Author Archives: clubbaseballdad

We like to think of sports as an uncorrupted place where you’re judged strictly on the content of your abilities, but anyone who’s been around youth baseball knows that this is not always the case. In fact, I often tell my older son (a pitcher) that he really needs to pay attention to batters 5Continue reading “Baseball Playing Time: Why You Need to Be 10X Better”

My wife recently told me about a kid whose father decided to hold him back a year in school (“reclassify”) to help the kid’s baseball prospects. The kid is stocky and one of the bigger kids in his year. So I guess the thought process for the parents is that he’ll have an even moreContinue reading “Should You “Reclassify” Your Kid for High School Baseball?”

So the spring season starts in two weeks, and yesterday my 14u son spoke the words that no baseball dad wants to hear: “My arm hurts.” It’s hard to get a straight answer from him, but I think it’s hurting him on the back of his arm right above the elbow and not the elbowContinue reading “A Pitching Injury Whodunit: What Was Causing the Pain?”

I’ve been known to be critical, both in my personal relationships and when it comes to youth baseball. In most of my posts, I’m complaining about something. In the baseball consumer space, so often the new trendy gadget promising to fix your son’s swing or help his fielding doesn’t work as advertised and is discardedContinue reading “2 Baseball Retailers with the Best Customer Service”

For the past few years, I’ve gotten a little nervous at the end of the winter fearing my son was going to be relegated to the B-team for his club baseball program. And the last two years, he made the A-team and I was happy. But this year, we switched clubs and I found outContinue reading “My Son is on His Baseball Club’s B-Team: I’m Happy”

My 14u son has done winter workouts for baseball since he was 7. At first it was just a bunch of town guys renting out space in an indoor facility to work with the kids, and it’s progressed to a pretty impressive workout program with a club team. Winter workouts have become such a thingContinue reading “Do Baseball Winter Workouts Actually Move the Needle?”

A really horrible manipulative baseball dad who coached my older son once asked me a very poignant question: “What is your end game?” He wanted to know what I was looking to secure for my son down the road with baseball. I can’t stand the guy, and actually almost came to blows with him aContinue reading “What’s Your Baseball End Game?”

So building off my son’s horrible first scrimmage, he was even worse in our first outdoor practice. He had one at bat off the pitching machine and whiffed on three straight pitches, making him the only kid on his team who struck out. Counting the two at bats from last weekend’s scrimmage, he hasn’t madeContinue reading “My Son Keeps Striking Out: Help!”

There’s a Week One NFL overreaction vibe to the first game of a youth baseball season. Hope sprung eternal for you during the long offseason as you watched in awe as your son was killing it in winter workouts, but that optimism can quickly seesaw to abject pessimism if your kid strikes out a coupleContinue reading “First Scrimmage of the Baseball Season: Don’t Overreact!”

My younger son is a baseball stud. He throws hard. He hits home runs. He was called in to pitch in a crucial sectionals game with the bases loaded and one out. It was such a key moment that I literally had to get up and pace around the field. I couldn’t even watch, relyingContinue reading “When You Die in Baseball, Do You Wake Up in Lacrosse?”