Umping a Practice Game

I called a practice game for a pair of teams that are playing in a 10U league this fall tonight.  The trick was, they are playing open bases and dropped third strike is live.  Leading off, pitching from the stretch, picking off, balks, the whole nine yards.  That’s a lot to throw at 10U, especially one of these teams which is heavily 9U and coming from machine pitch.

But you know what?  I think it’s going to work.  The kids were excited to try it.  They seemed to want the challenge of playing “real baseball”.  It was fun to call their game.

Being a practice game, we called a time out any time we wanted to so as to instruct players or go coach them on the field.  It was a good night.  I had fun, and enjoyed it even more than I thought I would.

I came away from it thinking our youth baseball is in some good hands going forward, and I wish both of these teams the best of luck this fall.