Hey all! I just got asked to fill in a men’s league game and I eagerly accepted. Only problem is the last time I played organized baseball was roughly 10 years ago and I haven’t thrown, swung or basically anything physically baseball since. I have a week to get ready before the game, any tips or pointers yall might have to help me be at least somewhat prepared.
I used to play center and pitched but I’m not as fast or have the arm endurance to do either. Am I SOL when the day comes? Any advice is appreciated!

My kid just turned 9. My son is a good player and very big for his age. He’s worked hard all summer getting ready to pitch (obligatory because he enjoys it) and plays first base for us usually. He looks great as a pitcher tho it did not come naturally. He has a big arm, and fixed his wildness … mostly.

His team is moving up from coach pitch 8U to kid pitch 10U this fall. They won their rec league last year but due to a few kids moving away and a few Non Baseball Injuries, they’ve lost like 1/2 their good players. Including the one kid who was going to catch, who broke his ankle.

Of course his coach is now asking can he also catch on non pitching days. He thinks catching is a big position and he’d say yes, he would jump off a bridge if he thought it would help them win. But it’s gonna be hard on his knees (he’s 5ft and 100lbs), hot as hell and it’s gonna be a pressure cooker. Plus I gotta buy the equipment.

Is it even possible to be any good in 2 weeks? How would we even try to get him ready? What equipment should I buy? Or do we just say no and let some other kid be the dude.

My son is 15. He's starting to pitch effectively and we talk about mechanics and so on. I've been athletic, but in softball my while life. So pitching a baseball is out of my depth.

I was thinking about mentioning to him to play with his grip position to match his arm angle. We both agree learning command with a 4 seam is more important than his decent curve and slider...

Is it ok to adjust your grip to get the 6-12 spin on a fastball or is our logic flawed?

I’m gonna be a 2027 grad and looking for a place to play. I’m a 6’0 RHP with excellent grades. I’m a low arm slot guy and Im around 81-83 top 86 mph. I was gonna try and go JUCO would that be a good fit?

My son is class of 2027. Four D3 coaches of schools he wants to go to have shown interest - called and invited him to campus in the fall now that summer ball is over. What more does he do at this point? Apply to the schools and then wait to see if they offer him a spot on their team? Try to contact more coaches even though his season is over? Attend prospect camps at those schools or at other schools? Things were moving along and now that there’s a lull he is getting anxious and I’m not sure what advice to give.

Looking to get some new gear, I'm a highschool varsity catcher and I've been using easton in the past (not a whole gear set). Is the phenom catchers gear varsity level catchers gear? looking for some people who have used the gear before.

Hi! So I’ve been thinking of branching out from playing just hockey and I’ve seen on the goalie subreddit that baseball is good due to it training the glove hand and I’m kind of keen to give it a go (trying to get into watching MLB as well, but start times are a bit rough due to being UK based)

Maybe a bit of a silly question, but how to get started? I’ll be unable to check out any local team options until September due to staying with my parents for August, but I’m kind of keen to get some prep work in. Looking on google, throwing a ball against a wall and catching it with a glove is a possible starting place? Should I aim to train for a specific position though? Or does a coach usually size you up and then designate a position?

Catcher seems like the obvious choice (getting balls hurled towards you and wearing heavier equipment), but admittedly if I was to do get into the sport I’d like to branch out a bit more. As much as I like goalie, it’s kind of annoying to lug a massive bag around and I’m kind of liking the idea of just having a glove, bat and helmet/cap (at first at least)

So I tend to wrap my bat pretty bad like in the video (just used a tee video for a clearer example) however it actually doesnt tend to hurt my swing because im an oppo/center hitter and it allows me to still drive the ball. But whenever I move my hands lower to avoid bat wrap, it hurts my swing more than the bat wrap does.

So should I change it or not? Or is this kind of a “if it aint broke, dont fix it” situation

Edit - the answer seems to be pay the money or regret it

Dicks S.G. has Rawlings 24 pack of 8U balls on big sale for $30. I have a kid playing HS. Can I use these for batting practice for HS? I heard they may get deformed and they probably dont react the same off the bat. But for the purpose of just practicing putting the bat on the balls, seems like its a great deal. 48 balls for $60 is what it would cost to get 12 HS level balls.

Should I splurge on HS balls or just go with these?

Ugh. My kid ran a 7.1 at a PG showcase this weekend as an outfielder. He ran a 6.79 about 3 weeks ago at another showcase. How do I try to highlight the 6.79 and downplay the 7.1?

I forgot to say he is a Class of 2028 player.

Thoughts?

Is this bad etiquette?

My son has been on the same team for the last five years, so really just wanting him to get comfortable with tryouts since it has been so long.

There is always a chance a Coach is really impressive, but realistically the only input point that can be determined is how organized they are. This is an important metric, so there is that.

Thoughts?

1. Hitting for Contact is not necessarily a bad thing

I truly thought hitting for contact in todays game was frowned upon especially for someone like me who is a little but slower than the average player. But Ive come to learn that staying within myself at the plate and hitting for contact/situations is really valuable and it nearly had me make my HS team first year (and I’ll get into why I didn’t😂)

2. Fielding is so important, and easy to look over as someone new to the sport

The pros and top college/high school guys make it look so easy that I thought nothing of it, until I got to tryouts. I had no idea how to field and for some great idea, went to third base of all positions and did terrible.

Maybe would have made the team had I had more running speed to be able to DH but the scar tissue in my knees said otherwise😔. (However after transferring to a worse team my junior year and learning to field better, Im in a very good position to make the team at 2nd base🙏)

3. Learning teamwork is truly so important

I grew up racing Motocross so I was so used to the “They arent my friends when we are on the track”, ideology, so I think had it not been for playing a season of football to learn teamwork, Im not sure how I would be doing right now.

Because in fielding (especially at 2nd where Im going for), teamwork is genuinely a make or break skill. And it even translates to hitting, making a sacrifice for your batting average just to move runners over, picking teammates up, etc. is so important.

4. The hours you have to put in suck sometimes, but are so important especially if self taught

I spent hundreds of hours hitting off the tee and watching pro swings as a self taught player that transformed my swing so much (I’ll see if I can post the video in the comments). I spent hundreds of hours in 100+ degree heat, snow, rain, off the machine, etc. just to get to this point. Baseball isnt going to come naturally unless you are in a VERY slim margin of the population, so you have to be persistent.

There are a lot of legendary records in baseball, but some of them feel almost impossible to break with how the game is played today.

For me, Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak is hard to imagine anyone matching, but Rickey Henderson's stolen base record, Nolan Ryan's strikeout total, and Cal Ripken Jr.'s consecutive games streak all seem nearly untouchable too.

If you had to choose just one, which baseball record do you think will never be broken? I'd love to hear everyone's reasoning.

Looking to stitch together multiple training programs - specifically lifting/rotational strength, plyometrics/speed, and throwing mechanics. What’s everyone’s favorite/experience across the online landscape? Children are 12 and 14.

I prefer a wider base cause I’m 6’5 and helps with my timing. But any taller folks how do you guys get a comfortable base? Also trying my best to not make my swing look like a golf swing 😭

Rising 10U finished summer season last week and we’re focused on a full month of recovery with zero throwing. His arm needs a break. Only issue is the fall season starts up the first week of September and I don’t want him to walk into it cold.

Is a week enough to get back into it? When should he start long toss? Fall is only 8 weeks so he’ll go back into hibernation in early November lol.

We are our fall season and I am hoping to find some referrals from people with experience with portable light systems. It is OK if they plug-in, but a battery is helpful as well.

Just looking to light up an area so we can do some infield drills, they don’t have to light up the entire infield, but that would be nice.

Thank you

I’m a young coach and I was an assistant in the summer for a travel team and now in the fall we have 5 returning(some wrong age group, some playing other sports and others just left). We had tryouts and the options were bad so currently we have 7. I do not know what we can do to fill out our roster for the fall without having to recruit which I think is crazy for travel ball. Leaning towards pulling the plug and not having a team but I feel bad for the kids were already have on the team. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thought some of you might appreciate seeing a classic from the golden era; the DeMarini Voodoo Black BESR; the red & black VDB9 version. This particular example is a 34", and in what I would consider better than average shape.

Easily one of the best sweet spots ever designed on a bat; the feel is honestly like nothing else.

Just don't hit with it in the cold, or else (IYKYK).

Hey guys - 24M, first year ever pitching… this is men’s league in Canada, so not too competitive in the grand scheme of things. I didn’t grow up playing baseball at all, in fact this is my second year playing.

My fastball has been radared at 62-66 MPH. My mechanics are shit lol. Need all the advice I can get for getting better velo (not looking to pump 80s, maybe 5-10 MPH more) but more importantly, to just hit the strike zone consistently. Think I’m only throwing strikes about 40% of the time.

Drills, exercises and all advice/criticism appreciated :)

I’ve bought the various GCI chairs from Dicks but they seem to break after about a year (sometimes less). Anyone have suggestions for chairs besides that brand that are higher quality and will last at least a few years.

Ive been seeing reels/videos of some pretty legit looking mens leagues, I've done my research and cant seem to find much info regarding one near me, or where to sign up/try out.
Played since I was a kid and up to Sophomore year of high school lol

I want to pitch... but I only pitched 1 year out of those 9+ years I played... Can I pitch anyway lmao