Pictures of Pitchers

I watched the Sandburg Eagles play the Oak Lawn Spartans in a sophomore baseball game in Oak Lawn yesterday. While I was there, I captured photos of the pitchers from behind the backstop. Sports photographers refer to this position as TTF ("through the fence"). If you are interested in viewing the photos, you may CLICK HERE.

I experimented with some processing techniques to give a few of the photos a vintage look. Here's an example of one of those. You may click on the photo for an enlarged view:

Staying Alert

Some of the most serious baseball injuries take place outside of the playing field. While players in the game are usually alert, that's not always the case with spectators, coaches or players in the on-deck circle or dugout. Recently, a coach was seriously injured when a foul ball struck him in the eye. Unfortunately, Luis Salazar lost his left eye because of this accident.

In all the years that I've coached, the most serious injuries that I've witnessed have occurred in the stands at Major League stadiums. Twice I saw line drives strike people directly in the face while they were not paying attention to the action on the field. One lost several teeth and the other had to be removed on a stretcher after his nose was shattered.

The vast majority of serious injuries that I've witnessed while coaching baseball involved players who were not playing in the game or practice. A few times players have been struck with overthrown balls while not paying attention while standing behind first base. Years ago, a player was hit by a bat as he walked by the on-deck hitter who was taking practice swings.

Most experienced umpires and base coaches have learned over time not to take their eye off the ball when they are standing near the coach's box during infield warm-ups between innings. The bottom line is that it's important to stay alert when you are around a baseball field.

Steve Sismelich Becomes a Repeat Winner

Steve Sismelich became the team's first player to become a repeat winner of the Ground Ball Competition. Steve prevailed over Jim Robley in the finals. Both players had won the competition in an earlier practice.

Both players, Steve and Jim, do an exceptional job of consistently getting into a "baseball ready" position just before the ball is hit. They also approach the baseball in an aggressive manner. By not letting the ball play them, they give themselves the best possible chance of making the play.

Jim has played with the Warriors for the past two season. During both of those years, he was one of the leading defensive players on the team. Jim has been a solid shortstop for quite some time. Steve is a first time Warriors and we expect him to have a strong season in 2011.

Uniforms Are In

I picked up our uniforms from Santo Sports on Wednesday. During Wednesday's batting cage session, we distributed uniforms to the 8 players who were present. I would like to thank Lisa Enguita for helping wih the distribution process. We plan to distribute the remaining uniforms at Saturday's indoor workout session.

The uniform components include:

• Red jersey (with number and name)
• White jersey (with number and name)
• Hat (with number)
• Pants
• Belt
• Socks
• Helmet (with number)
• Practice T-shirt (distributed at Kick Off meeting)
• Practice Hat (distributed at Kick Off meeting)

Optional items include:

• Equipment bag
• Hooded sweatshirt

OYA Pony Draft

The OYA Pony League draft is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15th. Shortly after the draft, players will be notified which recreational team they will play for during the 2011 season. All Warriors events will be integrated with the Pony League events so that players will not have to worry about scheduling conflicts.

OYA Pony League practices will not start until April 5th.

Congratulations to Cody Rutledge

The Warriors would like to congratulate Cody Rutledge for being selected to play on Carl Sandburg High School's freshman baseball team! He is certainly deserving of this recognition.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, High School baseball players are not eligible to play with other organizations during the High School season. So, our team will be without Cody until late May. However, the good news is that he will rejoin the Warriors in late May--in time to play in all of our tournaments and the majority of our regular season games. Additionally, this will give our team an opportunity to further develop our other pitchers during Cody's absence.

We wish Cody the best of luck in his High School baseball career and look forward to his return to the Warriors.