Great Little League Coaches

With four boys, I would say that I have become somewhat of an expert on Little League baseball. This year we have 3 out of the 4 old enough to participate. One is in the kids-pitch league, one in the machine-pitch league, and one in T-ball. You have heard a lot about obnoxious parents and over-bearing coaches yelling at the players and really making the game not as fun as it could be for the kids. To tell you the truth, I have seen the opposite so far during the past 5 years that our boys have participated. I mentioned before that in Palo Alto we have an organization called "Positive Coaching Alliance." I would have to say that it has done wonders for our league.

The other day I was at my 10 year old's game and the opposing pitcher was really having a hard time. He had walked about 7 players in a row, allowing my son's team to score the maximum 5 runs per inning (NEW rule). He was very dejected as he walked to the dug out, obviously. I watched, as the coach of the other team stooped down and looked the little boy in the eye and seemed to say "you did great! you should feel really good about the inning and just keep on pitching." He held his hand up high for a high-five and the little boy gave him a big high-five and a smile. That was a great moment. It was a great lesson for me as a parent and a coach.

Let's Play Ball!

It is that time of year once again. Daylight savings has sprung forward, cherry trees have blossomed and thousands of little leaguers hit the field. This year three of my boys are in Little League. This makes for a rather nightmarish scheduling problem. Forget about simulating a nuclear explosion. Try scheduling and arranging 3 practices and 6 games/week, drop offs, snacks, uniforms, batting gloves, baseball mitts, athletic cups (yes, the passage from T-ball to hardball) and pick ups. And that only includes the baseball activities. The boys still need to eat, go to school, practice piano, do homework, take baths, and hopefully get some sleep.

In our city of Palo Alto, we have a program called "Positive Coaching Alliance." It was initiated many years ago, after parents started becoming a danger to each other and the umpires. I think it is a really good thing, since it teaches parents and kids to respect the game of baseball and basically to "chill out." Most parents get it, but a handful long for the days of yelling and swearing from the stands. So far after two games, everyone is still enjoying the season.

I try as best as I can to get off of work early enough to catch some portion of their games. This year our oldest got to be the starting pitcher for the first game. He did a good job and, yes, made dad very proud. If any dad ever tells you that he just wants his kids to have fun playing sports - he's lying.

Science Fair Projects!

I recently joined a startup, so I have been swamped and this is the first time I was able to sit down in a hotel and write a blog piece. I am in Washington D.C. working with lobbyist for Clean Solar Energy, but that is a whole different blog.

Last week, my wife and I decided to sign 3 of our boys up for the school science fair this year. It is always a great thing right? You get your kids to learn about science early and they do experiments and everyone is supposed to have a great time learning.

My oldest child, the 10 year old, and I decided to do a tough subject this year - "Which lighting technology is most efficient: Incandescent, Compact Fluorescent, or LED?" Long story short, after several days of research and teaching my son, it was decided that we were getting into lessons in Physics that were way beyond his schooling. We are heading towards plan B; stay tuned.

Second son, 8 years old, wanted to know "What ball will go the farthest when hit with a bat: baseball, whiffle ball, or tennis ball?" This we actually could handle. I took my three youngest boys out to the baseball park with a bucket of baseballs, tennis balls and whiffle balls. And after about an hour of ducking balls (we didn't hit any of the younger brothers once, I'll have you note) we finally finished. My second son was very tired and didn't want to see another ball of any kind for awhile.

My third son, 6 years old, wanted to know "How temperature affects the growth of seeds." I went to Target and bought a bag of string bean seeds and we planted them in small cups. One cup was put in the freezer, one in the refrigerator, and the last one in the room. So far so good, no one has spilled the dirt in the refrigerator or freezer and no one has tried to eat any of the potted plants as well. You never know with boys. The week is still young, but we are making scientific progress.

More later...

Two Days of Summer

Something about our family.

We are a family of four boys and a male dog named “Einstein.” My wife tells everyone that she lives in a fraternity. It must seem that way with so much “male-ness” around her. We had our fourth boy in April, so this summer our adventures were limited to places we could drive to by car.

I was not looking forward to flying with 4 car seats in tow (our boys are 8, 6, 4 years and the baby is 6 months old). We live in Northern California and spent some time in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Oxnard exploring the beautiful Pacific coast. Having been raised in California, we are a family that enjoys our days spent building sandcastles and digging for sand-crabs at the beach. Summer seemed to have been especially short this year, because our school district decided to move the start date up a whole week into August. All of the boys, including myself, had a very difficult time getting up and ready for school after a summer of sleeping in. That first week was nearly impossible, but we finally made it to Friday. I was walking my boys to school when my oldest son said “it’s too bad that summer had to end.” I understood what he meant and replied, “well at least it’s Friday!” His next reply was one of those special insights that we parents get from talking to our children. My oldest son turned to me and said, “you know something dad, weekends are like two days of summer.”

I wrote the following blog last year at the beginning of school. I recently located it and have added it to the Surviving Boys blog.

We are a family of four boys and a male dog named “Einstein.” My wife tells everyone that she lives in a fraternity. It must seem that way with so much “male-ness” around her. We had our fourth boy in April, so this summer our adventures were limited to places we could drive to by car. I was not looking forward to flying with 4 car seats in tow (our boys are 8, 6, 4 years and the baby is 6 months old). We live in Northern California and spent some time in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Oxnard exploring the beautiful Pacific coast. Having been raised in California, we are a family that enjoys our days spent building sandcastles and digging for sand-crabs at the beach. Summer seemed to have been especially short this year, because our school district decided to move the start date up a whole week into August. All of the boys, including myself, had a very difficult time getting up and ready for school after a summer of sleeping in. That first week was nearly impossible, but we finally made it to Friday. I was walking my boys to school when my oldest son said “it’s too bad that summer had to end.” I understood what he meant and replied, “well at least it’s Friday!” His next reply was one of those special insights that we parents get from talking to our children. My oldest son turned to me and said, “you know something dad, weekends are like two days of summer.”