Newsletter 45: Little League Baseball

I’ve decided to start putting some of the best newsletter essays here on Medium, so more people can read them. You’re still better off just subscribing. This one is from March 2017, when I was about to start coaching my son’s Coach Pitch Little League team. I’ve coached three seasons since I wrote this, and now we’re up to Machine Pitch. I’ve had a wonderful time coaching and getting to know these kids, and on the whole, we’ve been able to keep it fun. The vast majority of coaches and parents understand what it’s about at this age. And we just try to keep that minority at bay as much as we can, with varying degrees of success. Anyway: Thank you, Five Market Realty Athens Little League Machine Pitch, you kids rule.

So I’m coaching Little League again this year. I coached T-Ball last year and couldn’t have had more of a blast. T-Ball is specifically suited to my constitution, because:

• Nobody can strike out.
• There are, in fact, no outs at all.
• They don’t keep score.
• There are kids as young as four.
• Everybody gets to bat every inning. You do this twice for both teams, and then the game is over.

My 2016 Heyward Allen Toyota T-Ball team: