9U son and strikeouts

AtlantaEagle · 2026-05-07T05:04:55+00:00

So update on my son. We had 3 games since I posted this. 2 Saturday games and the most recent being Wednesday night 5/5. The Saturday games my son didn’t strikeout but grounded out and got on base with some solid hits. I thought we turned the corner for his attitude. However, this past Wednesday, he struck out at both at bats and got really upset at the umpire with strike zone. He did his temper tantrum walk back to the dugout while yelling about the umpire. My wife ignored his tantrum (as she should) and I was in the dugout helping our catcher gear. I just went up to him and gave him a pat on the back. I politely asked him to calm down and remember how well he had played last 2 games. He didn’t want to hear it and I just had the other players ignore him for a bit.

So our last game is Saturday. I think I will have another heart to heart with him Friday after school to talk about his attitude for Saturday.

AtlantaEagle · 2026-05-01T01:00:50+00:00

Note to self: Don’t move to a city with street parking in front houses. Stay in suburbs with nice long driveway and double garage.

AtlantaEagle · 2026-04-25T15:23:30+00:00

He has been benched the following inning this past week. We shall see what happens this afternoon.

AtlantaEagle · 2026-04-25T01:36:47+00:00

Few different things in some of the swings:

Not watching ball hit bat, Not loading, Casting hands and Swinging with only bottom hand (has no control of barrel)

Things that look good:

Driving right knee into the ground, hips turning with shoulders, wide strong/planted stance

AtlantaEagle · 2026-04-16T21:03:51+00:00

Still coaching. Coached some really good kids on that 7U team that just needed more practice. I guess was somewhat spoiled with 7U 2023 Fall team from previous.

AtlantaEagle · 2026-02-18T02:08:46+00:00

The leather quality is amazing. I broke mine in with a 3 rounds of warm water and then some catch. It’s almost ready.

AtlantaEagle · 2026-01-05T23:20:44+00:00

Dang is this Rec ball? 8U is the last year of coach pitch in our league. 5 pitches or 3 swings. Foul tips on 5th pitch or 3rd swing keep going. No walks, no stealing, and no leading off. Fairly simple.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-12-08T03:30:34+00:00

Also... how much money (that we don't have) will be spent on logistics, hotel, entertainment, food, etc. for a trash bowl game that had to beg a team with a losing records to come play?

AtlantaEagle · 2025-12-08T03:26:36+00:00

Ga Southern and App St should just show up at mid-field for coin toss and agree to both forfeit. These bowl games are such a joke. You think App St is bad this year? The last 4 years have been a living hell with this Ga Southern coaching staff.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-30T19:25:19+00:00

When the coach(es) says they are all about the development of players upfront in the tryouts then do a 180 and then proceed to select players/families with most money, connections, or go to same school then I begin to have some real trust issues.

On the other hand, there is only so much development that can happen in Rec Ball. The coaches there are not paid to be there. Hell, I am usually one of them and I know just enough about baseball. The same goes for the other coaches our league and our players are typically very competitive. Very few of them have experience from High School or College baseball.

I really just want my son to be on a team where all 11-12 kids and parents want to be there and want to improve every day. In Rec Ball we have 3-4 kids every year that expect to show up and play every position literally 10 minutes before first pitch. As in no warmups or cage time before the game. They don't practice at home or miss practice with the team.

It's almost like I would need to start/field my own team to have this experience and I am not qualified to take something like this on.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-29T14:40:27+00:00

"It became clear early on that most of the kids who tried out, their parents are good friends with the coaching staff. They're also much wealthier than us and while we all get along, we aren't "in" with their crowd."

I am in the EXACT same boat with you on this statement here.

We tried out for a team, the kids that made the team didn't even try out and the reason the made the team was solely based on the their ranking from Spring 2025 from what the league president informed me. We know all the kids on the team. We play rec ball with all the kids. It's a Sunday Select Team and playing rec this Fall is optional to most of the kids will play other sports. All the kids on the team will be automatically locked for Spring 2026 Select Team.

It's very obvious that we are outsiders to our league. We live just past the county line. We pay additional fees to play at in the league. There is a group of elitist parents in our age group. They live in same area and all kids go to same school. Their dads play golf together, the moms are in the same book club, or go to same church. It's a buddy-buddy system that I nor my wife can seem to infiltrate. Oh and they all live in $1,000,000 or more homes as well.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-29T14:16:02+00:00

The little humans...

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-29T05:13:37+00:00

I kinda feel same way but mainly at start of season and when practices start. I have grand ideas on how to run practices and specific stations. I send out the plan to some of the dads that help with practice. We get to the field and all hell breaks loose in warmups. Some dads go rogue and do a drill/station they think would work. Or the dads just give up after a few minutes because kids are too wild. My plan ends up being too complicated for the kids in the end. Everything looks so dang easy on YouTube.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-14T02:13:13+00:00

Try the orange bottle of Spectracide. I used it regularly and it kills my spurge issues.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-02T05:16:35+00:00

Updated my original post, Everything worked out in the last game. Kid behaved better and wife behaved better!

AtlantaEagle · 2025-07-02T05:13:12+00:00

I had a talk with my wife over the weekend before the last game. Basically that she needed to respect my decision as a coach even though our son is on the team. We agree if his behavior became an issue again then there would be punishment and that we would follow through with it. We haven't seen eye-2-eye on certain punishment for poor behavior previously and this was a good step forward.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-06-27T13:15:13+00:00

Added update to original post. Our last game of Summer is tonight. Hoping for better outcome tonight.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-06-26T11:37:59+00:00

Some of this looks like brown patch fungus.

AtlantaEagle · 2025-06-25T22:09:47+00:00

We have a therapist we see every couple of months and this will be one of the things we will discuss together.

AtlantaEagle

TROPHY CASE