Today I go to the airport to pick my daughter up from her first showcase event. She traveled to the Triple Crown City of Lights event at Majestic Park in Nevada. No I didn’t go with her. There were many reasons for that decision and I think it worked out well.

On the first day of games I was happen to hear that…

• she got on base a lot
• she brought in two runs in a bases loaded situation
• she walked a few times
• she didn’t miss any balls on defense
• she was doing a good job managing the money she had for the trip

Overall it sounded like that first day at the tournament went well for her. She did a decent job offensively, didn’t have many opportunities defensively, but did okay there as well from what I could tell and she got to meet Elliott Finkelstein (major event director of Triple Crown Sports).

After talking to her on day one I told my husband that the next day would be a bigger test. Turns out I was right. Day two was tougher for her. They only had two games, but she got to bat 8 times and never got on base. Ouch.

After texting back and forth with her for a while, I found out that most of her hits were ground outs, some pretty well hit. Not a terrible way to get out and it certainly beats pop ups when your in the #2 slot trying to move runners.  Typically runners can advance when you put the ball on the ground and she did move runners a few times.  So her offensive performance was not as awful as it could have been.  I remember Michelle Smith saying, if you’re going to get out (and in our game you get out more than you don’t) you may as well make it a productive out.  It sounds like her outs were at least productive ones some of the time so it wasn’t all bad.  Statistically it definitely wasn’t pretty, but there is more to this game than your batting average.

It also sounds like she did do pretty well on defense that day as well. So while she was quite upset that she had played two games and still had a relatively clean uniform, and while not getting on base all day is not all that great, it didn’t sound like her entire performance was awful.  I reminded her that on some days your contribution to your team will be different than others.  You won’t always be the one getting hits, getting on base, and scoring runs.  It’s great if you do, but if that’s not you that day, make sure you contribute in some other way to help your team and it sounds like she did that, so that’s a good thing.  Sometimes it’s “better” if you don’t do as great as you’d like but your team does well and is successful rather than you doing great but being the only one and your team has a bad day.  Of course, ideally, you and your team have a great day, but that doesn’t always happen.  What we’re trying to avoid is both you and your team having an awful day.  Then that’s just a bad day at the field and does NOT leave a good taste in your mouth at all.

I also reminded her that part of the reason she went to this event was to learn. Now she has an idea of what it’s like to travel and play. It’s not always easy to go on a trip, stay focused, and play well in an environment that’s very different from what you’re used to at home. It’s one thing to have A great day, but almost anyone can have one great day. Good players will find a way to do it again, and again, and again…..not just once. Now she has an idea of how challenging that is. Now she has an idea of what it is she needs to work on and how hard she needs to work to be ready for the next opportunity she has to travel and play.

I reminded her that when she comes back home and practices, it’s not only for “this” weekend’s games and it’s not only for the school season coming up. She has from now until summer to prepare for her next travel opportunity. Each day she practices, each day she trains should be moving her closer to being ready to perform when that day comes as well as prepare her for more immediate competition.

Another reason she went on this trip was to have an opportunity to talk with college coaches. This is something she’ll hopefully be doing even more and more of very soon. Yesterday, she had an opportunity to speak to some of them and “practice” communicating with coaches on her own, without myself or my husband speaking for her. Hopefully that was another good learning experience for her as well.

Now that she’s coming home it’s back to school, catching up on homework, doing chores at home, and training for the future.  Looking forward to talking to her more about the trip when I pick her up this afternoon.

…and she’s off.  Well not yet, but my oldest DD is planning to go on her very first travel softball trip to the Triple Crown City of Lights Tournament at the end of October.  It’s mostly DII, DIII, and JC’s that will be there, but it’s a great opportunity to introduce her to the work she needs to put in before she travels:

1. keep her grades up (must be all A’s and B’s, preferably more A’s than B’s – this is my requirement)
2. research colleges
3. figure out how to find the coaches/schools that will be there
4. how to get the contact information for those coaches
5. contact college coaches that will be there BEFORE the trip is made
6. fundraising!
7. etc, etc, etc

The first thing she said when looking into the schools that were attending, “Wow this is so much work!”

Me: “That’s why I’m not doing it for you.” lol

The good thing is, she has an idea of a few areas she is interested in studying, so she has that to look for when she researches a particular school.  Does this school even have areas of study I’m actually interested in?  Right now, she doesn’t know much more than:

• she wants to go out of state to go to college (we’ll see if that’s still the case in a few years)
• she has a couple majors she’s interested in (let’s see if that’s still the same in a few years too)
• she wants to play softball
• she knows that we do not have an unlimited college fund set up for her, so she will need to do lots of leg work to make college possible (get good grades, work hard on the field, look for and go after various scholarship opportunities – not just athletic, contact coaches, etc, etc, etc).

Eventually we hope to add knowing what type of campus/classroom setting she’s looking for, what kind of area she wants to be in, what kind of overall college/softball experience she really wants, etc, etc, etc.

I’m sure this will be one far from boring journey.  Wish us luck!

I just got an invite to attend the advanced screening of “Moneyball” and I’m planning to go. I heard about the book this year and thought it would be interesting to read. However, I’m quite a bit behind on my reading for the year, so it’s sitting at the bottom of a list of books I want to read.  Since I haven’t gotten around to reading the book yet, I definitely want to see the movie. It’s about baseball, it’s about a book I want to read, AND Brad Pitt is in it which pretty much makes this a no brainer. lol

I know it’s kinda cheating to see the movie instead of reading the book.  I also know that movies are rarely as good as the book they’re about, but I rest assured, even if I watch the movie, I still plan to read the book eventually.

If I do actually make it to the screening, I’ll definitely let you know what I think.

Have you read the book? If so, how did you like it? Let me know.

Click Here to Watch the Moneyball Trailer