The Fall 2010/Spring 2011 Tournament Schedules are out for USSSA and Top Choice. I’m listing every possible tournament. The ones we are going to play in are marked in Blue with an asterisk (*) next to them.

–Scott

USSSA Top Choice Baseball Labor Day Season Kick-off (Reg)

Sept 4-6, 2010
Location: RV/VL/PSC
Fee: $500

USSSA Top Choice Baseball Fall Classic I

Sept 18-19, 2010
Location: BLD
Fee: $450
Location: BLD/GA/RM/RV

USSSA Cactus Classic (Reg)

Sept 25-26, 2010 Location: BLD
Location: BLD
Fee: $450

USSSA Top Choice Baseball Fall State Championships (Reg)

Oct 2-3, 2010
Location: BLD / GBBC / VL
Fee: $450

USSSA Southwest Shootout

Oct 9-10, 2010
Location: BLD
Fee: $450

USSSA Top Choice Baseball Fall Classic II

Oct 16-17, 2010
Location: RV/VL
Fee: $450

USSSA Top Choice Baseball Fall Classic III (*)

Oct 23-24, 2010
Location: RV/VL
Fee: $450

USSSA Halloween Scream

Oct 30-31
Location: BLD
Fee: $450

USSSA Top Choice Baseball Veteran’s Salute (*)

Nov 6-7, 2010
Location: BLD/PSC/RV/VL
Fee: $450

USSSA Strike Out Hunger

Nov 13-14, 2010
Location: BLD/RV
Fee: $450 (and a canned food item for every player)

USSSA Winter Clothing Drive

Nov 20-21, 2010
Location: RV/V
Fee: $450

USSSA Thanksgiving Shootout NIT (*)

Nov 26-28
Location: BLD/GA/RM/RV/VL
Fee: $500

USSSA Winter Classic

Dec 4-5, 2010
Location: BLD
Fee: $450

USSSA Toys for Tots (*)

Dec 11-12, 2010
Location: BLD/GA/RM/RV
Fee: $450

USSSA Winter Nationals Warm-up

Dec 18-19, 2010
Location: BLD
Fee: $450

USSSA Winter Nationals Super NIT (*)

Dec 27-30, 2010
Location: BLD/GBBC/PBBC/RV/VL
Fee: $625

I would like to welcome Eric “Flash” Oden and Justin “Tiger” Janda to the Tempe Renegades 10U Club Team. Eric and Justin came out Saturday for try outs and both showed a lot of enthusiasm and potential to play some baseball. Eric played in East Valley Baseball this year for the Vipers and he can pitch and play short stop. As some of you remember Justin played with many of us last winter when we played NYS. He’s quick and he can swing a bat.

Practice This Wednesday at Palmer Park

Practice is from 6PM to 8PM. We have the field reserved with lights every Wednesday through February. We’ll see you there.

Scrimmage Dec 9th at Palmer Park

A week from Wednesday Nick Enoch’s revamped 10U team wants a scrimmage and we’ll be happy to accommodate. It should give us a good warm up to get ready for our tournament.

After School Hitting Club

(Weather permitting) For those who are interested, your son is welcome to come home with my son Matthew. I will be working at home that day and will take a little time off to run the batting cage (for the new players I have one in my backyard). They can get some extra swings in and you can get a free hour. Since our house is so close to the school if you pick your son up from school, it shouldn’t be a big change to pick them up from our place. Or if you need me to drop them off at home I can do that when practice is done. I figure we’ll just go for an hour or so – they get out at 2:45, so say from 3PM to 4PM. If your son doesn’t go to Waggoner you are welcome to drop them off. Email me and I’ll send you the directions.

Hitting club will be this Thursday, 12/3. This is PURELY OPTIONAL. If they have homework, or practice for another sport or other things to do then by all means take care of that first. If they have nothing else to do, then just send them home with Rocket and we’ll hit some baseballs.

Tournaments

After practice yesterday we really need a lot more practice before we roll into a tournament. More importantly Melissa told me that Max should be available to play by the 19th so we’re going to try to get him back in the mix. I’d also like the new players to be able to get their uniforms. At the request of my wife I have registered for each tournament we’ll play over the next 3 months. Here they are:

USSSA Winter Nationals Warm-up
December 19-20
3 Game guarantee
Location: Big League Dreams – Gilbert

USSSA MLK Classic NIT
January 16-18 2010
4 Game guarantee
Location: Big League Dreams – Gilbert

USSSA Top Choice Baseball President’s NIT
February 13-15, 2010
4 Game guarantee
Location
Big League Dreams Park – Gilbert
Victory Lane – Glendale
Rio Vista – Peoria

Conclusion

Well, the table is set. We have have everything we said we wanted. Fixed practice times you can schedule around. One tournament a month for the next 3 months. Two new promising players with the addition of a pitcher to boot. But most importantly I think we have a group of boys who really enjoy playing together. They are learning and developing. We will wrap all this up just in time for the TSLL draft and when the new teams form for spring ball in March our kids should be ready to be leaders this season. Thanks for all your support.

Scott

I have registered us for the Hollween Scream at Big League Dreams on Oct 31st and Nov 1st.

We are guaranteed 3 games.

More details as we get closer to the tournament.

Scott

Maybe 3

We have been invited to play against the Tempe Fall League Pirates this Thursday.  Gonzo.  Game starts at 6:15pm.  Please try to be there at 5:30PM for warm ups.

We also have an EVB game against the Sun Devils Friday evening at Espee.

Last time we played the Sun Devils pretty tough.  Let’s take it to them and show how we’ve improved.

Tempe has asked if we would be willing to play another game Saturday.  Can you please let me know if you will be in town for 10AM Saturday game.

Go Renegades!

Scott

We have been invited to play in a few games in Tempe’s Fall Baseball league.  Guess what.  Those games are THIS Week.  That’s right. This week we are scheduled to play FOUR games.  we’re right into it aren’t we?  We will start with two games at Espee in EVB and then two games in Tempe.  While this is a little crazy, it’s also a great opportunity to give lots of kids a chance to pitch and to play different positions.  I understand not every player may be able to make every game however I’m really hoping we can have at least 9 kids at each game.

If your son can not make any of these games please let me know so I can plan accordingly.

Thank you,

Coach Scott

Tuesday (EVB) @ Espee: 5:30PM

Wednesday (EVB) @ Espee: 5:30PM

Thursday (Tempe) @ Matt Mantei.  6:30PM

Saturday (Tempe) @ Luis Gonzolez Field.  10AM

Scott

So I’m sitting at home last night watching ESPN’s baseball tonight on the Tivo and I start single frame stepping through the pitchers… and I start to notice something.  Not one of the pitchers I’m watching are using the mechanics I’m teaching.  Not One.  I start thinking, “what the heck?”  So I start fast forwarding to other pitchers.  It’s mostly the same.  Their arm action is different, very different from what I saw in the little league video.

So I start doing some web searching thinking what am I missing.. and then I come across this website.  Started by a fellow Techie a few years ago, Chris O’Leary is like me, another baseball “nobody”.  However, what he did do was spend a lot of time researching baseball, and pitching in particular.  A few years ahead of me he started noticing the same thing, that what the books wanted to teach didn’t match what he was seeing on video.  Only he took it 10,000 steps farther.  He started to actually analyze and break down what he was seeing and coupling it with actual medical science.

He takes film of the most successful healthy pitchers of all time and breaks it down frame by frame.  Never the less, I find myself in that awkward position of finding new knowledge that contradicts what I was taught.  The nice thing about teaching the Diamondbacks way is that it takes me personally out of the equation.  I’m learning on giants, pro’s who put together and endorsed a way of teaching baseball.  I also find the information put forward by Little League very credible.

But… I do like to see the things I’m teaching show up on the real world.  And with pitching, at least in a few details that’s not exactly happening.  So, please bear with me while I explore these mechanics a little more and see if I can come to some kind of resolution about the best way to actually teach it.  If you are a coaching junkie like me I encourage you to check out Chris O’Leary’s website (like on the right).

– Scott