I just found this forum. Thought I'd add a little plug for the future of baseball. My youngest just turned 15 in May and he plays Legion Baseball (ages 15-19) for Sturgis Post 33 Titans. He's been a starting varsity player since the beginning of High School season in March. He's now batting .376 and has the best average on the team for the moment. The stat leader bounces around between him, his older brother and the catcher that just graduated HS.

Made Rapid City news Fox Finest #1 play of. the week!
http://www.blackhillsfox.com/c...inest-487180921.html

He would love to play in the biggs, but chances are so small for kids from small town teams.

Here's a pic of his big brother playing at Williston tourny this year.

IMG_3648 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

And my little guy making it home after hitting it so hard he only had to jog around the bases.
IMG_3655 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

Little brother smacking the ball again and the results of in the next pic. Big brother up to bat next.
IMG_3645 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_3646 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

IT's fun to only have to go one direction having both boys on the same team.
Little brother up to bat, big brother on deck.
IMG_3676 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr



From High school season. Little brother pitching and big brother on first. (usually plays third)
IMG_3047 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

Big brother SAFELY making it home with the ump making a terrible call.
IMG_3699 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
Big brother SAFELY making it home with the ump making a terrible call.
IMG_3699 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

Great photos, and they are also great basketball players also. You are right to be PROUD!

Great stuff James. Enjoy it while it lasts. Hopefully, a long time.

Sons to be proud of.

Dave

Thanks guys.
Had to drive across the state yesterday for a DH against Mitchell. My little guy, David went 5 for seven increasing his BA to .402. 4 singles and a hard standup triple down first base line that resulted in advancing home due to a bad throw to third.

IMG_3829batch by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_3833batch by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

Big boy Nick, went 5 for 8 with a ground rule double that bounced over the fence at 375. Calwell field is the largest in South Dakota with dead center field at 420 feet.

Hitting it hard!
IMG_3828batch by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

Keep us in the loop on the young men's progress.

It's hard to understand how baseball doesn't draw the interest of today's kids. Why would a kid want to go play soccer or lacrosse when they could be playing baseball?

Of course baseball was always my sport, so I understand your thoughts.

These "little" guys play on fields the same size as the MLB big boys. The stiching on the Legion, High School and College balls are more pronounced so they break more when pitching but you have to hit it much harder to get one out of the park. An MLB ball will fly 20 feet more at home run distances.

My brother's boy will turn 15 near the end of this month and also plays baseball nonstop. He's somewhat of a pitching machine. During a 6 hour tryout session for a fall league team his pitching was smoking along at 83 MPH while hitting his spots. From a 14 year old!

My boys don't pitch that hard, but David being a lefty with a number of pitches that break bigly cruising along around 75MPH is pretty hard to hit off of. He can throw a lot harder, but at the expense of control. Besides his pitching being hard to hit, it's also hard to umpire. We video all the games and the boys review it often. There are lots of walks in his stats that should have been backwards K's. His cousin has had pretty good coaching since he lives in the Minneapolis area. Out here in the middle of nowhere, good coaching is hard to find and David has only had great coaching for the last 3 seasons.

quote:

Why would a kid want to go play soccer or lacrosse when they could be playing baseball?

Completely different games!
Peter.

Little guy hits a homer at the end of the season against the team that usually wins the State Tournament. We didn't win the game.

Here's the video I get a little over excited in from the Williston Tourny posted above.

Legion Baseball is now over for Sturgis this year. Nothing left but pics and videos.

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
Here's the video I get a little over excited in from the Williston Tourny posted above.

Legion Baseball is now over for Sturgis this year. Nothing left but pics and videos.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xOKLfy-DyF0" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Great videos! Hope to see them at the next level.

Gunmaker , when soccer became popular I asked my nephews that question .
They like soccer because at that time parents knew nothing about it so they left the kids alone ! ! !
A lesson to be learned .It's shameful to see parents start fights , attack the coach etc. My solution there is to ban the kids of parents who interfere !

Awesome boys you have raised. Hope they go far in baseball.
I loved it and played as a kid.