Spring Training Has Begun!


Bruette

Bruette

Well-Known Member
I was wondering how many model railroaders are baseball fans?

Spring training has begun, first meeting for little league managers is just around the corner. Opening day in Australia between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks is about 6 weeks away. I can't wait to see my grandsons with their uniforms and baseball gloves! I love to listen to a baseball game, preferably the Orioles, but any game will do, while I play with my trains.

I have had enough of winter!
 
I love all kinds of Baseball, Fast Pitch Softball, (coached it for 7 years), Little League, T-ball, and esp College Softball. I much prefer the amateur sport than the professional one. The amateurs play because of the love of the game, not for money or fame. I played until I was 22. Primary position was catcher, which was the same position my daughter played from 9 yo until the end of her college career.

They start them young here! My 4yo Grandson has his first T-ball game next Saturday! While he hasn't got the catching the ball down well, he sure can hit!

Last year in the 3-4yo T-ball league he did something that not many his age could do, and that was to hit the ball, out of the infield, entirely in the air. The ball didn't hit the ground until it was 10-15ft into the outfield. He did that 9 out of every 10 times he batted.

The field they were playing on was a regular sized Little League field. They just moved the bases in for the T-ballers. After their games last year the "minor league", 7-9yo's played their games on the same field.
 
Hell yea BIG YANKEE FAN . But I love the way the royals finshed above 500 ,
Its good for baseball
 
Hey Kent,
Your Royals are loaded with young talent and should have another good year!



Hey Doctor,
Your grandson is a big time hitter! The bases are more then likely 60' and the cut of the infield would end at about 70' measured at the corners so your grandson could have hit the ball 100' if he hit it to the power alleys! To put that in perspective last year I was coaching 3 and 4 year olds and I probably did not see a dozen balls hit into the outfield in the air all season and none of them were more then 85'! Make sure he is swinging level through the strike zone and he will lead his league in hitting every year!

Fielding requires lots of practice and is difficult for all young players. Hitting is the easier of the 2, a lot of hitting is natural ability and he sounds like he is blessed with a lot of natural ability!

I should have known you would have been a catcher, the filed general! The only position I did not play was catcher. In my day players with speed were not used as catchers, that began to change in the 70's. I played more years then I care to count, long beyond the time I should have but except for the last year I could always hit.

This will be my boys 3rd year. The first 2 years they played something called "wee ball", a fun introduction to the game and this year they will be playing T-ball. I coached little league for 10 years and high school girls softball. I am coaching again, but I am nothing more then a bench coach now because m mobility is limited. My son-in-law and daughters help me.



Hey blackz28,
How could the Yankees let Cano get away? I think he is the best hitter in all of baseball because he can hit any pitch in the strike zone. I am glad his is gone, but I wish he would have gone to the national league!



Thank you everyone for sharing your love of baseball with us!
 
I live 20 minutes from the Phillies & Blue Jay's class A (Florida Sate League) teams. They are fun to watch and very reasonably priced and I usually attend about 20 games a year between the two teams.
Of course the Phils & Jays are also here right now - want to pay top major league ticket prices to see some players you will never hear from again? That's spring training.
 
I live near the red sox / twins spring Training Parks in ft myers so I will go,
Ahh cary YOU WORE THE TOOLS OF IGNORACE LOL
 
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G'day Louis...A very good friend of mine introduced me to the Baltimore Orioles recently..wonder who that was... But I have enjoyed watching MLB on Fox Sports here in or Australia...and it has a lot in the family mold with cricket...which I love...As a matter of fact as you pointed out at the start of the thread the MLB is playing two real games in Sydney at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground
or SCG as it's known..and both the Diamondbacks and the LA Dodgers will be playing an exhibition game each against an All Star Australian team as well...A feast of baseball for any Aussie fans..over four days in late March...Cricket Australia (CA) just needs to do the same in the US too...Both are great games....Cheers Go Orioles....Rod...
 
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Carey, I'm with you on that. I played baseball and later softball all my life. My daughter played from 7 to 16 short-catch-first (until she switched to golf). Coaching was fun too.
 
Spring Training? Heck, I thought they just played the World Series a few months ago.
I played little league hardball when I was a kid. Never played in high school though. Later on in the Marine Corps, I played slow pitch softball on the base team as well as on the church league. Keep the arms straight and power though the pitch and its over the fence, every time.
 
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As a Brit it may seem strange but I used to go to Yankee Stadium to watch baseball - of course that was when Joe Torre was the manager for the Yankees - in the mid ninety's.

Beer was $5 for a small plastic cup (maybe 8 oz) back in 1996 - god know's what they charge now.
 
Is Cricket the game where it is ok to fall asleep? And stop the game for tea? Is tea break the same as 7th inning stretch? Just kidding. Go Yankees! Us kids went to Yankee games and one game the loud speaker said " all you fans come and sit behind home plate for TV" Or something like that. We ran to the box seats and got a view our heros, Mickey Mantle, and all the team, then ran onto the field after the game, what a view of the old stadium from the field.
 
Talking about old Yankee stadium reminds me of how much I liked to watch Jim Palmer pitch there. It seemed like he got 80% of the Yankee hitters to fly out to center field with Paul Blair chasing down the fly balls. That center field was huge! It was even bigger when the monuments were in play.
 
I will catch a few Tigers games on the radio, but I will go to a dozen Great Lakes Loons games ( LA Dodgers single A club). Fun to see them starting out. Got to see Clayton Kershaw start with the Loons, knew he wasnt going to be with us long because he was really good. Now he is making the big $ in LA.
 
Living in Great Falls, MT years back watched the Great Falls Dodgers Pioneer league play. Good games with local small city fun, cold beer in big cups, good hot dogs, 50-50 tickets, great crowd. A few players made the big game with LA Dodgers, Cubs other teams. We had 2 players stay with us for the summer, one a pitcher who made the LA starting lineup. I was catcher for him in the back yard playing around with the kids. WOW the ball was moving around and fast. It's true hitting major league pitching is tough! I need spring this year after a tough winter. Maybe we all do, the train set is fun, but that -40 temps for weeks on end drained me. Baseball and spring and summer. Please hurry! Minus 20 this weekend......
 
Minor league BB parks are usually pretty nice. Every seat is a good one and the price is family-friendly. Every player is putting in a whole effort. No slackers making megabucks. When I go to cities like San Antonio, TX, I take the family to the triple-A BB games. You get to see the stars of tomorrow.
 
Charles Smiley said:
They say it's the only sport where the defense has possession of the ball. But isn't that also true of cricket?
Click to expand...

Agreed! Cricket is very much about offense and defense for obvious reasons. They say cricket is boring???? Here is a true story ... I took my son to Yankee Stadium, being an Expat Aussie, I thought the trip and game was going to be a highlight. Halfway through the second or third innings (or what ever it is called) I asked my son when the game was due to start! True story. All I saw was the same bunch of guys on the field as were there during the pre game stuff, and doing pretty much the same thing, standing around.

Honestly, I found baseball to be one of, if not the, most uninteresting games I have seen. No offence to those who find it other wise.

Cheers,
 
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