Everyone know who we are (playoff style)...

The baseball playoffs started today bright and early at 9 AM. We are the number 7 seed (out of 10). We were pitted against the number 3 seed, a team that had, well, kicked our ass in the regular season.

Last Thursday, we held a three way on-line chat session (held, perhaps, during school/business hours) with the other two coaches. One guy laid out the pitching rotation. The three of us quickly agreed. Then we took over.

1. Put the crappy kids at 3rd base! For most of the season we'd had the bad kids take their infield turn at 2nd base. (Everyone has to play at least two innings in the infield.) But few batters are able to pull the ball to third. Thus, 3rd base is a great place to "stash" a bad kid. There is more action at second, as kids often swing late and hit the ball there.

2. Stack the top of the batting order! During the regular season we'd constantly changed the batting order game to game. For the playoffs we suggested ranking the batters 1-12 and letting them bat in that corresponding spot. (You bat through your entire roster, including kids who are not in the game on defense.) The idea is to get the better kids extra at bats at the expense of the bad kids.

3. Employ the swinging gate in the outfield! On defense you play four outfielders -- during the season we put two kids in left and two in right, leaving a gap in straight away center. Our suggestion was to play the best of the four outfielders in dead center, with two other kids playing left and right field. As for the fourth kid, we wanted to move him to left center or right center, depending on if the batter was a lefty or righty.

The other two coaches bought into our three suggestions and our 25 minute encrypted chat session ended. (Before signing off, perhaps someone dropped the eff bomb -- as in, LET'S EFFING KILL 'EM! And perhaps it was us.)

Friday night. We got home from school, grabbed The Playmaker off the bus and headed to one of the fields to use the batting cages. Sixty minutes later we emerged from The Cage and did some quick infield work and then had him throw 30 pitches off the mound. The Playmaker's Sister had a friend over and we decided on pizza for dinner. At 7:30 we were reading on the bed. By 7:45 we were face down on the pillow. We awoke at 10:45, closed the window and got under the covers and snoozed straight through until 5:30 this morning.

Saturday morning. We pumped in an extra five minutes on the elliptical (65 total minutes) and then showered before making sure The Playmaker was awake at 7:20. By 8:10 our team was on the field taking BP and infield. The first player from the other team arrived around 8:25. His coach did not roll in until about 8:40. On our side, we split the kids into three groups: infielders, outfielders, pitchers/catchers. No player spoke. Coaches were demanding, less tolerant than normal. Professional athletes always talk about the playoffs having a different feel to them, one of far more intensity. And we can honestly say for the first time in our youth coaching tenure, we felt it today. We weren't out to make sure everyone had a turn pitching and playing first base. We were out to win an effing playoff game. We won the coin toss and became the home team. We gathered the kids on the bench and one coach read the defensive lineup. Then we gathered the kids around us and gave them the first pre-game speech of the season.

We're gonna be aggressive on the bases!

We hustle on EVERY play!

Outfielders back up every throw in the infield!

No overthrows! Don't turn a single into a double!

Be smart at the plate! Don't swing at bad pitches! But if it's good, SWING the stick!

Angels on three. One...two...three... ANGELS!

From the get-go, we kicked the living SHEEEEET out of them.

The tone was set early. And it was set by ... wait for it ... The Playmaker. After the first kid whiffed, the second batter singled and then stole second (leaving too early, by the way). The third batter popped out, bringing up the cleanup hitter who, as a 9-year old (allegedly), went about 5'7", 140. He hit a bullet to center field (where we had a kid perfectly positioned in our new defensive set up). The center fielder quickly got the ball into our shortstop who turned to see the runner on second making his way home. He threw an absolute strike to The Playmaker, who had completely blocked off the plate. He caught the throw and threw down the tag just before the kid's sliding foot touched the plate. O-U-T! Inning over. The game was, basically, over, too. The Angels sprinted off the field. The other team walked around their dugout in a WTF Daze -- coaches included.

Batting lead off, The Playmaker drew a five pitch walk. Two pitches later he had stolen second on a close play. One batter later a single went up the middle. Coaching third, we frantically waved The Playmaker home (no way we send him during the regular season). The play unfolded exactly as ours had in the top of the inning. The center fielder got the ball to the shortstop, who fired home. The Playmaker slid to the outside of the plate. The catcher reached high and tagged his chest. But not before The Playmaker's foot slid safely across the black edge of the plate.

It was 1-zip after one, 2-zip after two. They cut it to 2-1 in the fourth. But we got a pair of runs in the fourth, and again in the bottom of the fifth. We won, 6-1.

Never had an 0-1 batting performance from The Playmaker (2 walks and a foul out) felt so good. His defense and base running led us to victory.

Oh, the end of the game was classic. After a 1-2-3 final inning, the Angels did the traditional MLB defensive winning walk off. The outfielders and two substitutes lined up behind the pitcher on the mound. The infielders lined up behind the catcher, The Playmaker. He tilted his helmet/mask to the top of his head and led the fielders in line to shake hands with the pitcher/outfielders/subs. We had no idea the kids were going to do that, or even knew how to do it. But it was frigging C-L-A-S-S-I-C! (Shocking to learn after the game that The Playmaker and BFF Alex had hatched the plan at recess on Friday.)

No matter what happens the rest of the playoffs, we will remember this game for a long, long time.