How Wide is Home Plate?

Some will know that I coach baseball. High school baseball with some Babe Ruth and Little League thrown in. Simplicity and complexness and attention to minutia rolled into one wonderful game. The is so much going on when so little seems to be happening. But that's not the only reason I coach baseball.

Life lessons are taught with this game, and that is true for many sporting activities. Baseball is what I connected with and baseball is what I use to teach about life. I was told by an old baseball friend about a story I needed to read. The story was told by John Scolinos a college coach. The story was told to a group of coaches at a coaches convention.  It sums up better and tells the tale of what I've been trying to do in one quick read. Baseball fan or not, you should read this.

http://www.sperrybaseballlife.com/stay-at-17-inches/

What's Goin' On?

Baseball, building (or at least tearing down) and gardens. It's that time of year when baseball interferes with the spring garden beginnings. Having some time in the morning helps, but evening is my most productive time and I am away.

We took the youngsters to an almost inner city school yesterday and for some it was eye opening. Other than a bad loss,it was event free. Our whitebread players were exposed to other people and with some prodding realized those young men have the same thoughts and desires as our kids do.

The one thing the kids were shocked a bit about were the homeless camped and sleeping in the trees and shrubs of the freeway. The boys literally saw people sleeping as we creeped by on the congested freeway.

Besides our own gardens, we started a project we have been trying to get started at sister-in-law's house. We have helped others start gardens and while this is the latest we hope to have more going this year. We have decided to cease gardening across the street at our neighbor's. The years of trying to eradicate bermuda grass finally was too much. The area will be missed, but the recovered time will allow us to refocus other places. We spent so much time fighting the bermuda it finally hit us we could use the time in better ways.

The playhouse is mostly down. The second story is demolished and ready for nails to be pulled. The bottom half is ready to move and will be soon. The area left behind will become a mini orchard and tomato patch. We will try to grow vegetables until the trees get bigger and shade the area. It also cleans of the backyard a bit. We still have to find places to store tools and such, but that will come. As usual for us, we plan as we build and fit things as we create new openings. Sounds kid of like nature--Nature abhors a void. So I guess I should go fill the opening to do work.

Coach is Gone, But Never to Be Forgotten

My junior college baseball coach, Bert Holt, passed away last Thursday. Many people can say that because Coach taught the game over the course of 30 plus years. My knowledge of Coach began when he and his family moved across the street from mine in about 1960. His two sons, my brother and I started a relationship that continues to today. Eventually we played baseball together at the College of Sequoias, for Coach.

Coach taught more than baseball. Like John Wooden, he taught his players how to tie your shoes and how to dress. Coach taught us how to address the world in many ways. In today's supposedly sophisticated culture that may seem backwards, but Coach gave us the reasons for doing things the way he did. And if we were patient and had our eyes and ears open, we would eventually find out he was right.

Probably the most unexpected, but it shouldn't have if I'd been paying attention, aspect of my knowing Coach happened years after I was done playing and had begun coaching. Coach welcomed me into the coaching fraternity. Not openly with ceremony, but by talking baseball each time we ran into each other. Asking me things about players and inviting me to help with camps he conducted while scouting. It was a blessing to see him.

Thank you, Coach.

Odd Bits and Pieces

This will kind of like making a stew. You take the odd bits and pieces of what's going on and combine them into a life at this time.

--Recently our community had a young man die of cancer. He has battled for over three years. What was amazing was during halftime the opposing school took time during their homecoming festivities to have a moment of silence for this student. Sometimes schools do get things right and remember what is important.

--The farmer's market seems to be slowing down for the year. The market we help at is year round, but there are seasons. With the recent baloney from the dealer backing out, our friends are plugging along. They have started a new CSA box program and it is growing slowly. Let's hope it takes off very soon.

--We purchased some more solar products yesterday that will help us have options. Goal Zero is the company we are using. They have a plug and use system of panels, inverter/battery and accessories that allow for expansion and versatility. We were looking for a system to camp with and also use in a grid down situation. Mostly we had many questions concerning how to utilize the panels we currently own into the system we can use. We ended up buying some larger panels and a generator/battery to convert the panel generated electricity into usable electricity. We hope to use it later this month.

--Fall baseball has started and we're off too a roaring start. Seniors acting arrogant, freshman acting scared and everyone else trying to learn. As with every year we lost some players and gained some, but it's the one that have been with us for a few years that will determine how we do.

--On another baseball related topic, I am a league rep. That means I go to one or two meetings a year and meet with reps from the other leagues in our section and discuss news and give input on policy. Our proposals and suggestions are voted on by the administrators and CIF people and this becomes the rules we operate under for the next year. We had a meeting this past week and like many of these I walked out feeling like my input will be ignored and I just spent 2 1/2 hours of my life that I will never get back.

--For a person that was known in town for riding his bike everywhere, I sure am driving a car much more than riding now in my new life. Feels weird.

--I have never been a Yankees fan, but have liked a core group of their players: Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. All baseball fans have to like how Jeter played his last game in Yankee Stadium. Too cool.

--Recently traveling on Amtrak two things happened that I hadn't experience before. The train was delayed at a station when it ws announced n the overcom, "Conductor to cafe car immediately."  About 3 minutes late,the same message was announced. The second one made me think. Eventually we were underway but just before the next stop it was announced the we would have a longer stop at the next station and we were met by a sheriff's car when we arrived.  I guess someone didn't like their ginger ale. Later we stopped at a station and some passengers got off for a smoke. I was anxious to get moving so I started observing the smokers. I thought it nice of three young men to share their smoke so as not to waste cigarettes. They I figured out it wasn't tobacco they were smoking. Nothing new under the sun came to mind.

With that, I'm off to spend another day on this spinning globe.

One Last Strike, A Book Review

 

Up front I'll say I am a Tony L Russa fan. As a baseball coach I fell in like with him after reading George Will's book, Men at Work. Many times I like to think too much over small details, and baseball gives so many small details to think about. La Russa seems to be the same type of coach. I am nowhere in the same league as La Russa, but I try to learn something every time I read abut him.

One More Strike by La Russa with Rick Hummel is about La Russa's last season managing the St. Louis Cardinals. He had decided to retire mid season, but kept it a secret. Part of the book is about the process he went through to make that decision. It is rare that coaches are given that opportunity and I was curious how that decision evolved.

The unique addition to this is that the Cardinals were down 10 games late in the season and eventually won the World Series. To have an inside version of the story was fascinating, and something I enjoyed reading as a coach. Each season is different for a team and the Cardinals and La Russa proved this in 2011.

The defining of the imperatives La Russa demands of his players and the methods to personalize them with each player was impressive. It was a show of why good coaches are good and being just a bit off is all it takes to finish below first.

Baseball fans will enjoy this book and coaehes will learn from it.

Ecclesiastes 3 & Home Projects

I was reading one of my daily blog reads, chismheritagefarm.com, and a thought hit me about teaching. The author of the blog was talking about getting up and working on his farm, then going to work fixing computers, then coming home to do more farm work.

As  teacher, I rarely had the luxury of leaving work physically and mentally also. Maybe it was me only, but even at home I had a stack of papers hanging over my head that needed grading. Or a pile of wood that needed to be cut for student projects. Maybe that was the curse of being an English teacher. I'm sure that I've had this thought before, but it hit me differently today.

We are in the midst of some household projects. Actually there is a list of projects to finish. They are the leftovers of jobs that I had put off because of lack of time while teaching. Certainly coaching baseball added to the list. January to June is the dead zone of getting projects completed around here because I am gone dawn to dusk chasing the white ball. We would carve out some time to plant the garden or maybe fix something that couldn't wait. Usually the task was added to the list.

One of the benefits of re-jobbing, down sizing your income while leaving one job to find another, is I now have time to complete some of these projects. As well as work on some of the dream projects that one never seems to get accomplished, like setting up a shop.

As wonderful as this might seem, I still ponder one thing. How come I'm not doing more?

Selling, Throwing, Coaching

This week has been a whirlwind of different tasks.  Last night was our second venture into the farmer's market gig.  This time it was at a different market, though in the same city.  This market is downtown and there was a different vibe going on. Some of the vendors were different with more food-to-eat sellers than at the other market. Many of the buyers were people just getting off work, walking through and picking up a few ingredients for dinner.  Some were people downtown on their way to or from dinner.  A different kind of market overall. For us is was another learning experience. It has been nice to see another side of the farm-to-table equation.

Cleaning out my classroom is taking longer than expected.  I guess trying to pare down 30 years of materials shouldn't happen overnight, but I had slimmed things down a few years ago already. There isn't much nostalgia just the simple act of throwing away stuff that is outdated because of new teaching standards, material from subjects no longer taught or just plain projects students didn't take home. It is freeing.

Tomorrow night is the All-Star baseball game.  It will be a good chance to say good bye to one of our players and players from other schools. These games are always a bit dicey. You want to play everyone, but there is a wide range of abilities and you don't want to get blown away and embarrass the players. At this point I'm looking forward to having one less thing on my plate that is inedible.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Teachers and coaches use prods to motivate  and push students and athletes to achieve more.  I am convinced that young people have to learn what their limits really are, and pushing them to succeed teaches that.  So in the past I have offered my hair as a motivation for team achievement.  Never had to actually sacrifice it before now.  Here is what happens when you make such an offer and the team wins a section championship.

Thank you to Chelsea for kindly removing the all of the coaches' hair for winning.



7 more days

WE WON!

I apologize for the self promotion.

The Exeter Monarch baseball team is the 2014 Central Section Division V Champions. That is a mouthful. We beat our league opponent, Immanuel 8-4 to complete a roller coaster ride of a season.  This was a huge win for team work as all the players were a part of the efforts. Thank you to the coaching staff of Kevin and Peter for their work and putting up with my ever shifting mind.

A season for the ages.






9 more days

Still Playing Baseball

We won our last playoff game 5-1 over Sierra Pacific, so we're still playing.  Tonight we play a league opponent, Immanuel, for the section title.  In California at this time section titles are the last games played.  In the near future a state title game and state playoffs will happen.

We get to play at the local minor league baseball stadium as part of a two day, six division championship weekend. We play in the first of two games Friday and four games will be contested on Saturday. This is the same stadium we played in to win the Easter tournament championship in April.  That should mean we are at least comfortable with the surroundings.

And we should be comfortable with the opponent.  We have played four times already this year, but have lost three times. Once in at the end of a tournament we lost 7-1, but the rest were either 1 or 2 run games. This is really as even as you can get. We have our most consistent pitcher on the mound, and he beat them the one time we won this year. This will come down to a few mistakes one way or the other and should be a great game.







10 more days

We Get to Play Again

The baseball team won their second playoff game, 4-0. Tomorrow we travel to play Sierra Pacific.  They are seeded #2 and we are #3.  Should be fun.

The last game was against a nearby town, Woodlake, that has been a longtime rival.  In the last few years their baseball team has been getting better and better. Our pitcher threw a 1-hitter and we got enough hits to push across a few runs to win. Lots o'fun.

Another Baseball Game. . .

Yesterday we won our first playoff game and it wasn't fun. The other team traveled close to 300 miles round trip to get beat 20-0.  They played as if they expected that to happen. In fact they had only won one game all year that wasn't a forfeit. What were they doing in the playoffs?

The good take away from the game is the exposure of our players to another group of people. The opponents were not bad kids, just untaught in the skills of baseball.  They acted and dressed liked the players at the beginning of The Rookie.


For us our players handled it pretty well.  A few times they lost focus on what was important.  Every player got into the game and many of those off the bench had their best game of the year. It was a team effort and I hope they understood what I was trying to do when I stopped them at 3rd base instead of scoring. The score could have been much worse.

Most bothersome to me was that the day was a near waste. We're playing in a playoff system that doesn't always promote excellence.  We would have been better off practicing instead of playing.  Today we will have to work at getting the team back on track mentally.

Schools are not in the money-making business, but they shouldn't waste money either.  Our school lost money on this game.  Our parents and community had to pay to watch this game. We don't charge admission to our games unless forced.  30% of our community's gate money went to the other school. 40% goes to our state athletic federation. Therein lies part of the problem.

We talked a bit about how our players would be just the same if they had grown up with the opponents.  For most, that is when the light bulb went on. They saw that what environment does to a person.  As I said the opponents weren't bad.  Our booster club sent them to a local pizza place for dinner before their trip home. I was told they were polite and reserved and courteous. Seems education is part of the cure with some.

17 Days left

What's Going On?

For baseball the third season begins today.  I like to tell the players that we have three seasons: the preseason, the league season and the playoff season. We don't always make the third season, but we did this year. We are seeded 3rd in Division 5 of our section.  That's the next to the smallest division. I have no control how the CIF places us, I just get to keep coaching until we win or lose the last game before us.

We host California City Tuesday.  I'm glad they have the journey not us.  California City is about 140 miles south and east from here.  Over the mountains and into the desert near Edwards Air Force base. They and a few other schools are now in our section. I should be gone before we have to make that trip for a game. It should be a exciting playoff run. We have the pitching, but have to wait and see if the hitting and catching keep pace enough to win.

Yesterday, Mother's Day, was spent in the garden.  Traditionally on Mother's Day I took the children and Maureen got the day to herself to work in the garden. Yesterday I helped her prepare and plant the corn beds and lay down some more mulch in the walkways.

Let it be known that I am not trying to take credit for the walkway mulching.  Maureen came up with the idea to use the waste mulch when our tree was cut down. I'm the brute force, though she has done more of this than I. It should keep the weeds down.

The corn is our idea.  Corn is so cheap to buy, it doesn't make sense to grow it.  But I wanted to try and if it fails the chickens get some food.  Another experiment. And another wonderful day with Maureen in the garden. I'm always reminded of the blessing it is to work with her. We don't always agree on the path, but eventually get to the same place together.

19 more days.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

S

"You win a few. You lose a few.  Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them."  Satchel Paige said those words.  I seem to be relying on my standby quotes lately in life.  It just seems that I've hit a patch that the simplicity of a quote sums up what I'm living and thinking.

The baseball team is doing a whole lot of losing right now. Some in the normal way when you don't catch, throw or hit at the right time. Some in "creative" ways.  Friday we played a team that we lost to by one run earlier in the  year when we could have won.  This game they sat five of their starters for discipline, our best pitcher gets hit by the ball on his throwing hand while batting and is out of the game.  We lose 6-1.   It's not even close.  We are now a bunch of individuals, not a team.  Time to really go to work.

"Manners are of more importance than laws.  Upon them, by a great measure, the laws depend."  Edmund Burke  Say what you want about the Reset Generation having the attention span of a gnat, but their manners are unfathomable at times.  The fact that I am talking to a student means nothing to some students who step between us and start asking me their question. Walking out of the classroom to wave and yell at a passing student is acceptable. I don't know what teaching will look like in the future; I know that the new Common Core curriculum isn't going to help; and I am thankful I won't be around to deal with the problems our leaders have given us.

"If you come to a fork in the road, pick it up." Yogi Berra  I have many forks in front of me in the near future.  I hope to have the wisdom to pick up some and turn the correct direction with the others.

Another Year

Yesterday we had our scrimmage for the 2014 season.  I paused a bit to think back about what I've been a part of as a baseball coach.  This is my 22nd year as the Varsity Head coach out of a total of 29 years coaching baseball at the high school level. I wonder if I've stayed around because no one else was available to coach.

I was blessed to start my coaching career while trying to play at the College of the Sequoias.  I had trouble hitting the college curveball, so our coach, Bert Holt, put be in the"lineup" as the 1st base coach.  I got to be in the game instead of sitting.  Icame to enjoy coaching first base. I was blessed to play for Bert, enshrined in the California Junior College Hall of Fame; Pete Beiden, College Baseball Hall of Fame; Ray Strable; Manny Kouklis; and other great coaches.  Maybe with this lineage and a love of baseball meant I was to be a coach. I don't know, but with the patience of Maureen I'm still coaching.

Though we aren't supposed to keep score in a scrimmage, we scored more runs.  Our pitching did well and for now we are feeling good about ourselves.  Starting 1 March the games start counting and we'll see where we really are.

Odds and Ends

Just some random thoughts and questions wandering through my brain these days.

I want to make sausage.  I'd like to do it with a three year old turkey we have.  We call her Soup because she has to be too tough to roast and will have to be made into soup. There is a story behind the name.  The last turkey was named Dinner and you know where he ended up.  So my obvious question is, Is it too late to make sausage from Soup?

Baseball season started two days ago.  At least the official high school season in this area.  We have been practicing since September.  I have objections to this idea that one must play a sport virtually year-round. Unfortunately I will battle most other coaches on this within our area and the assistants at our school like to practice. in the fall.  I will say fall practice is better than summer.  An athlete is drawn in many directions during the summer and one less sport is good for them; gives them a little chance to breathe.

Baseball starting means I'm getting home after dark.  My muscles will have to get used to another set of motions and I will be sore for a bit, or longer.  Baseball still is a great sport, just I'm seeing another side again.

We're slowly starting to purge ourselves of stuff.  It feels good to give something to another that they can and will use. And we slowly remove the clutter. The key is to not replace it with more clutter.

Teaching sure is changing. It will be nice to be out of the education squirrel cage some day.

Have a good day.

The Sunday After

This will be a strange Sunday.  Thanksgiving Thursday with some family and dinner.  Re-clean Friday and Saturday to prepare for a Two Birthday dinner Saturday night. In between one of the birthday children decide that the house should be decorated with the Christmas stuff.  This entails 12+ boxes from storage, take out the Christmas, put the normal back in boxes, take the boxes back to storage.  (Some day I will have a post about storage businesses.)  Dinner with friends and other family was quiet and calm compared to Thanksgiving and refreshing.  So Sunday?

Clean, wash dishes, prepare for the last 3 weeks of school before Christmas.  What if this was the last Christmas you were spending at school?  Just wondering, not sayin'.  Need to finish up the wood projects.  I have much to cut today so students can assemble next week.

I will have to start discussions on the building of a new baseball field.  A son and I laid out and staked an idea, now to get it built in time to for the JV's to use it this year.

Also need to prune some trees and even take one down,plus locate and cut some firewood.  Busy, fun times.

Stack Some More On Top

The baseball playing is done for this year.  We finished in the top 4, which is good, but beat ourselves with 5 errors in our last game with Firebaugh.  Firebaugh beat Caruthers to win the Section title. This is the third year in a row we lost to the eventual champion. That's getting old. It was a good season in many ways, just not the ending we had planned.

The new set of chickens are growing.  We're trying some meat birds this time and they sure do sit and eat quite a bit.

With baseball done my attention now turns to the list of unfinished and put off jobs around the 'Zoo.  We're talking about moving a deck to make more animal and garden room in the back. The pecan tree needs trimming to let in more light, but that will have to be hired out. Too tall for me to climb and cut. I have already started taking down a curly willow in the front for more sun and garden space.  It's a bit easier to lop off a limb at a time.  Hauling off the brush and limbs will be the issue here.  No one has burn piles anymore because of the poor air quality, and we don't have the room for a long term compost pile. One of the things I remember reading in the Nearing's book, Living the Good Life, is their composting methods and all brush and such were left in the forest to break down.But they had the land.  Someday.

We also have a list of jobs involving cleaning up around for the visit from Sam.  He is getting out of the Army and coming for a visit with with a friend.  She has never seen the West Coast and certainly the Central Valley.  It will be a hoot, but we have many things to attend to before they arrive.

I'm currently reading Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking and I am amazed by the thoughts I am having.  The book is describing me more than I ever expected.  I can see times the thoughts I was having were coming from a deep place inside.  The author is making the case that Introverts are more genetically guided than from a learned response.  Interesting concept that is fun to explore.

I'm also not planning on teaching summer school. This would be only the third summer in 30 years that I didn't teach something in the summer.  Plenty to do here and I'm still figuring out the Crafts gig.  That has been a Godsend.  As one friend said, "You get to go to work and make things."  Or at lest help students make things.  It has been a stretch in many areas, but I've tried to stretch the students more.  I am still amazed though at the lack of curiosity in some youth.  We're finishing the year with leather and many want nothing more than to get a small circle of leather, paint their name on it and add a bit of lacing.  My working theory of the students is they will do anything as long as it involves painting on something.  If we do plastics, paint the plastic. Same for wood, leather, or mosaics.  I'm thinking of adding screen printing next year.  Maybe that will get the painting out of their minds. Or they will screen print instead of paint different mediums.  Glad I was given the class and I will have to adjust some more. And I am happy with the chance to make those changes.

A Gift From Above

One of the duties of a baseball coach is cleaning up the field after the players clean up.  We usually drag the field as the kids put away the equipment. Lately with the hotter weather I have been turning on the sprinklers to give the grass a drink.  I've even started to turn on the hose also to hit brown spots.

Today I looked up from dragging and found two geese wandering around in shallow left field.  My thoughts turned to dinner and other assorted ideas, but then as I moved around finishing up I just watched the birds.  It was a blessing as they walked about occasionally poling the ground hunting for food.

What's Happening?

Friday night's baseball game was lost in a painful way.  We were ahead or tied on two separate occasions and still figured a way to give the game back to the other side.  Most gruesome is the particular situations we fouled up on.  The plays and situations we work on and even specifically worked on twice last week, were the ones that led to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

We have 8 games left in the regular season.  We are in jeopardy of not making the playoffs. To avoid that we will have to win more than half of those 8; probably close to 3/4's of the 8. What is frustrating is the level of preparation the coaches have given this team is significant and the work the athletes have put in is considerable. There seems little to show for the efforts.  I'm guessing it's the section of the learning curve where new habits have not been fully encased in the brain and can only be put into practice inconsistently.

On  the home front, I have made further steps in cutting down the willow tree in the front yard.  Originally this was planted to bring shade in the morning to the front of the house.  Willows grow like a weed and the effort to keep it under control is big.  It's messy and shades the solar panels a bit. More over, it makes half the front yard unusable to gardening because of the shade.  Three strikes and the tree is out, soon.

We've always had a tree in its place, and will again.  A fruit tree will replace it and won't shade the front as much, thus allowing vegi's to be grown.  Currently one side is planted year round with some food crop and this will allow the other side to planted also. Yippee kiyo, more food to eat.

Maureen planted some tomatoes yesterday, and more will be planted soon.  We're finishing up a fence section to keep the dogs out of part of the garden.  Gunnar, our Belgian Shepard or Malinois, graduated from his first dog manners class. This is significant. Gunnar is a good dog that is becoming great.  He has the look that makes people wary, but had a gentle disposition. Gunnar was a pound-puppy that we rescued on his execution day. We weren't saving him to save him, but we had to put down our German Shepard, Calvin, and the next day we found Gunnar. These two dogs have convinced me that a shepard will always be in our home.

As a side note, I didn't know that such a thing as a Belgian Shepard existed until Gunnar.  Gunnar shot up in size, but is skinny.  We had him tested and prodded to figure out why he never would put on weight.  Never could figure out any cause.  When Maureen signed him up at Alpha K9 Training, the instructor asked the usual questions about reasons for the training and the breed.  In the discussion he suggested that Gunnar may not be a German Shepard, but a Malinois.  Research seems to agree.  Belgian Sheperds, or Malinois, are thinner and slighter than German Shepards.  They also don't slope in the back legs as much.  The Israeli secret service like this breed better because their lower weight is easier to carry if needed. Regardless, for us Gunnar is a great addition.