Inside the Cupboard for April 24, 2025

America’s sport is infull swing at all levels –from rec ball to the major leagues and at each level, everyone is swinging for the fences. You can hear it the stands from the parents and grandparents screaming, “Put one out there” to the major league fans hollering “GO YARD”. It’s as though one homerun overshadows the player who can get that key hit to score a run, maybe two playing some small ball.

I look at stats from games from AA all the way up through the college level if not daily, certainly many, many times in a week’s time. There are so many ‘tools’ available today for statisticians today so their job is a lot easier than it used to be. As I type games, I am always looking for stats to ‘match up’ and that is sometimes a challenge. For instance, if you have an 18-10 game and the pitchers on the team that gave up 18 runs together give up 12 hits and 10 walks, with one error behind them, chances are pretty strong that the majority of those runs are going to be earned.

Now, for some advice to parents whose kids are playing tee ball. It’s called TEE ball for a reason. I’ve witnessed MLB players hit off a tee to get their swing corrected when going through a slump.

For those who know Jeff Mathis, ask him – he’s done the same thing. I see four-year old kids playing tee ball with someone throwing a pitch to them. If after three pitches, you don’t make contact, the game stops while the tee is placed so that the TEE ball player can hit off the tee that he by all accountsshould have been hitting off of from the get go. Tee ball is for five-six-year-old children. It is the very beginning for ball players where they begin to learn the basics, the right way to play the game. So, WHY would you have a child that young and some younger trying to swing a bat that’s a challenge at best at a moving target.

Teach him the correct way to swing a bat at a still object before you graduate him to Big Pappy status. Not to mention the feeling of failure when Johnny hit the ball the first time it was thrown to him (dads, sorry to disappoint you and bring you down to earth, but 99% chances are he got lucky). He has to wait for the tee to be brought from outside the playing field to the batter’s box with all eyes on him. You can pretty much be assured that little fella (or girl as they play tee ball also) is all twisted in their emotions. Let them play at the level they are and not at the level YOU want them to be. That’s the way it is from Inside the Cupboard.