Will's Best Position?

I’ve actually had my head down working. Went to see Talladega Nights last night…the other guys like it. I laughed, but it really didn’t do anything for me.

Yes, a “kick-off meeting” couldn’t be productive. We had a quality system introductory meeting yesterday morning…there were only five of us here yesterday, so it would’ve been hard to get out of. I needed to go anyway, because I’m signed up for the program. But training won’t be until next spring, so hopefully the Cubs/White Sox/Brewers will be in town.

Today I played golf in one of our vendor’s tourney, south of Jackson. I was in the office for an hour or so, and a co-worker rode with me, whose company I enjoy…we were pared together, was fine. I don’t even have to use a vacation day. I had hoped that Damon was going, but he backed out and is instead visiting another vendor…partially because I had written a memo while in Orlando regarding how inventory needed to be taken at all our vendors in as short a time frame as possible.

Will’s best position…good question. He’d be a much better shortstop, centerfielder, or catcher if he played one position consistently. He enjoys centerfield the most, so he can run, dive, and throw. He likes catching second best, and he does a good job blocking pitches, even with hard-throwing pitchers. Lately he’s had a bobble or two, but that’s with some softer throwing pitchers bouncing balls to the plate. He’s ok at shortstop, but needs to work on charging slow grounders, getting rid of the ball quicker to first, making accurate throws, and relaying cutoff throws quicker. He just doesn’t get to play game after game at short.

You factor in hitting ability when determining ultimate position…I tell Will he needs to play short or second if possible, and he can always play outfield or catch.

As I might have said, Henry has done a good job developing other pitchers so Will can play defense and not pitch all the time. I consider pitching a necessary evil for a good Little League player…I think it helps keep their head in the game and makes them a better all-around player. Will’s mind wanders, and though he’s had plenty of coaches work on his mechanics, it’s hard for him to repeat the same movements pitch after pitch, game after game. But even in his pitching he has continued to improve season after season, particularly with his strikeout to walk ratio. He has struggled his last few outings.

When I interviewed here (in 1987) the personnel director (Ed Gossage) interviewing me had Tech knick-knacks on his desk, so I steered the conversation that way. I hadn’t heard of him, but he played on an undefeated Tech football team in the 1950’s…a lineman or something. Last year he wrote into the Sunday AJC memorabilia column regarding Sugar Bowl watches. At Tech one of my PE instructors was Wack Hyder. He knew my grandmother, who worked for years in the registrar’s office. So for years after that he would speak to me when we ran into each other, like at basketball games.

Wild the NYC story… -- New York Yankees manager Joe Torre says the plane that crashed into a building in Manhattan is registered to team pitcher Cory Lidle.

Anna just got the High School Musical soundtrack, though we haven’t seen it.