Despised Hero

What do you do about your child's sports hero, if that person is generally despised in the media?  My daughter loves J.D. Drew, the right fielder for the Red Sox.  During the 1st game she ever attended at Fenway, she was searching for a "favorite player" to put on her softball card that would be created at the photo day during the season.  That year, she wore #7.  She bats lefty and throws righty.  We had great seats about 20 rows back from the on-deck circle.  During the 1st inning, up walks David Ortiz to the circle and she sees that he's a lefty.  He might be the one.  When she realizes that he's a DH, he quickly drops out, as she really likes the defensive part of the game.  A couple batters later, J.D. Drew steps into the circle.  He's wearing #7 and bats lefty.  This could be it.  In the era of Manny Ramirez laziness (and later steriods), I'm fairly happy with the choice.  During the game, J.D. makes a great defensive play in the outfield that holds a runner to a long single and keeps a run from scoring.  She's pretty much convinced that he'll be the one.  During his next at bat, he puts a nice smooth swing onto a pitch and deposits a home run into the right field bleachers.  BINGO!!  She's been loyal ever since.

Fast forward three-plus seasons and find media reports nearly everyday describing the slumping, overpaid, washed-up right fielder for the Red Sox.  While I agree that he seems to play the game without passion, I don't have the vitriol of the typical fan toward him.  These same fans that thought Manny Ramirez was some sort of god hold no weight with me.  That being said, my daughter is subject to these same media reports and she is constantly reading the newspaper accounts and hearing the sports radio jabs at him.  She seems to be rolling with it pretty well, but I worry that it will turn her too cynical as time goes on.  She still wears her #7 Drew jersey to the games and will again this Friday night, but she's one of the very few that will and I'm sure she'll hear at least one or two negative comments from the crowd.  Even on a 10 year old girl, it doesn't stop the typical Red Sox fan from expressing their opinion of the shirt you are wearing.

Let's hope it's a good game for him on Friday night, even if his time in Boston is coming to a close.

Controlling Frustration

The problem with 10U softball is that it involves kids pitching to other kids and the skill of pitching takes a long time to get right.  Actually, for most kids, it takes a long time to get something near the zone even 50% of the time.  This leads to very long innings and lots of walks.

Our game last night started fine.  The 1st two innings were low scoring and pretty quick.  When we changed pitchers in the 3rd inning, it went downhill.  A 4-3 lead turned into a 15-3 loss in the next two innings (6-run rule each inning).  The girls need the opportunity to pitch and develop, but we are sacrificing the interest of the other 9-10 girls on the team (and some on the opposing teams, no doubt), when we have 30 minute innings with no opportunity to make a play in the field.

The ride home last night was mainly pep talks.  Focus on the positive of the 1st two innings and work to make yourself better, so you are ready for when the pitchers develop their consistency.

This entry is my pep talk to myself.  Keep showing interest and enthusiam so the girls keep showing it as well.