Little League Life: Big Dreams, Memories Await

CONNECTICUT — Now that the warmer weather is here, the Little League baseball seasons are swinging into gear.

While most Little Leagues were able to have at least an abbreviated summer season last year amid the coronavirus pandemic, this year represents a return to action for many players after a year off. It’s also the introduction to baseball for many kids whose Little League careers were delayed a year.

Here are some things to know to help guide you through your upcoming Little League season.

First, the pandemic obviously is still ongoing so be sure to check with your local league for COVID-19 guidelines.

Baseball is a humbling sport where the best hitters make outs seven out of 10 times, so it’s important to keep a level head and for kids to learn to persevere through failure.

Baseball is a great game to teach life lessons.

You can do everything right, hit a line drive smash and the shortstop makes a great play to rob you of a hit, and you’re out. Sometimes things just don’t go your way.

But, maybe the next time up, you barely make contact and the ball is perfectly placed where nobody can catch it, and you get an easy hit.

Or, you can make an error that leads to some runs and puts your team in a hole. The key is how do you bounce back and respond to it. And what do you do the next time you have the opportunity.

While baseball is a game of failure, it isn’t all doom and gloom. There’s nothing like the feeling of hitting a line drive or a long fly to the outfield or running all around the bases and scoring a run. Or making a play that nobody expects you to make or striking the batter out in a key spot.

The best way to be able to experience the sweet taste of success is to be prepared.

There are plenty of options for clinics or private hitting or fielding lessons. But if you aren’t looking to spend money, there are plenty of things players can do at home to help hone their skills.

Players should do at least one baseball activity a day to work on their skills, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day. And it’s important to do this in addition to the official team practices.

Players can get a tennis ball and throw it against a wall to work on their throwing form and fielding. You can also get a net to throw the ball against, and a batting tee to hit the ball into the net.

Players can toss the ball up in the air to work on catching pop flies in the back yard.

These are particularly important skills for players ages 5 to 8, so they are better prepared for when the games start to get more competitive.

Parents can also search for videos for activities to do at home, or visit a site like Big Al Baseball Training & Development Center. “Big Al” has conducted coaching clinics for several Little Leagues throughout Connecticut.

Once the games start, it’s important that parents don’t try to coach their kids from the stands. It doesn’t do the kids any good to keep looking back or listening to what’s going on in the stands. If you want to coach your kid during games, volunteer to coach.

Also, for parents, if you don’t like how something is running in your league, volunteer to serve on your league’s Board of Directors. That’s the best route to making a change.

Little League is all about having a moment to remember, and hopefully it’s something positive that you can carry throughout your life.

Whether it is a star player hitting a home run over the fence, or a player like Timmy Lupus robbing a home run in the “Bad News Bears.”

And hopefully for the parents, you get to see your player make an amazing play, and you can celebrate like Steve Martin in “Parenthood.”

Connecticut Lifestyles is a periodic series in which Patch focuses on about life in the Nutmeg State.