from the catcher, perhaps there's something to discuss. AND.....when the catcher knows he's on tap to "call the game", he starts to learn A LOT more. He studies batters, he pays attention to his pitcher's stuff, and most of all he keeps his head even more in the game.
And I love to watch these young athletes work their game from a cerebral perspective. And they can, given the chance, they can...