Tripp's Baseball Season 2009

Well, what can I say...it was not a great year. He was on a team that had quite a few first-year players. I'm all for kids trying out sports at anytime but to put this many newbies on one team seemed a bit unfair to us. Also, we really liked Coach Medina personally, but he didn't do a lot of actual coaching. He coached the team because they didn't have anyone else to and, with Little League, it's ALL volunteer. I'm thankful that he did coach but he was coaching because his grandson was on the team. He still had the mindset that kids still all got together and played "sandlot" games. He expected all the kids to already know how to play baseball when most of them didn't and/or we're still learning. Anyway, it was a really tough year but we were very proud of him because he stuck it out and was one of their best players.

He was nominated for the All-Stars Tryouts which was a great honor. Hi kicked butt but didn't make the team (only one team of 12 players out of his age out of about 30 trying out) but after seeing the competition...wow...some big league players would have had a hard time against them!! There were some amazing kids trying out! I could not have been prouder though since he gave it his all and was VERY impressive!

He is looking forward to Fall Ball and we're thrilled that he will have the same coach as last Fall Ball season. We've decided to have him go ahead and play one more year of Little League and then, if he's still as serious about it as he is now, look into letting him try-out for a Select Team. The Select Teams have professional coaches, more time (and money) commitments and are much more serious and competitive than Little League.

Oh yea, speaking of one more year in Little League, we found out by chance just before the All-Stars try-outs that he should have been in Machine Pitch instead of Minors for one more year. I had his correct birthday on the application but they made a mistake and place him in the level above where he should have been. It was nice to know that he could hang with the older boys!!! :-)

The Defenders












Getting his trophy with Coach Joe Medina.







Their cake at his team's award party.