Matthew Monday: Baseball Trophies

Last week Matthew and his baseball teammates received their trophies for the spring season.  I posted in June on what a great season it was, undefeated from start through championship.  They had their championship dinner—pizza of course!—and handed out their trophies. 

As each boy was called up Coach Charlie said something that made that particular boy distinctive.  Here’s what he said about Matthew.

If you didn’t catch all that, Coach mentioned that Matthew threw a lot of innings, was constantly throwing strikes, had about six different pitches, nicknamed “Tanaka” after the pitcher from Japan and on the Yankees by his teammates, was lucky to have drafted him for the team, was a great teammate, had improved his hitting by the end of the season, and that Matthew was “easily the best pitcher in the division.”   

Here’s a team picture.

 

Matthew is in the first row on the left.

It was also trophy night for the summer elimination league, which Matthew also participated, but this team did not fare as well being eliminated after four games.  Much smaller trophy.  Again Matthew on the left.

 

Matthew really enjoyed his little league experience, and he’s really proud of his effort for the championship team.

 

Great job Matthew.

Matthew Monday: 2021 Baseball Champs

Last week I posted on our Father’s Day activity for Matthew Monday, but I could also have posted on Matthew’s little league conclusion.  So I’ll post it this week.  They won their league’s championship.  They went undefeated.  Here are the final standings.  His team is called the CCB Baseball.

 

Here is a video clip of the final out.  That is Matthew on the mound.  His nickname was Tanaka, who was a Japanese star pitcher for the Yankees the last few years.  The last out is a hard grounder to the first baseman who steps on the bag for the out. 

Here is a photo of Matthew with his coaches.

 

And finally here is the team.  Matthew is up front kneeling without a baseball cap. 

 

It was a great team and Matthew pitched great all season long.  It was a lot of fun being a spectator.  It must have been a real gas for the kids.

Matthew Monday: Little League 2021 Opener

It’s a new year for Matthew’s little league baseball, and this year he is on the CCB Bombers, the team that won the championship last year.  I don’t know how he got on this team but he is fortunate.  Coach Charlie is excellent and he has already gotten the team playing cohesive and well.  They had their first game Saturday and it was against Matthew’s team from last year.  They won 12-2.  Matthew got his dream to be the starting pitcher.  He went two innings, struck out five, walked two (one in each separate inning), and did not give up a hit.  Here are a few pictures.

Matthew on the mound.

 

As good a picture as Matthew is, he’s really not a good hitter.  I think he’s afraid of the ball.  I’m not sure how many times he got up to bat.  I think five or six.  Walked four times and struck out once or twice.  He never made contact with the ball.  Here he is looking good at home.

 

Here on second base looking lost.

 

And on third base with a sloppy uniform. 

 

He did score there.  It was a lot of fun, both for Matthew and his parents.

Matthew Monday: First Pitching Outing

In a way, this is a follow up to last week’s Matthew Monday where Matthew played in his first Little League baseball game.    

Well, he’s had two more games since then but what made this past Thursday’s game (July 30^th) special is that Matthew got to finally pitch.  It is his dream to pitch.  All his other sports dreams pale in comparison to pitching.  He has loved throwing the ball since really small.  In last week’s post I mentioned that the coach really likes Matthew’s throwing arm.  For the longest time I”ve noticed he had a strong throwing arm.  I didn’t know how to gage it for his age since I had no other kids his age to compare to, but it always popped into my glove with a thud. 

 The coach said he would pitch and in the third game he gave him a try.  The coach brought him in with one out in the second to last inning of the game.  (They don’t necessarily play nine innings; they play for two hours, no matter how many innings that is.)  His team (5-Tool) had a small lead.

 With the first batter there was controversy.  He ran the count to 3 balls and 2 strikes.  The payoff pitch was high and inside and heading for the batter’s head.  The batter ducked, the ball went over his head, but hit the bat and rolled onto the field.  The umpire initially called it foul, but the ball was fair and the batter ran to first.  The umpire reversed himself and awarded the hitter first base, but Matthew’s coach started arguing with the umpire.  When the umpire initially called it foul, Matthew’s team stopped playing the ball.  If he had called it fair they could have thrown him out at first.  The arguing went on for a good ten minutes.  The opposing team’s coach wasn’t conceding anything.  He wanted his player on first.  Finally a league official was called over to decide the controversy.  He went with Matthew’s coach.  The umpire had initially called it foul and so play had stopped.

 This first clip picks up where the batter returns to hit with a 3-2 count.  What you’ll see is ball four, the batter walks, which I think was providential justice.  Matthew gets the next hitter to pop out but then some pass balls and a catcher’s error lets the runner on first come all the way around and score.  Matthew then strikes out the batter for the third out.  5-Tool still holds the lead.  Matthew is wearing a pitcher’s mask.  They are required at this age level.

 I think he had some nerves in that first inning.  This second clip is of the final inning.  He really gets comfortable and pitches well.  What you’ll see is a pop out, a single, and he strikes out the last two batters.

 So here’s the line score for Matthew’s performance: 1 2/3 innings pitched, gave up one hit, one walk, one unearned run, three strike outs, two pop outs.  The team won 10-6 and Matthew earned a save and the coach gave him the game ball.

 

 He is so happy, he’s driving me nuts.  All he wants to talk about is pitching…lol.

 PS, I promise, I won’t bother posting on his baseball every week.

Matthew Monday: First Baseball Game

Oh, Matthew (and I) love baseball.  I guess he gets it from me.  Now over the course of his young life, he’s played soccer and basketball, and I have posted on those activities.  For the past few years I had been trying to sign him up for baseball.  Unfortunately I was looking in the wrong places.  I thought the Catholic School system would have baseball as well as the other sports.  And they do list it on their list of activities.  However, they have given up sponsoring baseball.  It’s too complicated I think.

This winter I finally found the little league system here on Staten Island.  So without hesitation I signed him up.  We bought all the equipment: helmet, cup, cleats, even what’s called a heart guard, a shirt with padding over the heart.  We had gloves and a bat.  We were ready to start in March.  Then corona virus hit and shut the world down, including our little league. 

When we entered Phase 2 of the recovery, baseball with certain virus preventive limitations was re-started.  On the evening of July 21^st, he had his first game.

Here’s a picture of him in right field.  Coach put him in right because he’s got a strong arm.

He got to hit twice.  Here’s his first at bat.  What you’ll see is a walk, he steals second and third base, and scores on a wild pitch.

His number is 18 as you can see.  He’s still learning to hit.  It’s the one thing I could not really teach him.  Here is his second at bat.  I went behind the plate for this clip.  You’ll see him get hit by the pitch but the umpire thought it hit the bat and called it a foul ball strike.  Ultimately he would up walking as well. 

I didn’t film the base running.  He stole second but then got thrown out at third.  It was a good game.  His team lost 10-7. 

Now what Matthew wants to really do is pitch.  Coach hasn’t trusted him with that yet, but he told me he really likes his arm.  Maybe next game.

Matthew Monday: Getting Ready for Little League

This virus lockdown has postponed what would have been Matthew’s first year of playing Little League Baseball.  They have not cancelled the season yet but we are still waiting for Little League sports to be allowed to play.  We still hope to play. 

The last few days, we’ve gotten up early and headed to the park to train.  We go through throw and catch, hitting off a tee, hitting from my pitching, fielding grounders and pop ups.

I took a picture and video clip of him hitting off a tee.

He almost hit me with the ball as I’m filming it!

He loves to put on the equipment.

Hope we get to play!