Having coffee with Rocky Balboa this morning

In Philly for the weekend visiting my daughter and family. Got up early to have breakfast at lil Petes on Fairmont ave but doesn't open up early on the weekends. So went to a Sunoco and bought the NY Post,NY Daily News Philly Inquirer,played lotto and walked over to the Rocky Statue with a cup of coffee. At 6.30 am no one was there. Tourist don't arrive for another 2 hours. I walked up the steps of the Mus. of Art and sat at the top step exactly where Rocky did his dance over looking Philly. There were maybe 5 or 6 people walking the steps and to the right a class was forming for the morning exercise class. It was so beautiful and quiet.. the sun was rising and the view was spectacular. Was thinking about my last day in Philly and how today i was going to see my 4 yr old grandson in a t-ball league game.
The game was played in the center of the muesuem fields and you could see the Rocky Statue in the corner. When i was up here for march madness all the little league fields had homeless tents and shacks all over the fields. As we drove by the fields my daughter said all the homeless have taken over the fields but tomorrow the Philadelphia police are clearing all the fields. To my surprise we went by the fields the next day and they were all cleared with fences all around them. They had to get metal detectors to go over all the little league fields because of possible needles left in the grass.
Amazing how in 1 day all the homeless were gone.. Not sure where they relocated them but all the fields today were cleaned and looked great.
Its T-ball everyone gets 3 swings from live pitching and then if you miss you hit off the T. But my grand son was down in Austin the week before and we worked on hitting. He is a lefty and today hit 2 line drives hard.. but he ran to 1st base via the pitching mound 1st.. I didn't realize I needed to work on running to 1st base after he hits it. Oh well .. still very proud of him.. On the plane friday coming to Philly my wife got a call from my daughter in Orlando that just got her job back from Disney that she is pregnant with twins.. wow
Its there 1st child and her husband wanted to know my wife and I 's genealogy. I thought wow that was quick. So I told my daughter to tell your husband that on my side my Uncle Luca Brazie { godfather 1} was a twin in 1906 . I'm sure he never saw Godfather ...
Turn 70 is a few days.. my daughters and son had a great surprise party for me last week in austin ..they had over 50 facebook friends send messages on the TV screen. People I hired,friends relatives.. teachers .. etc it was really so nice.. when you get to 70 you want to downplay your age. But I still have a cross over dribble, and can still hit a jumper and box out. But need to work on coaching my grandson to run to 1st base after he hits the ball Enjoyed my cup of coffee with Rocky this morning.. Hope I can still have a few more cups with him in the future

I once watched an AAU basketball game with Tom Hanks and his son, Chet.

@Box and one

 Coach, the fundamentals of baserunning, come on now

I honestly believe I'll be 80 years old still slingin' that jumpshot. Ok maybe more of a set shot by then. And happy birthday coach! Why do I picture a bartender from "Cheers" everytime I say "Coach?"

Luca Brasi

 thank you  thanks golden goose I knew I spelled brasi  wrong..  its funny  I got a piece of chalk and made home plate  then the backstop was my garage door. Then I made a batters box and threw him about 100 whiffels balls with him swinging a regular baseball bat.  Corrected him on swinging early ,late etc.. once he had it down he was just ripping the ball all over.. he is just like his mother ,my daughter.. A righty but bats lefty. Natural lefty swing...when he hit the ball and ran to the pitchers mound of course my wife has to say to me " didn't you teach him about base running". I told her no but then thought about that. Think I left out an important part of that hitting lesson.  

You're talking to the right guy.  I was the minor league LL director in our town and coached 11 and 12 year old LL All-Stars as well.  The wiffle ball is good but plastic golf balls are even better.  Once they can drive golf balls the regular sized ball will look like a friggin Beach Ball coming at him and solid contact becomes second nature.

Here's another one for you coach.  All kids love batting but few are willing to work with their fielding glove at that age.  Mostly it is because they fear the ball and fear where it is going.  This catching fear is easily overcome by only four very simple catching drills.  You say he throws Lefty.  The easiest catch for a Lefty to make is to hold his glove hand out to his right about shoulder high.  Tell him that that is where the ball is coming.  Throw him some nice easy tosses exactly where he expects it to come.  After he masters that, throw him some balls down around and outside his right knee where he has to reach down to catch the ball on that side.  You will be amazed how confidently he catches the ball when he knows where it's coming.

The next catching drill will have him reach his right hand over and across his left shoulder.  This is obviously more awkward for him, but again, he knows the ball is coming there so he will soon master this backhand catching technique as well.  The last catch, and the hardest, will be teaching him how to reach across his body to catch a low ball at or about his left knee.  This too will soon be mastered and it is all because you have taken the fear out of catching a thrown or batted ball.

So you see there are only four ways to catch a ball.  It's like you've shown him he has to imagine a vertical line from his head down through the center of his body to the ground.  Another horizontal line across his waist.  Only four ways to catch the ball.  Now comes the fun part when he doesn't know which of the four "zones" the ball is coming.  He'll be so confident he'll adjust quickly.  And that's when you can start throwing harder and have some real fun playing catch.

Hope that helps Coach.  GL and have fun out there!

Whoops.  Sorry, you said he throws righty but swings lefty.  Well, you get the idea of the four zones of catching.

@Box and one

 Oh yeah, happy birthday! Geminis are in effect!