From: Cary Peterson

Hi Joe,

I read your baseball blogs years ago when my boy was almost in middle school. He’s now a sophomore in HS and upon the end of his baseball season. He played JV ball last year and had plenty of playing time. It changed this season.

I recall reading about how difficult the sport is especially once they reach high school age. With my kids talent I always had faith that he would be fine in High School but was cautious because of his physical size. He attends a great baseball High school in AZ with many state championships. Because of that they have a steady pipeline of good players attending because of open enrollment. He finally realized his chances of playing varsity are very slim so he’s decided to move on. I think I’ve taken it the hardest (secretly) but have shown him all my support. If he would have attended another school this might not have been in his cards but he’s lost the passion and I can see that clearly.

I’ve never forgotten your blogs and always knew in the back of my mind that the same thing could happen with my kid and baseball. Thanks for your words of wisdom and helping make this next step as a baseball dad a little bit easier.

anyway, landed here because my kids (8 and 7) just tried axe bats for the first time after two seasons of standard round knobs, and they were instantly hooked. just bought a couple used axes for them cheap to try over the winter to see how they like them longer term.

thanks for the detailed review!

Without seeing your son swing a bat, it’s hard to give precisely correct advice. However, 32″ seems long for someone who is 5’5″ regardless of weight or age. I would not consider anything higher than 31″ for that height, and would probably try 30″ first. Drop 8 might be fine given his weight. The best way to figure this kind of thing out is to watch your son swing a bat (with the help of a coach if you don’t have the baseball skills yourself). Have him try a bunch of different bats from teammates to see whether he can swing the bat fast enough for it to be workable.

I also appreciate the tip on adjusting font sizes and screen distances to mimic a high PPI display. It’s a simple but effective way to reduce eye fatigue. Have you experimented with blue light filters or e-ink displays for further eye comfort? Would love to hear your thoughts on those!

Looking forward to more productivity tips—thanks for sharing!

I actually looked up this topic (and found this article) because of many conversations with my father growing up.

I was not a very good baseball player (and even football took an exorbitant amount of work for me to become a serviceable Receiver/Defensive back), and my dad had a rule I could only play one sport per year and could not quit mid-season and play the next sport forthcoming……Weird and not pertinent to go too deeply into.

So I played football 4-6th grade as a scrub, switched to baseball in 7th grade and loved it but sat out all of 8th because I didn’t like the coach (had problems with him in the classroom—not sure of how he was as a coach and in retrospect I regret not at least trying)….This took place in Minnesota, my 7th grade season taking place in the Spring of 1992—so you can imagine the passion for baseball that year. Youth football up through HS football takes a backseat in MN to youth-thru-college hockey. As a rule hockey was never an option for me.

7th grade was really fun and I was a very good contact-to-line drive hitter, never really got loft (home runs) but put the ball in play and got on base (solid contact and occasional walks) much more than strike outs. Our coach’s main emphasis in batting was to make sure we didn’t strike out looking and I really only remember doing that maybe two or three times….

My weakness, however, was that since I had only played one year of kid-baseball (3rd grade) I had basically no experience playing the field. Was learning as I went and was shoved into RF and it was the only position I ever played. I so rarely got a ball even hit in my direction I remember less of these than literal at bats of any outcome.

Most of my teammates had been playing youth baseball every year so were, from my perspective, “quite advanced” which was very demoralizing which no doubt was a contributing factor in me not playing in 8th grade.

A typical practice for us was warm ups (stretching, short toss and progressive long toss) which I was fine at but we didn’t really do any other real drill work. Then we’d do an hour and half of rotation, someone getting an at-bat and a few different experienced pitchers throwing a few at bats, coach pitching some, etc. So most of the time I was just standing in RF until my inevitable at bat would come, usually get on base and then time run out and now time to go home.

Long story short while I had fun in 7th I didn’t learn much. While I didn’t play in 8th (or football that year because I had expected to play baseball so didn’t do Football so missed that entire year both sports) I did see a few of their practices and by-god I saw all these skills training, batting cages, position group drills and rotations, it blew my mind! More than anything I was kicking myself for missing out on that….

9th grade my family moved to Alabama. Now Football in Alabama was KING but we moved the week school started in August so basically high school football was already in swing so the consideration to play Football wasn’t even really an option (although I could have since I didn’t play Baseball that spring) — I tried out for baseball that “winter” and it was even more advanced that what I had witnessed out of the 8th grade practices I saw. Needless to say I had no chance to make the team. Not even close. I tried out for Legion ball in the spring knowing I wouldn’t make it but just to get more practice and it became evident I was so far behind I’d never catch up in any conventional way I knew about or had access to. It was too late to switch to Football (spring training was in February and I hadn’t had that idea yet) so I had to wait until the next February to try out and make or HS team (basically if you didn’t quit after being brutally hazed by teammates and thoroughly worked/coached you made the team no matter what). In January I had tried again long shot to make baseball team and predictably didn’t make it….
(It took a full year of off-season, fall camp, season, 12th grade spring training, off-season, fall camp before I was good enough to be a good enough player to be a rotational WR and FS/CB -all that just for my last season😞).

Because I could now drive, and had a 32 hour a week job that I held all the way through Football after turning 16, I had convinced my Dad to let me try out for the HS baseball team one last time. He totally downed me and (realistically no doubt) made fun of the fact I’d have no shot whatsoever considering how badly behind I was, how good our team was, and how long it took me to get “good enough” at football (a game I’d say I’m slightly more physically adept at or at least had more relevant experience at)….

Sorry, longest story in the world I know but all that to get to THIS:

In discussing trying out for baseball again I tried to get insight from my dad as to which infield position I should try (I knew from 9th grade how it would go and everyone was supposed to try out at multiple spots and I had been caught out last time not knowing where my best fit was or really even correct form for ground balls) and he told me this, paraphrasing:

SS and 2nd needed to be played by Lefties primarily due to the double play and in the case of 3rd base having the glove to the outside for defense. Literally the same thing for Left Field. So that limited me to RF, CF or 1st.
When I did try to cite pro examples going against his rigid dogma on infield (since that was point of convo, I was confident I could play outfield well) his explanation was those guys were so good that it overcame the natural advantage of handedness and that was really a 1 in 1,000,000 person you were talking about by the time they are in MLB. So I tried out and predictable results ensued. I went for RF and 1B and of course the team already had its 22 before the first day of tryouts began….I more or less took my Dad at his word because he had been a star athlete in his youth, was left handed and I figured he’d know. In fact we had more or less been having variations of this convo for YEARS because I always preferred baseball to football but could never find my way with it whereas football always came (easier?) to me. (I think part of it is related to season….I love springtime and hate Autumn/Winter)

Your entire article boggles my mind! Lefties having only two natural field positions? That’s nuts! I lived my whole life assuming they had almost the entire infield and LF automatically.

(Post-script: A friend of mine who was on the baseball team worked with me after the failed 12th grade tryout, helped me at all my deficient areas and trained me up on the fielding and hitting drills and I tried out for the Legion Team again that Spring and I made it to Final Cut. I think I was the last one cut, if I remember correctly. The coach told me if I was a couple years younger he woulda gave me a shot for the experience but at that point it was too late…Where was he when I tried out in 9th grade, huh?? Well, my buddy Rudolphi did teach me a crap ton in the couple of weeks we spent training together, I felt like night-and-day and actually played with CONFIDENCE that Spring I’d make the dang team)

Glad my old blog is still of use! And yes – gloves that are already broken in are the way to go for kids below the age of 11. Mizuno is not the only brand, but it consistently makes gloves that are ready to use immediately at a good price.

Somewhere around age 12 it makes sense to invest in a more expensive glove that is stiffer and will take some time to break in, especially for kids who have gone through some of their final big growth spurt.

Again – I have no opinions on Lithium batteries. Haven’t tested any.

What is your opinion on these non – rechargeable AAA batteries: https://depozitulcubaterii.ro/home/236-baterie-litiu-energizer-ultimate-lithium-aaa-r3-l92-10buccutie.html?

Are these quality batteries?

I haven’t personally tested any lithium ion AA or AAA batteries, so I have no recommendation to share. I continue to NiMH low self-discharge batteries from Eneloop or other reputable brands, most of which I purchased over a decade ago. They are not as long lasting as Lithium but I’m happy with them.

Haven’t tested the BQ-CC 65, so I don’t have any opinion to offer.

The BQ-CC55 is not a bad charger. You just have to be careful when using AA batteries not to overheat them. With AAA batteries it chargers at a slower rate and therefore runs cooler and shouldn’t be a problem.

The simple way to ensure you never have an issue with this charger is to always charger 3-4 batteries at a time. It’s only when you charge 2 batteries, and especially 2 AA batteries, that it can charge very quickly and run very hot.

I’ve seen kids benched for many different reasons, and each coach has their own unique style. I don’t have the full context of your situation so I wouldn’t know.

A good coach will outline expectations when the team is formed before practices and the season begin. If he told you at that time that he takes practices before games very seriously and expects everyone to attend, then he is merely following through on whatever expectations he set. On the other hand, if it came as a big surprise since he never mentioned how much he cares about kids coming to practices just before a game, then I suppose that would not be very cool. And there may be other factors I’m not aware of.

Anyway – whether his expectations were clearly outlined or not before the season – now you know.

Taylor – I really couldn’t tell you without seeing him swing his bat. Have him try out a few bats from other kids, and observe, as suggested in the article. But err on the side of too light.

He used a 26” -13 tee ball bat that has taken a beating so I want to get him a new bat. Any thoughts on bat length/weight? He’s just under 47” tall and slender.

The suggestions online are all over the place, so I really appreciate any guidance you can provide.