Totally unrelated to the book TSCB, the author (me) has a life and family. My son plays little league baseball, and yesterday his team (the Angels) won his league’s regular season, taking the top seed position for the playoffs, and securing a first-round bye.
It was a good. 15 regular season games. They scored 20 more runs than the second-best offense (the Phillies), and had 11 fewer runs scored against them than the second best defense (the Diamondbacks). For both the Angels are more than a full standard deviation away from the mean, the only team to get outside of the SDEV in a good way. An average of 12 1/3 runs per game, while giving up only a little more than 7. In the three times they faced the second-place Diamondbacks they outscored them 30 to 17. In our three losses, we lost by a total of just SIX points! Every time we scored more than 9 runs we didn’t lose. The Angels were the only team to shut out an opposing team, and had the largest winning margin of any game for any team in the league this year (19). Impressive all around.
He’s not the best player on the team, but a part of a very strong middle-of-the-pack. Two excellent players, a couple of inexperienced first-season newcomers, and seven guys that can have some very good days and show a lot of potential. He gets the bat on the ball a lot, but has learned to not swing at balls and take the walk. He’s clubbed several triples, been robbed of getting on base too many times to count by hitting the ball hard… right to a fielder. But when he’s averaging batting in something like three runs a game, he must be doing something right. His fielding isn’t the greatest, but it’s often good enough. Hey, it’s little league, not the pros. We go for the game, stay for the (lowbrow / slapstick) humor :-).
The pic below is him whacking another one down the right field line. IIRC it was a 2 RBI single. Click to embiggen, o’course.
It’s fun watching kids develop, gain confidence and skills, and do well. Some of the other players in the league we knew from last year, and the improvement is remarkable. If they can continue their performance into the post-season playoff, they are the favorites to win. It would be good to see a trophy that was earned, not just for participation.
UPDATE: Won the first playoff game, 11-4 against the Rangers. Very good early pitching, 1-1 at the end of the first, 2-2 in the second inning, four innings total. (Local LL rules and field scheduling puts time limits on a game, which is normally a 6-inning maximum, five run max per inning each side except for unlimited in the 6th if you get there). He only got up to bat twice, fouled off a bunch but got walked both times after all was said and done. They play the Diamondbacks on Thursday.