I have many favorite Diamondbacks - Craig Counsell, Luis Gonzalez, Curt Schilling and currently, Justin Upton. However, my all-time favorite D-Back is my 10 year-old son, Tyler. Tyler currently is playing minor league baseball in the McCormick Ranch Little League and shares my passion for baseball. He absolutely loves it. He is pictured below here on his Opening Day from a couple of weeks ago. I love the Under Armor wristbands; not shown here are his blue Ray-Ban blades that he wears out in the field. He looks like a little pro.
Quick story. Tyler loves to hit. On Opening Day this year, in Tyler's 2nd at bat of the season, he was hit by a pitch in his backside and he went down like he had been shot. As he writhed around on the ground in pain, I had to giggle. I admit, I am a terrible father, but it was quite funny. Anyway, Tyler managed to pick himself up and limp down to first. He eventually scored and shook off the painful episode, but ever since, he has been a little gunshy at the plate.
In the last couple of weeks, I have been waiting for Tyler to break out of his batting slump. I have watched as he has struck out more often than normal and just hasn't been as aggressive as he normally is at the plate. We had a conversation in the car last week about being more aggressive at the plate and swinging hard. The conversation helped him be more aggressive but unfortunately, he was swinging at anything and everything including balls in the dirt and balls that were so high that they had snow on them.
Finally, this weekend in Pinetop, Tyler and I began to retool his swing and get his confidence back. We spent several hours with the whiffle balls and getting him to wait back and drive through the ball. I could start to see him gaining his confidence back and I was anxious to have him play in his game last night. I went home early from work, took Tyler to the park across the street and spent about 30 minutes fine tuning his swing. He looked great and seemed ready for the game.
In the top of the 1st inning, Tyler was batting sixth and I was more nervous than normal. As he stepped into the batter's box, he seemed much more relaxed. He went through his normal routine: he dug his back foot in, tapped the plate three times with his bat and got into his stance with most of his weight on his back foot. He looked fantastic. First pitch, he was so excited that he swung and was about 4 feet in front of it and missed. He looked back at me and smiled. I told him what I always tell him: "Relax, keep your weight back, pick out your pitch and drive it!"
2nd pitch was over his head. 1 ball, 1 strike. Next pitch was a foot outside and he took it for ball 2. Then, the next pitch was at his head; he ducked out of the way and fell back onto his back. He looked back at me and he had the same look in his eye as he has had the last couple of weeks and I was worried that he would lose his aggressiveness. I clapped and yelled, "Get back in there, wait back and drive it!" He dug back in, a little tentatively and I thought he might go back into his old habit of being passive. Next pitch was a perfect pitch and he took a beautiful swing and fouled it straight back. It was a picture perfect swing, he just missed it. I thought he had seen his only good pitch in the at-bat and missed it. (In Minors, you are lucky to see 1 decent pitch per AB) Needless to say, I was very nervous for him.
Two outs in the inning and Tyler had a full count on him. He stepped out, as is normal for him, and took two perfect practice swings and then dug back in, tapped the plate and sat back waiting for that perfect pitch that I feared wouldn't come again. I clapped and yelled,"You can do it buddy. Wait back and drive it!" The pitcher looked in and went into his windup and delivered the pitch. Tyler waited and waited in his beautiful stance and it was a perfect pitch right down the middle and Tyler put the most beautiful swing on that ball that I have ever seen and absolutely hammered it.
A rocket line drive into the left-center field gap and Tyler was off to the races. I jumped up out of the bleachers and kind of choked on my Diet Mountain Dew and Ranch sunflower seeds. I was so excited as Tyler took off as fast as he could and I watched as the ball rolled all the way to the wall. Tyler was cursed with his Dad's speed (to put it kindly, he has less than blinding speed) so I was worried about him getting around the bases, but I was going crazy. As he rounded third, the third-base coach was giving him the windmill sign and sending him home and I could hear in my mind the theme from Chariots of Fire playing. It was a beautiful and proud moment as he crossed home plate for only his 2nd homerun ever. He smiled at me as he went back into the dugout and gave me the fist pump.
I was in heaven for about 30 minutes until his next at-bat. First pitch, he popped out to 2nd base. I love baseball.
2 comments:
Nothing better than watching your son hit a homerun. Hope there are more to come. Love this picture.....he is so cute
That gave me chills! Perfect description- I feel like I was there! Such a stud he is. You have every right to be so proud!
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