Good news!

Marshalltown lost both games in the finals (it is a double elimination tourney). So they had 2 losses, and were done. Ankeny was still playing today, though based on scores, it looks like Urbandale is going to come out of District 3 with the championship.

North Story 12s

Dan and I got cut off, but this is what you get for now. Let me know if you need pics, we can get them emailed to you.

Post Season Party

Logan's grandma offered us a post season party at her bowling alley, Carousel Lanes in Story City. I am truly thankful for such a nice offer. Players and immediate family are invited to come, with free bowling and shoes. If you want something to drink or eat (like those tasty bowling alley/bar frozen pizzas) you will have to buy that on your own, but I certainly don't expect that with the bowling offer. So anyway food/drink is dutch, but the rest is on the house.

I realize it is the vacation season, and I doubt we can get all 14 guys there. But we will make best effort. So I have chosen Wednesday July 15 at 7PM at Carousel Lanes, on the west side of Story City.

So please reply if you can or cannot make that, and a tentative head count if you can. If we can only get a couple people, I will pick another day. But I know all the coaches kids can make it that day, so for now, we will make it Wednesday.

So again, please reply, with a yeah or nay.

finally some time

I actually made a post about our last game, but I don't know what happened to it. Been on the go a lot here lately. But the family left me for the weekend, and I have the run of the house, so I can get around to typing again.

So I will give an abbreviated commentary about the last game. Super fun night with the big crowd, and playing under the lights, and all that. I talked to the Ames coach afterward, and they had a good time as well, obviously more fun for them by winning.

The big difference in the game was their outfield play. They did a great job of hitting the cutoff man with solid throws. He said they practiced that, and executed as well as they ever had. Stinks for us I guess.

Our 5th inning was a goodie. All of our 5 runs came with two outs. Kudos to the guys for not giving up. Taylor had a good night with the bat going 3-4, Jerald went 2-4 with a double and a dong, and Alex went 3-3.

Mick had a rough pitching start, but did his job catching 2 flies in right, right after being taken from the mound. Jerald and Andy did a good job of keeping Ames off balance.


As for the gang as a whole, this was a super bunch to be around. You don't think of it with 12 year old boys, but this is a very quiet bunch for the most part. They got along well, but weren't running their mouths and annoying the coaches, which is good.

It was a different team to run, with 14 guys on the team. They are used to being on teams with 10 or 11 kids, and getting a lot of playing time. Obviously they want to play, but I didn't see anybody having a big black cloud about it, affecting the rest of the team. As I told the guys, their days of being on teams with one or two players above what is on the field are about over, as they move into Jr High, and HS.

Because I like stats, here are some. We had a .339 team batting average, which is pretty good. The stats look a lot different than my regular season team. The batters walked and struck out a lot less. I equate that to better opponent pitching, and better batters on our part.

Our pitching wasn't the greatest. We had some good efforts mixed in there, but a couple of bad innings really did us in. I am not even considering or worrying about Marshalltown tho.

I also want to thank those of you that volunteered for various jobs, be it in the concession stand, doing book or pitch counts, umpiring, being TD, or anything else that I have currently forgotten. There is a lot of stuff to make this all fly in the short amount of time, and I couldn't do it all myself. I also want to thank my assistants, Doug and Dan. It is a good experience to work with different coaches, and I learned some stuff from them as well, and they are good guys to boot.

Have a good rest of the summer!

No commentary tonite

With the late game, and I have to go to work now, I am not gonna have time to comment on the game right now. But come back, I will do so tomorrow some time, and offer a wrap.

Also, we are going to have a year end party at Carousel Lanes in Story City, thanks to Logan's grandma. Not sure of the date, and I know we probably can't get everybody there because of vacation time, so stand by on that.

Well, not tonite

Despite the loss, that may have been our best played game of the tourney so far. That first inning was ugly--just a lot of unfortunate stuff for us. I thought Taylor was throwing well. There weren't many solid hits--2 in right field, 30 ft past first and about a foot fair. Then these little bloops just past our pitcher. Such is life.

Really the only thing I had a problem with tonite was our outfield play. We missed some cutoffs, and couldn't hold the batters back at first. Ankeny's outfielders did a pretty good job with that.

We also left too many runners on base tonite. Unlike last night, our 3, 4, 5 batters did not come through when given the chance. We had the bases loaded in the top of 6, but left them there. But I'm not picking on them, because we win as a team, and we lose as a team.

We brought 32 batters to the plate and struck out 8 times, walked 4, so that means we put 20 balls in play, 7 of them base hits.
Ankeny brought 28 batters to the plate, struck out twice, we surrendered 6 walks/hbp. So they put 20 balls in play, with 9 base hits.
So very even on the offensive side, but we left 9 guys on. They didn't have as many left on, partially because we had good defense getting them out on the bases. Alex had a nice throw down to pick off a runner at 3rd. And actually we had a caught stealing down there too.

Ozzie caught a ball in CF without running his face into anything, so that is a plus. One thing I thought our outfield was better with tonite was backing stuff up. In particular Carter, Logan, and Caleb were all moving into position to back stuff up. And Taylor and Jason did a good job from the 2nd inning on, allowing no more runs.

So tomorrow will be our last game, win or lose. 8PM STORY CITY. Come early and watch the 11s at 6PM. But if you can't please have your son there by 7:15. I expect minimal screwing around if they are there earlier than that. They can watch some baseball, cheer on their buddies, and then get loosened up.

If you can work in the concession stand for a little bit of the 11 game, that would be nice. I already have 2 volunteers.

Not to bed yet

And another thing. We only gave up 1 walk tonite. Awesome. Amazing how a team can go from 17 walks to 1 walk in one game. Hmmmmm. We were walked/hit 4 times, so their pitchers did a good job. I thought Austin did a good job behind the plate as umpire. The zone was an appropriate size, and it made for a better ball game than the atrocity the other day.

Our batting was nice too. We had 33 plate appearances (to their 34) and put the ball in play 22 times. That is a pretty good night at the plate. We struck out 7 times, we struck them out 9 times (all by Alex)

Couple other things

What an at bat of Mickey vs their player. 13 foul balls in that at bat. Glad to see Mick smiling the whole time. I liked Jer's diving stop at first. Nice spear. Taylor had a nice catch out in right on a well hit ball. Off to bed.

Grey or Bald, let me choose

What hairs I have left, are quickly going grey. Aye carumba, what a game. Where do I start? Well, let's start with Alex. Very good job of pitching. Of course he started out by giving up the dong. And then Ozzie immediately heard the bells. He put a nice dent in the sign too. Glad to see he was able to come back and play later in the game.

Mickey did a good job pitching tonite too. I know he gave up the lead, but we had 3 or 4 errors in that last inning. Flat out, Mick did his job, and the guys didn't help him out. I don't like physical errors, but I'm not gonna get mad about it. They are 12 years old, they will make physical errors. We didn't really have too much in mental errors. We had a couple balls thrown to the plate, that someone should have called them off, but that comes with practice as a team, and we haven't had a lot of that.

So on to batting. I did have confidence in that last inning, despite being down by two. I told the guys, these are the situations that legends are made. I don't know if they believed me, but with the top of the order coming up, I thought we had a better than 50-50 chance. And Taylor, Andy, Alex, Jerald, and JD all played a role in making those 3 runs happen in the bottom of the 6th.

JD had a great night at the plate with 2 singles, a double, and a walk. I really liked Logan's double to drive in 2(I think) in the 3rd. We batted 10 in the 3rd inning. Cody started us off with that goofy looking 2 strike bunt. He is a good bunter, but I don't remember one going up in the air like that. But good hustle got him on base. And then we went hit batter, single, double(Mason's great at bat, after being down 1-2 in the count, worked it full, and then finished off with the hit), then double, double walk.

So in the end, it was ugly, but I'll take it. I'm proud of the boys for not giving up. Off to Ankeny tomorrow night. I might post a map here later. You can get to one off the league website tho. Reminder to take the Elkhart exit, it's faster than going down to 1st St and fighting all that traffic. Be there at 5:15 if you can.

Let me know if you didn't get pics tonite, we'll get some to you. Let me know if you haven't already, if you can work in the concession stand for some of the 11 year old game on Wednesday. And again, we are now playing at Story City at 8PM on Wednesday.

Woot! Woot! Game change.

Wednesday's game is now going to be at 8PM at the Carousel instead of 6PM at Zearing. We are going to do a double header with the 11s. The 11s are playing Ames at 6PM, and since we are also playing Ames, we decided to move us to 8PM, so both teams can watch each other.

If you can help in the concession stand between 6 and 8PM during the 11s, let me know, that would be a nice help.

Monday is still 6PM in Zearing, and Tuesday is still 6PM in Ankeny.

PIcture night Monday

Sounds like everybody will be there on Monday. So I dub it picture night. Win or lose, after the game we will all gather after our post-game talk, line the boys up, and parents can come out and take pics of the team.

Again, the game is at Zearing at 6PM. Try to have the guys there by 5:15 if you can.

Practice is a go

Soggy in a couple spots, but should be pretty good by 1. Again, only if you have no plans whatsover, come to practice at RMS from 1 to 2:30 on Sunday.

Pics

Not that I particularly want to relive the game, but as mentioned in my below post, the guy that took the photos, had posted our game photos on his website. They are of both teams, and about 250 pictures I think. And some of them are pretty good pics. Also what I believe is some good evidence of Logan being safe when he was picked off first. So anyway, you might want to check them out.

http://sportsphotos.marshallcountysun.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=219536

Sunday practice reminder. Definitely optional. Possible punting on having it. Still standing water at RMS at 3:30PM Saturday.

Well......

Not much to say about that game. But I'll try. As you may know from previous blog posts, I hate walks. So Taylor walked a few guys to start the game, so I was a little frustrated at him. So I brought JD in, because we needed strikes. I've seen JD pitch this year and in years past. He is not over powering, but he is right around the plate. He got us out of the first, and then proceeded to walk the first two guys of the 2nd inning.

That was a little odd, but we needed strikes, so I thought maybe it wasn't JD's night, so I called on Jerald. I'm not saying this because he is my kid, but simply because I had him on the Brewers this year, and I have his stats. He faced 150 batters during the regular and tournament season, and walked 12. The kid is a strike machine, they might hit it, but he rarely walks anybody. In case you are not good at math, that means he walked 1 out of every 12 batters he faced this year. Tonite, he walked 2 of 4.

I'm no rocket scientist, but I was starting to detect a trend, and it wasn't in our favor. So I called on Ozzie. Ozzie is a lot like JD on the mound, and pretty much the same thing happened. I had Jason penciled in for relief tonite, so I just let him go, despite the many walks that ended up being surrendered. After awhile, things were completely out of hand, so I thought I would give Mason a whirl. Mason doesn't throw that hard, and thought maybe that would please our plate umpire. Mason seemed to have some success, so he got to finish it out for us.

So my apologies for all the mid-inning pitching changes, and making the game drag on. But I was trying to find somebody that could please the umpire. And if not, I was going to torture him by making the game drag on. Trust me, I have umpired 100s of ball games, and the last place I want to be is behind the plate in an 18-1 ballgame. And then, when a manager is still giving the take sign with a 18 run lead, I as an umpire am calling a strike on the pitch if it is anywhere in the same county.

Our defense was so-so tonite. But that is another reason I hate walks, is because the defense starts to get sleepy out there. For the most part, we made plays when presented with an opportunity.

Our batting was ok I guess. We got fooled by some curve balls. Most guys don't have much experience looking at those. And it showed.

So that is easy to let that one go. The guys were in pretty good spirits afterward, so I was glad to see that. We need to improve, but basically a shrug of the shoulders, and on to the next game is fine with me.

We are going to do a practice from 1 to 2:30 on Sunday. I AM BOLDING THIS TO MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT LEAVE ANY FUNCTION TO COME TO THIS PRACTICE. IT IS ONLY IF YOU ARE SITTING AROUND WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO. TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY OPTIONAL. I am around on Sunday, so will be hanging out with anyone who shows up. Got it?

Next game is Monday in Zearing at 6PM. Be there by 5:15 if you can.

A guy was taking photos tonite. He handed the coaches a card. Apparently he sells photos or something like that. I know nothing about this, but FYI the address is www.marshallcountysun.com. Nothing on there for now, but again, passing this along as an FYI.

Speaking of photos, I hereby designate Monday as photo night. Win or lose, we will take postgame photos, assuming everybody is there. We will line the boys up, you can come out and take all the pics you want.

Have a great time celebrating Independence Day!

Bring skeeter spray

Just thought about M-town's field. Kinda down in a hole, lotta trees around, wind tomorrow is going to diminish. Sounds like prime skeeter territory. Might wanna bring some spray. Also not much for bleachers either I don't think. So you might bring chairs too.

Good game, on to Thursday

First off, here is the link to the map for Marshalltown

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109575020038814676831.000446b23d72439193bfc&source=embed&ll=42.041963,-92.938671&spn=0.032381,0.055189&z=14

I believe it should be the same as last year, for those of you that went there, which is the south of the two push pins on the above link, the one at the golf course. And we will be playing on Field C. It is 1006 S 12th St. Marshalltown Bring along my number 515 290 7500 and call if you have problems.


View Larger Map


And now, on to tonite's game. Well that got a little more exciting that I planned. No quit in the Highland Park outfit.

First off, our pitching. Alex did a very good job for us through 4 innings. He had to come out after 4, because of the 85 pitch, pitch count. So I brought Taylor in. He didn't do too bad, but after throwing 1 pitch for one out, he went long on the next 3 batters. I wanted to save him for Thursday, so I had to pull him at 20. Jason was able to finish off the 5th for us. Then Jason ran into a little trouble in the 6th with a BB, HBP, and a single. I also wanted to save him for tomorrow, so I brought in Mickey.

Mickey did his job. He threw strikes. Unfortunately, they hit them where we weren't. I've never seen so many balls hit on the ground, right up the middle. But then we got the pop up for the first out, Mickey got a strikeout, then the 5-3 put out to end the game.

Scarily, their first 8 batters reached in the 6th, with no outs made by us. BB, HBP, 1b, 1b, 1b, 1b, 1b, HBP, and then F5, K and 5-3. Whew! We coaches talked about pulling Mickey, but I think we just had bad luck. 3 feet in either direction on any of those 5 hits, and we have an easy ground out. So anyway the 10-3 laugher turned into a 10-8 nailbiter. Mickey went to 23 pitches, so he will be ineligible to pitch until next Monday, just like Alex. Taylor and Jason will be taking the hill for us in Marshalltown.

On the defensive side of the ball, we did ok, though we didn't have many opportunities. Of Alex's 12 outs, 10 were strikeouts. Of the last 6 outs, only 1 was a K. Andy had a nice spear of a line shot at first, and Logan made a nice catch in RF to end the 5th inning.

Offensively, I was very happy. I'll give the stars to Andy and Logan. Andy had the over the fence home run, and a triple. Logan went 3-3, and almost jacked one, just hitting the bottom of the fence. I also want to tout good sportsmanship. Maybe the SS, and definitely the 3B for Highland Park gave Andy a 5 as he rounded the bases after his home run. And at least two of their coaches shouted out a congrats as Andy went by. Really nice to see and hear that.

Not everybody got on today, but every spot in the batting order 1-9 got on base tonite. In two other hits of note, Mickey had a very key 2 RBI double for us in the 2nd. And Alex's line shot to 3rd base...It went right in the kids glove, but went right thru the fingers. I was looking at it with their coaches after the hit, and it appears the ball went right thru the glove between the ring and pinkie fingers of the glove. That was a hard hit ball.

I thought the guys were a little tight before the game, and our infield session before the game was kinda ugly. But the team as a whole really came through and got down to business. I really have no complaints about the performance. I could throw out some various nitpicks, but they are mostly physical, and I can live with those. Mentally, we played pretty well, and I didn't see any real bad "dumb" mistakes.

North Story went 2-2 on the night, winning the 12s and 10s, and losing the 9s and 11s. Scores are on the North Story website, and if you hit "Links" you can get to the District 3 website, and there should be some scores there on Thursday.

Last practice-maybe

Had our maybe last practice last night. We still may have one on Sunday the 5th, if we need it. But in any case, it was the last before games start.

Another very good practice, especially on the defensive side. We were doing a situational drill, and I couldn't get the base runners on. The defense was really doing a good job making the plays. That was nice to see.

Things got a little loose during home run derby, but that is mostly ok. I'm sure they will get their game faces on, on Wednesday. And if you didn't see the email I sent out Tuesday morning, here it is

Just a reminder of our first game tomorrow. It is in Story City at 6PM. Please have the guys there no later than 5:15 if possible. I will have their shirts for them then. Again, white pants, blue socks if they have them, and their regular season hat.

If any of you, or your responsible kids, would like to run the concession stand, that would be good. We would only need to do that at this game, our lone on in SC. The Zearing folks will have it covered for our 2 games there.

Can't wait for tomorrow, the guys have been working hard, and I think they will put forth a good effort.

Productive practice

We had 11 of 14 boys there today, which is pretty good for a Sunday. I thought we had a productive practice. Mistakes were made, which means it gave us an opportunity to talk about stuff. As we coaches were talking afterward, if they were perfect at practice, that would have been kinda scary.

Physical mistakes don't bother me much. The kids are 12, they are going to drop balls and so on. However we had some mental mistakes, which are a bit bothersome. One play had an offensive and defensive mistake on the same play. It involved running on a pop up with one out (bad), and the defender not knowing he could tag the runner after he ran. (bad) Those are mental, and they drive me cuckoo. All stars is not self-esteem ball, and the coaches are watching what happens at practice. While rule #2 is to have fun, just a reminder that playing time is earned, and not given.

Another thing that hurts a player in my eyes is bad attitude. And I am happy to report I have not seen or heard any of that in any of our practices. While not boisterous interaction, I see the guys talking to each other, and there are no "cliques" on this team. That is really awesome, I think we are slowly building a tight team here.

We also got the guys a chance to get some swings in today. Just like the scrimmage, we hit the ball around pretty good.

Last practice is tomorrow at 6:30 at RMS. It will go to about 8:15. Not sure if I will have shirts yet. If not, I'll get them to you Wednesday before the game.

Good scrimmage tonite

I was generally very pleased with the scrimmage tonite. First off, from an umpiring perspective, it was a very good game to do. Very good pitching for the most part from both teams, and the catching was pretty good too, though I did take a couple dings. After I got on Caleb, telling him I was not only the umpire, but his coach, and his first job was to protect me, he did that the rest of the night.

What I liked: I was pretty happy with the hitting. We had 38 plate appearances, and put the ball in play 26 times (with 6 strikeouts and 6 walks/HBP). Of the 26 put in play, 8 were base hits, the rest were outs, errors, or fielders choice. So we swung the bat pretty well.

I also liked our defense. We only had one error, but that turned out for a no difference. Caleb dropped the fly ball in left, but was able to quickly retrieve it, and throw to 2nd, as his former teammate Brady at first had to hold up in anticipation of the catch. Of their 21 outs made, we struck them out 8 times, and used our defense 13 times for the outs.

We turned two double plays. The first one was really sweet. They had runners on 1st and 3rd, they tried stealing, Caleb gunned it down to JD at Short, who applied the tag for the out, and then right back to Caleb at home for the out. That wasn't how we drew it up and the play we had on, but we got lucky and added in some skill to make it work. Alex also had a nice field of a ground ball at Short, then the step on 2nd for the first out, and then the throw over to first for the twin killing.

I also liked that 4 of our pitchers, Taylor, Alex, Ozzie, and Jerald each had 1, 2, 3 innings. Ozzie and Jerald each gave up base hits, but good defense got the runners out on the bases.

And I also liked that the game went so quick and smooth, we were able to get another inning in, to give the guys some more work.

What I didn't like: Despite our reasonably good hitting, we left too many guys on base. We left 11 guys on base tonite. In the 4th inning, we had 3 on, with one out, and got nobody in. Grrrr. We also left runners at 2nd and 3rd in the 5th.

I didn't care much for our base running tonite. A couple guys missed steal signs, and Jerald got thrown out at 3rd trying to advance on a grounder. He did the right thing in theory, but didn't get a big enough lead off 2nd after the hit, and he got nailed. We really need to step up our game in this department. We are playing All Stars, and we have to act like it, by looking at the coaches for signs. We need to take advantage of every opportunity, and if we miss one, that may make the difference between a fun ride home, or a frowny face the rest of the night.

We also gave up too many walks. They drive me crazy, and I won't put up with them. Ask my Brewers pitchers this year. Sometimes I may have to live with it due to pitch counts. But walks give the defense no chance, and the extra pitches make the defense fall asleep.

But again, overall, I am very happy with the performance tonite. Oh, one other thing I wasn't didn't like. I didn't hear much chatter in the dugout. I know we are newly formed team, from 3 different schools and 8 different teams, but I was hoping the guys was support each other a little more. I know it was a low key scrimmage, and there wasn't much on the line, but I hope the guys start cheering for each other a little more. Some guys did, and I heard some, but I hope that improves.

Anyway, it was a nice get together as a way to help both North Story teams out. Great weather, and just a fun night at the ball yard.

A reminder to get $24 to me, if you haven't yet, for our jerseys. Our next practice is SUNDAY 1PM to 2:30PM at Roland Middle School, if you can make it. I know Carter, Cody, Mickey, and Alex can't, and that's ok. Besides those 4, if you know your son won't make it, please let me know.

We are likely to have one more on Monday night at RMS at 6:30. Not confirmed yet, but keep that in the back of your mind, then opening night at the Carousel on Wednesday.

Friday scrimmage

The scrimmage is on for Friday against the 11 all stars. The first pitch is set for 6, or thereabouts. For this one, have the guys there about 5:30 if you can. They are to wear a red shirt, baseball pants, and their regular season hat. It will be run like a game, but a little mellower. We are not doing pitch counts, as both coaching staffs are going to rotate pitchers, and we may possibly re-enter pitchers. We are going to use regular season substitution and continuous batting order rules. And we intend on playing 6 innings, so plan on that for your pickup/departure time.

This will be at the Roland Middle School. I know for sure Carter will be gone. If anyone else will not be there, please let me know.

Good practice

We didn't get a chance to get on the infield because it was still wet, but we had a pretty good practice despite being on the grass only. We started off with what I call the "catch game", where the players are paired up, and they play catch. The receiver can't move more than a step to catch the ball, or that team is done and has to take a knee. We slowly keep backing up until only one pair is left standing.

We then did hitting practice. I don't particularly like doing it like that, with 1 guy hitting, and everybody else standing around, especially with 12 guys at practice. But with no infield, we didn't have much choice. And with a new team, it gave a chance for the guys from the 3 different school districts and 8 different teams to mingle a little bit.

We then did a practice with what to do when our opponent has runners on 1st and 3rd. Then we had a relay throw drill, from the concession stand all the way to the middle school and back. I liked how the guys stopped lobbing the ball, and instead were throwing hard. I heard a lot of gloves popping, so I liked that.

So our practices have given the coaches a chance to see what we have, and to let the guys know each other a little better. The guys have been really good at practice, and it is refreshing to see guys interested in trying to get better, and are paying attention, instead of playing "grab hat".

I just got confirmation. We are going to have a scrimmage at 6PM on Friday in Roland with the 11s. I am not sure if that is going to be first pitch, or be there to loosen up. I have to get that clarified. So stayed tuned to this spot for details on that.

As I told the boys, wear their hat, a red shirt, and baseball pants. Their jerseys will be coming next Monday. Thanks to the 4 of you that have paid for your shirts already. For everybody else, a reminder it is $24 to me sometime.

I also have handed back some birth certificate stuff. I am only giving it to parents, not the kid, for obvious reasons!

Practice on

As of 4:30 PM Tuesday, practice is on. The Roland field has standing water, but we have some stuff we can do in the grass, so we will do that. And it looks like the storms will be gone by 6PM--we will wrap it up by 7:30.

Practice tonite

Practice tonite from 6 to 7:30 at Roland Middle School. We didn't do hitting on Saturday, but we are going to try some of that tonite. I know a couple more guys will be missing, but that's ok. A reminder to bring $24 for shirts if you can.

Schedule released

We are in a pool with Beaver Creek, Highland Park, Ankeny American, Marshalltown, and Ames. Beaver Creek is the Woodward-Granger area, with some Grimes and Polk City thrown in I believe. Highland Park is on the north side of DSM. Ankeny is big enough, they have two divisions, American and National, so we have the Americans.

I think this is a pretty good pool for us. Kids change all the time, so who knows whether they are good teams or not. I don't think this age group of kids has ever played Beaver Creek, Ames, or Highland Park. If we have, we have never gone there.

Some Ankeny team drilled our guys a couple years ago, but they may all be off playing AAU by now. And for the "veterans", we remember Marshalltown from last year, and I'm sure they remember us. That should be a good game.

If we win our pool, we advance to play other pool winners on July 10 and 11. We can also get in as a wild card. That would be if we finish 2nd. The tiebreak vs other pools is fewest runs allowed per defensive inning. So we need to have a good tight D.

July 9 will be a rain makeup day.

Here is the schedule
7-1 Carousel vs Highland Park
7-2 @Marshalltown field C
7-6 Zearing vs Beaver Creek
7-7 @ Ankeny American field 7
7-8 Zearing vs Ames

In other news, this good, we passed on our tournament affidavit, so all 14 guys are eligible to play. Thanks to you parents for getting that info to me in a timely manner. I will get it back to you sometime here. When I give it back, don't disperse it too much. If we were to continue to advance, they may put a 2nd set of eyes on it and the next level.

The shirts have been ordered. They are going to be an even $24. They will be Royal blue. We should have them by the 29th. So if you can get me $24 sometime, that would be good. My plan is to have a practice on the 29th or 30th, so we can get the jerseys handed out then.

If you have any questions about the tournament, go to our league website, then follow the links to the District 3 website, and the maps for all D3 locations. We lucked out with the drives I think. I know Zearing is a bit of a haul for you SH folks, but we need field space, and we have 2 Zearing players, so we'll throw them a bone! I know from Roland, the Ankeny field is about 30 minutes, and Marshalltown is 45 minutes.

I take great joy in a Johnston team needing to go to Jewell in the 9 year old division. I recall a manager's meeting from a couple years ago, and a Johnston coach bitching about having to go all the way to Story City--you can see Minnesota from there. And I recall an Urbandale team showing up at Story City once, and having a fit about an all dirt infield. Acted like he had to play on a rock pile. I have no reason to believe that it will be the same people this year. But I do take a perverse pleasure when Johnston and Urbandale teams have to lower themselves to visit their country cousins.

Sunday practice canceled - next one Tuesday

Our Sunday practice has been canceled. Got water standing on the RMS field, and even tho I think the rain is done, the field won't be ready by 1PM.

So next practice is going to be from 6 to 7:30PM at Roland Middle School on Tuesday the 23rd.

Then we will have practice or scrimmage at RMS from 6 to 7:30 on Friday the 26th.

Great Practice

I've never had a practice with 13 guys before. (Cody was off doing rodeo in Oklahoma) And I've never had one like this, where the guys were really into it, working hard, but still having fun.

We did a speedy fielding drill, did some running to see who had the wheels, did some situational fielding and baserunning, did a relay drill, did some outfield practice, and played King of the Diamond. Very productive, and gave us coaches a good chance to see what we had, and let the kids know us a little better.

Weather is looking a little dicey for tomorrow. Hope we can get another one in.

Practice cancelled

We are punting on Friday's practice. We are now going to have a practice at Roland Middle School from Noon to 1:30 on Saturday, and from 1 to 2:45 on Sunday. I understand if you have stuff going on, on the weekend. Please let me know if your son won't make it tho. Thanks!

practice still on for now

Theoretically the rain is to clear up. Not sure if we will get on the diamond tonite, but I have some stuff to humor us in the grass. However if that is the case, I will shorten up practice. So if you are going to drop your son and leave tonite, please check in with me as to when practice will end.

I sent emails to some of you, as a reminder for the paperwork I still need. So here is another reminder for those of you. Those that are good as of 8AM Friday are JD, Jason, Ozzie, Mason, Carter, and Jerald.

meeting tonite

Just a reminder that we will be having a 12s All Stars meeting tonite after the Majors championship at the Carousel. The game is at 6:30PM, so I imagine the meeting will start around 8:30. We will meet around the bleachers after both the Brewers and Royals have their post game meeting (and the Brewers get done celebrating-tee hee)

I just got the documentation, so I know this is short notice. But sometime before Sunday, I will need to get the following. And if you don't have it tonite, don't sweat it. But if you can bring it, that would be great.

#1 An original birth certificate, or certified copy of a birth notice. (Some District Admins are ok with a photocopy of the birth certificate. If you have the original, that would be better, hopefully they will slide with the photocopy)

#2 Three of the following things showing your address. Copy of Drivers License, Voter Reg, School records, Welfare records, Federal records, state records, local records, support payment records, homeowner or tenant records, Utility bills (need 3 of them to count as 1 tho), financial records, insurance records, medical records, military records, internet/cable/satellite records, vehicle records, employment records.

#1 and #2 above will be taken by me down to Urbandale, the District Administrator will look them over, I will get a form ok'ed, and I will return them to you.

#3 Could you go to this website, and reprint this medical form, fill it out and get it to me.
http://www.littleleague.org/Assets/forms_pubs/asap/Medical_Release_Form.pdf
I am suppose to carry their med info with me. It is the same form filled out to start the season, but the forms are with each of the regular season coaches. Brewers players are exempt for this task, I have the forms already.

#4 Know your son's shirt size.

Player parent meeting

Has been moved. It will be held post game of the majors championship at the Carousel on Tuesday night. I'm guessing about 8PM. We will not have the practice, but we will go through various stuff that everybody will need to know about All Stars. We will just do it in the bleacher area after the game.

Welcome

Welcome to the North Story 12s All Stars blog. I will use this to keep players and parents updated on events (games and practices), commentary on games and practices, notices about rainouts, notices about forgotten equipment, and whatever else may come up.

So please bookmark this (for one month only) and check back every now and then.