Pray for Rain

I’m convinced that one of the reasons basketball has become more popular in recent years is because you don’t need an entire team to have fun. With a basketball goal on every playground and at the end of every other driveway, kids can shoot baskets by themselves for hours upon hours. Baseball, and other team sports, suffer by comparison because it’s hard to enjoy the sport when you’re alone in your own backyard.

I’ve recommended the SoloHitter before, after just a week of using it, and now that I’ve gone through an entire season with it, I thought I’d recommend it again. And I recommend it not just as a training device for kids….I use it myself, and I’m not training for anything at all. I get tremendous satisfaction from slugging that ball hanging from a bungee cord in the evening after work. It’s a little pricey, but probably no more expensive than putting up a basketball goal at the end of the driveway.

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A permanent marker, for writing the kids’ names on their hats, gloves and equipment, and a bottle of sunscreen are two indispensable items for every coach’s bag. You never read this in any of the coaching manuals though.

In our league, each coach is responsible for creating a team banner. For most teams, it means collecting money from the parents and ordering a banner from one of the many online shops. (I’ve used both Banners USA and Zaavy.com in the past, with good results.)

One year though, I didn’t get my act together in time for opening day and ended up buying a large canvas tarp from Home Depot and a set of brightly colored water-based paints. I painted the team name in the middle. Then each child painted his hand, made a hand print on the canvas, and painted his name below the print. It may have been the best banner of all. The kids had a great time doing it, and the costs came in substantially below the cost of a ready-made banner.

Parents usually like to buy a baseball or two to play with at home, but when they go to the Sporting Goods store they see a wide variety of baseballs on the shelves. So, as a coach, one of the questions I often get is “which baseball should I buy?”

In my local league, we play with the Worth RIF Level-5 in all divisions T-Ball through Minors. This ball is slightly softer than a real baseball.

While it’s nice to practice with a real game ball, at the beginning of the season, especially for kids 5-8, I prefer practicing with Easton’s Incrediball. The Incrediball is significantly softer than a real baseball. I don’t worry as much about kids injuring each other when we’re playing with the Incrediball.

These aren’t the only brands by any means. I encourage parents to feel the baseballs at the store and see which ones they think are best for playing at home.

For the last few days, my kids and I have been playing with something called the “Solohitter.” It’s simply an amazing tool. (We have the Solohitter Tournament 3000.) It solves a problem that every backyard baseball player discovers soon after developing a love of the game: how do you practice hitting when you’re by yourself? It’s pricey, but probably on par with the costs of putting a basketball goal at the end of your driveway. I’ve enjoyed playing with it as much as my kids have.

Buying the glove for a 5- or 6-year old player is not easy. Most of the gloves on the market are poorly suited to actually catching a baseball. Instead, they seemed designed simply to look good on the shelf, to either you or your child, so you’ll buy them and take them home. Keep in mind that the baseball glove is a functional item, not a fashion accessory. Before you buy, think about what your child actually needs to do with the glove: scoop up ground balls and catch fly balls. On the cheap side, that pink plastic glove with sparkles or the blue and red Spiderman glove may look great in the store, but it won’t work on the field. On the expensive side, that thick leather glove may be too heavy and stiff for your child to control.

Because your child’s hand is tiny, the span from the thumb to the little finger isn’t wide enough to actually allow your child to open and close a glove with any effectiveness. Look for a glove that is designed with an open web. The web is the part of the glove between the thumb and the pointer finger where the ball is caught and held. 5- and 6-year old kids play with regularly sized baseballs. Stick a ball in the web of the glove and see if it fits easily.

After four years of coaching, I’ve seen lots of different gloves. The best glove for this age is the Wilson EZ Catch. A good size for most kids, boys or girls, is the Wilson EZ Catch Series Baseball Glove 10 1/2 Inch (Right-Handed Throw). The glove comes in a 9 1/2 inch model, a 10 inch model, and an 11 inch model. You also can find left-handed models in the same style. I love this glove because of its oversized web and the fact that the glove is always open, ready to field the ball. Your child will want a regular-style glove, which closes and folds flat, when he or she reaches the major and minor league ages of Little League (9-12), but this open glove is the perfect first glove. It will provide your child success in the field, which will increase the enjoyment of the game.