How do you feel about the "Challange?"

[AntMoOAK]

The more I read the posts about the "Challenge"- the more I am interested. I haven't faced any live pitching in about 10 years ( and since the pitching in the OAL was SO bad I usually didn't swing asn just walked)... but with a little practice, I should be able to make contact with 65-75 mph pitching. I'm down for practice after the games for about an hour after the games if we start at 11 like last week. Also, a live game once a month (@ deFremery) would be cool.

[Baseball=Life]

Dude, that's fuckin' Bo Jackson, right?

He was the best, I got to seem him live often growing up in K.C.

[AntMoOAK]

Yeah... Mr. Two Sport himself... Back in high school when I had a high top fade (http://eil.com/newGallery/Kid-n-Play-Gi ... 285173.jpg).. I was told I had a slight resemblance to Mr. Bo - Knows ______[/url]

[TheLegend]

I think we need to do both, so that means maintaining what we've always done, yet also preparing for the upcoming Challenge. Thus, I think we need to do our practices on non-Sundays, or after the regular game on Sunday. Having said that, I also like the idea of having 1 of our games a month be "live", as an experiment. Remember the challenge game is only like a month away, this experiment could be temporary.

I agree with everything you said here, and I love the idea of an occational live game! In regards to practicing, I know a lot of the guys have conflicting schedules, so I was thinking we could have a couple of practice times in the course of a week. The best times for me personally would be Thursday evening, friday afternoon and of course Sunday after the game (as long as I'm back to Berkeley before 6). Input on this issue would be great so we can get some active practices going ASAP.

Last but not least.................... to do any practice, honestly we need an umpire. I don't want to paint the corner and not get credit for it. We have to have called strikes in a "live" practice with hitters. Otherwise a batter could just take pitches until a fastball came. I'd be happy to umpire behind the plate during our practices when I'm not pitching, hitting, or on base. I hope everyone agrees on the need to have an umpire during these practices.

And what about for the live games? I'm ok with going with the honor system (and even with letting the catcher call balls and strikes) but the strike zone is rather subjective, so a truly unbiased umpire would be best. Maybe if we have 19 people show up, mr. 19 would be our blue? Any other thoughts on this issue?

[TheLegend]

The more I read the posts about the "Challenge"- the more I am interested. I haven't faced any live pitching in about 10 years ( and since the pitching in the OAL was SO bad I usually didn't swing asn just walked)... but with a little practice, I should be able to make contact with 65-75 mph pitching. I'm down for practice after the games for about an hour after the games if we start at 11 like last week. Also, a live game once a month (@ deFremery) would be cool.

Great to have you onboard Anthony!!!

I thought of live games at Defremery as a way of repeaking my interest in playing there, and I do think it's in essance a good idea... but I'm not sure how it would work out... I mean, the hurler would have to be standing out near secondbase... and steals wouldn't even be a relative challenge...

I don't know, I love the idea of monthly live games, but I don't know how workable the defremery yard is for this type of situation.

[tallguy]

I don't think we need an umpire, at least not initially. Until we have enough location control in our pitching - and at this point I don't think we can say we do - it is not going to be much different for the batter whether we have "live" or "tame" pitching. No-one is going to really throw it that fast, and no-one is going to be able to produce well-controlled moving balls with regularity. We can't have a count, we'd walk way too many people, so we don't need an ump.
So, the batter is still mostly waiting for a good one is the strike zone, just like he is now. The main difference simply is, when one comes that is in the zone, it'll be moving faster. So we'll see a few more self-inflicted strike-outs, but that is more realistic anyway. And don't forget, if you do get wood on it, it'll go further!

Just my $0.02.

[Titans Baseball]

Most everything TallGuys said is right on. Umpires aren't necessary at first. Work on pitching and and work on hitting your prospective pitchers. Shit, play scrimmage games if you have enough guys. If you have 2 strikes on you and it's close, you better swing. Otherwise, you're out. We come to play, not take walks. Catchers can call strikes and will be fair about it - I've never seen a catcher be a dick about calling the strike zone.

What I recommend most, since playing in your league requires hitting of all pitches, is hitting breaking pitches. It's just unnatural swinging at a ball coming in at an angle and "predicting" where the ball is going to be in the strikezone.

Also, we don't want to play on a little league field. That's just junior, T-Ball amateur bullshit. We play to play the real deal. Give us a field groomed for men, not boys. We'll steal on your ass all day if we're playing Little League rules.

Step up and play the Titans, Oakies! I thought you guys kept it real...claiming the rules of the street! It sounds like you guys want us to underhand the pitches to you!

[Tayster]

Most everything TallGuys said is right on. Umpires aren't necessary at first. Work on pitching and and work on hitting your prospective pitchers. Shit, play scrimmage games if you have enough guys. If you have 2 strikes on you and it's close, you better swing. Otherwise, you're out. We come to play, not take walks. Catchers can call strikes and will be fair about it - I've never seen a catcher be a dick about calling the strike zone.

What I recommend most, since playing in your league requires hitting of all pitches, is hitting breaking pitches. It's just unnatural swinging at a ball coming in at an angle and "predicting" where the ball is going to be in the strikezone.

Also, we don't want to play on a little league field. That's just junior, T-Ball amateur bullshit. We play to play the real deal. Give us a field groomed for men, not boys. We'll steal on your ass all day if we're playing Little League rules.

Step up and play the Titans, Oakies! I thought you guys kept it real...claiming the rules of the street! It sounds like you guys want us to underhand the pitches to you!

You fail to get me riled up in the least bit.

[Baseball=Life]

Hey Ken, I think the earlier in the week we could make the practices, the better. I need to space out the time between pitching and then playing on Sunday. My arm was weak on Sunday because of the Friday session. Thank god I didn't have to make very many plays at SS (and/or failed to make plays at SS, let's be real, hahah).

Let's get going early this Sunday and play the live game first. Then, in the 2nd game on Sunday, we'll do the usual non-live setup. So anyone who doesn't want to participate in the live stuff can show up at 2:30. And the "live" game would be at 11:00. 10:30 warm-up. We can play the live game by ear and adjust accordingly. People would be encouraged to preserve enough energy to play in the 2nd non-live game.

I think we'd have to do "live" at Curt Flood. I think Ken brought up valid concerns about DeFremery & "live" such as the pitcher standing near 2nd base, and the distance fly balls would go from faster pitching.

So, what do people think, is there any valid opposition to trying the live game this sunday, then playing regular non-live afterwards?

Oh, and I agree about what Paul and others said about the catcher calling strikes, that will be sufficient I suppose.

[Pat K]

Sounds good to me I will see you at 10:30 on Sunday.

Pat K

[tallguy]

I'm up for a practicing weekly wednesday or thursday. Seems pretty likely that on Thursday the San Pablo park will again be in use, how about Grove? Any others? Only thing is we'd need lights, I guess. Defremery would be fine for a practice, the lack of a mound is unfortunate but not a big issue. It has lights, right?
Who else is up for it? Let's get one or two other people comitted, three would be enough for a basic pitching/hitting practice, and we might draw a few others if we can agree on it.

[TheLegend]

Grove is also in use on thursday night, and unfortunately I can't think of any other fields with lights. Maybe Wednesday night would be better?

edit: unless anyone else knows of lighted fields.

[tallguy]

Wednesday is better for me anyway.

[Baseball=Life]

What makes you guys think that lights will actually be on? Just because the field has lights doesn't mean they turn on automatically every night. My expectation would be the lights are only on when a permitted user is scheduled for that particular time slot. Hence the separate pricing for reserving a field versus reserving that same field w/lights.

And, to remind, I work evenings so I can't make any of these practices.

Also, keep the Nick pitching situation to private messages, so we can hide what we've potentially got from the Titans. (that is to say 'Roided up Juicers like Nick)

[TheLegend]

Well... it doesn't get dark until around 8 these days anyway (yes, that is a very rough estimation) so if we started practice at 5:30 it might not even be an issue.