It's perfectly acceptable to steal a catchphrase from Dan Patrick to caption one's blog. My attorney will not be taking letters from your attorney on this subject.
So baseball 2012 was a bit of a disappointment for both Crawford boys...the Sox had lost several pitchers, and seemed to regress some in the field and behind the plate, BUT...Ty was able to move to top pitcher in the roster (the difference in his confidence and ability over that of last season was amazing from his perspsective, and just plain addicting to watch from ours), and with Matt as head coach, the Sox had a good, clean, fun-filled, though not particularly successful, season.
Ty always has the steady bat...he excels in the contact hit, right where it's least expected. The league as a whole had trouble with fielding, but he's so razor sharp on the base running, it didn't really matter whether or not they had gotten their mitts on those hits or not.
Truly, building on his base running skills honed in last fall's Hawks league, Ty functions as his own base running coach. Lightning quick.
And some of the fellas are a little hesitant to lead off of 2nd, in the highly improbable event that someone would throw the ball to the baseman and he'd actually catch it (that sounds absolutely below the belt, but after seeing a few games it's universally true, they've all got, at age 11, what my dad would lovingly call 'Stone Hands'). Ty's halfway to third by the time the ball leaves the pitchers' mitt.
These boys, for the most part, have been together since 2nd grade or so, and those that were new arrivals were welcomed in seamlessly...love what one of the dads told me, when Matt was at an away swim meet with Eve during the game when Ty managed to strike out 6 batters in two innings... I joked that Ty's performance was aided by the absence of his domineering coach, and Mike said: 'Yeah, 'domineering'. Caring, kind, communicative, supportive, concerned, for sure. Domineering, no. A yeller he is not.'
The first of 5 game balls awarded for either Offensive or Defensive Player of the game...
Coach Crawford travelling again (Mississippi in July. You know you're jealous), so Coach Craig and Coach Chris (an old schoolmate of mine from Aurora Hinkley, whom, coincindentally, played baseball on the varsity team I managed) got to do the trophy honors. As I said, not the best season ever (though they did manage a stunning upset in round 1 of the playoffs), but Ty's got his sights set on the future, where he hopes to rejoin Coach Mike and his Hawks fall ball team, and will try out for the AAA Rockers team, which will be a year-round commitment. By now, we're used to that. And Ty CANNOT WAIT. All baseball, all the time. That's my boy.
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