Fielding: The Stats Don't Lie

Tuesday was the first time all year I got to drive Will to his game. Having not played in over a month, he still did pretty well. While he was out, his team lost at least two games due to fielding errors. Parents act surprised, though they shouldn’t be. Last night’s stats…

12 innings

52 batters faced

21 strikeouts

15 putouts in field

07 walks

06 hits

04 errors…a fielding percentage of .789. This doesn’t include throws to the wrong base, etc, that allowed runners to advance without an error being charged. Some may have not ruled them errors, but they were still plays that should’ve been made.

When Crown plays a decent team that puts the ball in play, they could be in trouble. Offensively, too many players swing for the fences and run the bases too recklessly. Bloop hits and pops/flies/grounders are celebrated as hits, that would’ve been outs by decent teams. There’s more concern over batting average and stolen bases than playing the game properly. But perhaps that’s boys being boys. Will is certainly guilty of reckless baserunning. You don’t see such play out of ECB teams, or East Cobb public school teams.

At least six Living Science girls attended Thursday’s game, but that included catcher Nathan’s two sisters. Lucy and her mom came, lending me a conversational distraction from all the bad plays.

Stayed up and watched over half the Braves game Tuesday night. Monday night Will said he watched the whole 13 inning affair, before leaving out at 7 am for his small group.

Tuesday Ceil, Matthew, and I ate lunch at Zaxbys. It was possibly Will’s last-ever home game, so I attended that instead of the showcase for Anna & Matthew’s Broadway class. Anna wasn’t thrilled about singing solos in front of people, though the normally mild-mannered Matthew seemed to enjoy it. Ceil said the whole thing didn’t last very long.