Thursday, June 30, 2011

Vance Worley ...

Need we say more?!?



Wednesday, June 29, 2011

First (real) day of summer ...

As any kid (or teacher) will tell you, the first real day of summer does not occur until school is officially done until September. So while The Playmaker and The Playmaker's Sister finished school last week, we did not finish until yesterday. So we welcomed in the first real day of summer today!

Four quickies:

1. Yesterday's predictions! We were 1-2 on yesterday's prognostications. Unfortunately, the one we really wanted to get wrong, we got right. Your Angels did, in fact, get their ass kicked, to the tune of 10-zip in the championship. Clearly over-matched, the bats were utterly silent. We managed a mere two hits the entire game. The Playmaker went 0-2 with a walk. He did have one great play. With the bases loaded and one out, the batter hit a grounder to the pitcher. He threw home to The Playmaker, who got the force and immediately fired to first to get the double play. Alas, that was the only highlight for the Angels. Still, we entered the playoffs with a 3-6-2 record. And then we won four straight playoff games by a combined 24-1 to win the winners' bracket. And that's what we took home with us last night. The knowledge that had it not been for some pu$$y mandated double elimination format, we were the champions -- the last remaining undefeated team. (We also took home a SWEET trophy, a bronze baseball glove.) As for our other prediction (Philles getting swept by the Red Sox), clearly Cliff Lee read the blog and got all fired up. We got home in the third inning and watched the entire game with The Playmaker. Good stuff.

2. Flag football camp! The Playmaker is hitting the turf this week, every morning from 9-12. His team won yesterday 28-21. He had two of the four touchdowns. One on a reception, the other on a run.

3. A picture a day! We read a neat article last weekend on a college student who took one picture every day in the year 2010. A kind of photo journal. We thought we would try it this summer. So today we captured the kids washing our Toyota Camry in the driveway.

4. 90210! As is our annual tradition on this day, 90210 first day of summer videos. Enjoy!
















Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Pessimistic Paul...

Your Angels play for the baseball championship tonight.  Prediction: We get our ass kicked.

The Phillies host the Red Sox for a three game series starting tonight.  Prediction: We get swept.

Suck!

Monday, June 27, 2011

"They're use to curious sites, which they attribute to alcoholic delusions."



This has some classic quotes by Batman. Pay attention around the 2:45 mark when Batman talks to Robin about heavy drinkers.


Sunday, June 26, 2011

General Urko...




Saturday, June 25, 2011

School house rock...

Corrected 110 essays today. Woo! Woo!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Um, Ok...





Thursday, June 23, 2011

Rained out last night...

Ugh.



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

One and done...

Final game tonight. Playing the same team (under a double elimination format). Winner gets to be champions. Losers get ... well, losers get Runner Up trophies. The other team is better than we are. We are just hoping our kids, specifically The Playmaker, play well. Oh, one more thing. After watching the other team explode for five runs in the last two innings, guess what we're doing tonight?!? We're going high and tight on the first pitch to batters 1-4.

Shh. Don't tell anyone.


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

C-R-A-P...

Down 1-zip after one. Ahead 2-1 after two. Then the other team ripped the sheeeet out of the ball and ended up winning 8-3. Nice kids on the other team, but total douchebag coaches. The Playmaker was 1-2. We play tomorrow. Winner takes all.



Monday, June 20, 2011

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day...

Took the kids to Target this morning (as we do every Sunday). Classic to see no fewer than 12 women intently picking our Father's Day cards. Hello?!? Today's the day. You couldn't have gotten your cards before today?!?




Saturday, June 18, 2011

Everyone know who we are...

Another crazy-busy-week. Whoever thinks schoolwork stops in June has clearly never spent time in our classroom. Anyway, we won our baseball game last Monday, 4-zip, to win the winners bracket and advance to the championship Monday night. The Playmaker (0-2, 1 walk, 1 run scored) recorded the final out of the game in grand fashion while playing catcher. Up 4-0 in the last inning, the opposing team had runners on second and third with their best hitter up. With a 2-2 count, he foul tipped a pitch. The Playmaker went low to catch the ball. With his glove face down, no one could tell if he had caught the ball cleanly. He calmly (and slowly) turned over his glove and held it up tall and proud for all to see the ball in the webbing. Strike three! yelled the umpire. At that, the entire team ran over and mobbed Our Son. A truly special moment.

Go Angels!




Friday, June 17, 2011

Best we can do...




Thursday, June 16, 2011

Back on track...

Cliff Lee: 9 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 2 hits (of his own) & 1 RBI




Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Final Four

Your Angels won their playoff game last Saturday, 10-zip, to advance to the finals of the winners bracket (which is tonight). If we win, we advance to the League Championship next Tuesday. If we lose tonight, we advance to the finals of the losers bracket on Saturday.

For the third playoff game in a row, The Playmaker:

a. batted lead-off
b. drew a walk to start the game
c. stole second and eventually scored the first run of the game

For the game, he was 1-2 (single to right) with 2 runs scored and 2 walks. His one out was kind of funny. He come up with the bases loaded and lined one off the pitcher's shin (ouch) so hard that the ball rolled toward the catcher, who promptly picked it up and stepped on the home plate for a force out. On defense The Playmaker did his customary rotation between catcher, first base and center field.

Tonight will be our toughest game in the playofs by far, as we are playing the mighty Cubs (who dominated the regular season). Still, throughout the playoffs we have outscored opponents by a margin of ... wait for it ... 24-1. Repeat: TWENTY FOUR to ONE.

Go Angels!


Monday, June 13, 2011

If it's the middle of June...

Then it must be time for fall travel team soccer tryouts. We kid you not. Tonight. Yikes.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Best we can do...


Friday, June 10, 2011

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Two-and-oh (my) ...

Been a "crazy-busy" (to say nothing of scorching) week. Just now getting around to last Monday's playoff game. After ending the season an underwhelming 3-6-2, we are a pristine 2-0 in the double elimination playoffs. We won Monday, 8-1. In doing so, we beat another team that had defeated us in the regular season. The Playmaker (again batting lead-off) was 1-2 (plus a walk) with an RBI double and two runs scored. In the bottom of the fifth with two runners on, he smoked a line drive down the left field line. It was fair by about two inches (in case the home plate umpire didn't know that fact, the third base coach, that would be us, frantically signaled FAIR BALL with the right arm while using the left arm to wave home the runner on second -- classic). On defense he again played catcher, first base and center field. Our next playoff game is Saturday.






Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Random fact

We have spent more time watching the Stanley Cup than the NBA Finals. Such is life when Whore Stern starts his games at 9 PM.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

zzzzzz...

Double workout has left us woozy and winded. Can't wait for tomorrow's 100+ degree weather. Good gawd, man. Ugh.

Monday, June 6, 2011

It looks like you need ... another ... shower

Tired and dusty from round two of the playoffs tonight. Ugh.


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Best we can do...

Planet of the Apes

Saturday, June 4, 2011

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.



Friday, June 3, 2011

Best we can do...

Typical texASS...




Thursday, June 2, 2011

(Again) Everyone know who we are...

The Lacrosse World Domination Tour had, perhaps, its sweetest victory Tuesday night. We have lost just two games the whole season. Tuesday we had a rematch against one of the teams that beat us. They came into the game undefeated.

They left with a Big L.

But it wasn't easy. In fact, entering the fourth quarter we trailed, 5-2.

From there, we dominated, scoring five unanswered goals to win, 7-5.

The Playmaker scored his fifth goal of the season, to cut the lead to 5-4. He took a pass about 10 yards left of the net. He immediately sprinted towards The Cage. He pulled up about five feet short and encountered a defender who got his feet tangled with a kid on our team. The defender fell at The Playmaker's feet. Doing a Tim Tebow Jump Pass (errrr, shot), The Playmaker jumped over the defender and shot while in the air. The ball sailed in the net and the ref blue his whistle. The home crowd grew silent as they waited to see if the whistle was for a goal or for a tripping penalty on us. The ref's hands went up. Goal counted. Fans cheered.

Our final game of the year is Sunday morning.






Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Y-I-K-E-S...

Our final regular season baseball game was cancelled tonight due to the TORNADO WATCH. (Playoffs start Saturday.)

Check back tomorrow for a lacrosse update.