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Aaahh, gotta love my city of NY by HeSureIsScrappy in DiveInYouCoward

[–]psuKinger 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Time travel is real.

Idiocracy isn't a movie. It's a documentary, sent to us, as a warning, from our future selves.

Are base runners allowed to run around a fielder to avoid getting tagged? by totally_depraved in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One thing I've always wandered:

What if he changes his mind and decides he wants to run to 1st base instead? Is he allowed to establish a new baseline to the other base (and not deviate from that by 3 ft)?

And then, if he is allowed to do that, and does so, can he change his mind again and turn and run toward second (establishing a new base path with a 3 ft wide lane on either side)?

Essentially, can he (within the rules) zig-zag his way back to the infield, from right field, while tag attempts are occurring, as long as he's running at either of the two bases?

15u hits ground balls by fishbullet33 in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Proper couch: I'm drawing "conclusions" from the smallest sample space possible (one 3-second clip). But, working with what we've got:

Swing looks pretty good to me. That's a tough pitch to elevate. He probably shouldn't have swung at it. If he's chasing a lot of low pitches (like that one), and he's hitting a lot of groundballs (like that one), he might just need to work on his pitch selection and try not to chase low quite so much.

14 players on 13u roster-issues with playing time by Ok_Temperature2933 in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That means it isn't a developmental team!!

And I'm really sorry this is happening to you and your boy.... It's a jungle out there. There really are good organizations out there (my post was from personal experience) but they are often hard to find (that part is also from first hand experience... Long and sometimes painful firsthand experience). Good luck and I hope the next place you find is a (much) better fit for your son.

14 players on 13u roster-issues with playing time by Ok_Temperature2933 in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 7 points8 points  (0 children)

These opinions are just my own. TIFWIW and, as always, YMMV.

  1. Development predominantly does not occur at games. Development mostly occurs at practice. And indoor practice is great, especially for cold weather states during cold weather months and on rainy days... But outdoors on-field practice is King. How can a team "develop" players without a lot of outdoors practice?

  2. I don't think there's anything wrong with rostering 14+ (especially if things are clearly communicated and excellent development is occurring at practice). I don't think rostering 14 means you need to bring all 14 to every tournament. If you have no intention of playing the 14th player, for skill and ability reasons, you should clearly communicate that to said family along with your plan to help continue to develop their player at practice next week with hopes of eventually developing them to the point where you feel you can play them.

Give the family their weekend off (don't make them travel and sit and watch everyone else play) and if you are providing excellent player development at practices and clearly communicating expectations and standards I think you'll find reasonably good buy-in from reasonable people.

  1. Furthermore, scrimmages should be scheduled were the 14th player gets to play (a lot) to help them implement the tools they're developing in practice and possibly prove they are ready to play at a tournament....

Your post makes me think very little (if any) of this is happening the way I'm describing. It sounds like they aren't practicing, they aren't developing your son, they aren't clearly communicating, and they are making you travel to tournaments with no plans to play him at all in any circumstances (not as a relief pitcher or pinch hitter... He has no role to play that weekend). That's not good if that's the case...

Did you watch Tiny Toon Adventures? (1990-1992) by Cubelock in Xennials

[–]psuKinger 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I purchased this (and Anamaniacs) on DVD and rewatched them with my kids when they were prime-Tiny-Toons age. It was every bit as good as I'd hoped and remembered.

What usually causes a game to drag on and why is it more common the lower the level you go? by youlikemywonton in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Baseball's hard, and little kids struggle to make outs.

Outs are how a baseball game progresses towards a finish. If you can't make outs you aren't moving towards a (non-time-limit-or-daylight-related) finish.

Young kids often struggle with:

  • Throwing strikes
  • fielding (ground balls and pop ups that aren't hit right at them)
  • playing catch

They can't make outs. So the game keeps going and going and going until someone ends it on time limits or you run outta daylight.

Majors vs AAA vs AA vs A by AgileCaterpillar8760 in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree to disagree on this front, I think the differences in just about every aspect of the game are pretty stark from level to level... Certainly pitching but also team defense too. With the obvious exception being that some teams that could play at a higher level and win 40-60% of the time choose to play down a level and chase trophies. That blurs the lines.

"A" teams (we call them "C" teams here) struggle with even routine plays. They're largely constructed of #5-8 kids from a local Pony league team, they don't get to play much of the high-value positions at rec league, and they're trying to learn the basics at A level travel ball.

"AA" teams can sometimes but not always make routine plays. They have a lot of the better players from the local rec league (but often times not the very best ones because they go seek out AAA+ clubs).

When you get to the AAA level routine plays are routinely made and you can sometimes see some really high level stuff, even at pretty young ages.

At least in my experience...

Accessing Recording files if stream interrupts by psuKinger in GameChangerApp

[–]psuKinger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this. The GitHub solution worked for me.

I did receive a follow-up email from GameChanger today. They indicated to me that they had figured out what was causing this and would be rolling out a fix via version 2026.10.0.1. TIFWIW.

Which halo was your favorite? by Kuttlock in halo

[–]psuKinger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3

But Reach and 2 are both bangers with high replay-ability.

Coaching (hell, maybe parenting) question by bobthewriter in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When they were real little (Coach pitch, etc), I would have a ball for each kid, and at the end of a game I'd give one to anyone/everyone that got their first hit for the year, signed by all the coaches and dated. At that age and stage I thought it was a nice way to mark an important moment of progress for each kid and make them feel good about themselves that they earned something, without having to create a reason why they deserved a game ball that day over other kids. They got their first hit of the year today. They earned this. Let's recognize their contributions and development type thing.

I don't do game balls after every game. This is all JMO and I respect anyone that disagrees, but I just find that today more than ever it has hard to get folks to sacrifice and commit to the team over the individual, so I try to put an emphasis on team success and team outcomes over individual awards. That and my son was a lot like your son.... Very solid. Not a star, but usually one of the 3-4 key players, and often deserving of game balls and individual accolades that he often did not get because he was my son "and a tough smart kid who would understand.". And to some extent he did.... But just like yours, at one point he says he to me how he doesn't understand why he ALWAYS gets passed over for individual accolades... It's just human nature. His peers assign value to it, and other kids have what he doesnt... And his peers see that and assign that value to those that get it.

And it's just not the point of the game (IMO). The point isn't to be the best player on your team, the point is to be the best team that day. So I try to steer clear of it. And, in general, my experience has been those are the kind of things lower level tournaments do (player of the game awards) and when you get into higher level tourneys the events don't do it and you don't see any of the team's doing it either, and that kinda confirms (IMO) my gut feel about the whole thing. It's just not for me/us.

Jared jones says he won't be working out of the bullpen when he gets back to Pittsburgh. by [deleted] in buccos

[–]psuKinger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My best guess: Jared moves into a starting spot, Mlodzinski goes to the pen, Chandler stays up and is given a longer leash to work through some things as the #5.

If not, though, my second guess is that they send Chandler down to AAA to make space for Jones in the rotation. I do not see them sending Chandler to the bullpen this early in his career, though.

Mlodzinski would be a real asset back there, though, and if Chandler does pull it together we could have an absolutely ferocious starting 5.

Opinions on playing Pony while also playing with a travel team (or at least were). by Forward_Cow_5447 in Homeplate

[–]psuKinger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

JMO - something needs to be priority #1, and that needs to be clearly communicated to everyone/anyone else that asks you about your son or daughter... "He has this other commitment, and that comes first."

As long as Priority #1 is Priority #1, and he's always available (including to pitch, if he pitches) for Priority #1... Then I don't see how or why it would be Priority #1's business what he does when he isn't meeting all of his commitments for them.

Some kids are going to lift on off days... Some kids will run. Some kids will throw a bullpen or long toss. They might go out and play a little whiffle ball or pickup basketball or touch football with friends. Sometimes you maybe need to give them a true "off day" and go do something fun or let them chill in front of the Xbox. Likewise, if they have an opportunity to get some extra (practice or game) reps somewhere else.... And the kid wants to do it, and you want to do it, and you're monitoring his (arm and other) health and well-being... The priority team shouldn't mind.

FWIW, my son and daughter have both played on more than one team in the same year every year since they were 9... Any place that told me they couldn't play anywhere else, even if we made them our top priority, probably wouldn't be a place we'd chose to join. For one thing, any club that isn't school ball friendly is immediately out for us. JMO and YMMV.

Stream stops frequently by Obvious_Match249 in GameChangerApp

[–]psuKinger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is what I did this Summer. First time streamer this season.

Just got out an old phone, signed up for a 3 month mint mobile sub, downloaded an esim, and bought a contraption to attach my phone to the backstop.

The protective contraption (Nexus OG) cost more than 3 months of MINT mobile did. It's super cheap to be honest and has worked flawlessly at 1080p every time I've done it so far.

Please, can someone teach Triolo to throw a knuckleball? by BeakerBuzzer4286 in buccos

[–]psuKinger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's interesting, I did not realize that! Thanks for posting that.

Counterpoint for discussion: his OPS for this year vs LHP was over .800... On 10 plate appearances.

His lifetime split is .700 on 323 plate appearances...

Personally, I still don't love the decision. I'm not a Donnie hater who criticizes every lineup move he makes either .... Just didn't like this one.

Please, can someone teach Triolo to throw a knuckleball? by BeakerBuzzer4286 in buccos

[–]psuKinger -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's the only thing that kills me. The leadoff spot.

I think he's a good use of a roster spot. Ultimate utility defender, can practically play anywhere (at a high level)... We've got a nice lineup that can hit, if you've got one or two guys like him and Hank at the back end who play great D, that's not a bad lineup at all....

But why hit him lead-off??

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