HGRA Red Devils Pitching Videos 2011

BeeHawks win final game over the Buckeyes 7-5

Four Redhawks joined six Bees to form the powerhouse BeeHawks!

In a tight exciting game we defeated the cross-town rival Buckeyes 7-5. The Bucks pulled close at the end, but Jane Gephart pulled out the save.

In the first and last BeeHawks game we had (left to right) Tim, Jane, Jake, Joe, Alec, Asher (with bat), Jesper (joined us Thursday!), Ben, Aidan and David (who somehow missed our 4th inning picture, click the picture for full sized version.

A special thanks goes to our 'Hawks who allowed us to play a very fun game.

The Bees coaches had decided ahead of the game that it would be fair to advance to the final consolation game even if we won since we had so few remaining Bees. So, despite a triumphant performance, this was our final game of the 2009 season.

Fall Ball is in September, don't forget to register on the official hgra.org site!

Many thanks to all who contributed to a great season from Coaches Marty, Paul and John. A special thanks to our official scorekeeper and unofficial assistant coach Dan Taylor and to Commissioner Dennis Merley for getting us to this final game.

Update: I've uploaded team images to private site and sent out the page link in a private email. If you need the link, just email jfaughnan@gmail.com

Game saturday

We're going to make a go at the playoff game Saturday. We have 6 players and Commissioner Dennis is hunting down 3 more.

See you there!

Update: I'm working on the rotation. If we have six players we can still play, though we'd technically forfeit I'm sure we can get a game. We'd have Ben play roving outfield depending on his call on pitcher and batter, and we'd play 3 deep infielders with positions depending on base positions. I'm expecting we'll probably have 8 though with two additions.

Bees get 8 runs, Saturday game 11am at Homecroft East

We hit well tonight! We also pitched well -- but man, the Seals can hit. They are the hittingest team we've seen.

Tonight was we had eight hard core Bees in attendance and we were joined for the Major League debut of Jesper Selverda. Jesper did very well!

Of the original Bees team we had Jimmy, Wiley, Collin, Oscar, Aidan, Tim, Asher and Will. Liam and Jesper filled out our numbers.

We really appreciated Tim and Wiley who pitched well against some big bats. Aidan was a great catcher too and made a big foul ball catch.

A Saturday game would be at 11am at Homecroft East. For that game we would have Tim, Aidan, Asher, Jesper, David and Ben and we'd need 3 additions from the three teams that are eliminated in the 8:30 am games. Commissioner Dennis is determining if that's really feasible. I'll update this page and contact everyone by email as soon as we know more.

It's been a challenging season for the Bees, but I think it's also been a lot of fun for all who played.

Don't forget -- Fall Ball is coming (see prior post and main site)

Bees games Thursday and Saturday – we have a plan (and Fall Ball!)

We had a terrific scrimmage and team party yesterday. I’m happy to say that my ankle is recovering from my son Tim’s 100mph fastball.

After the scrimmage we were concerned about having enough players for Thursday and Saturday.

It’s still close and I’m working on getting confirmation from one family, but I think we’ll be good for our big Thursday game. Jesper Selverda will be coming up from the Minors to help us out. We will have opportunities for pitchers!

If we lose on Thursday we play 11am on Saturday and Commissioner Merley will find players for us from the teams lose earlier in the day.

If we win on Thursday we’ll be scrambling to find players for Saturday morning and Commissioner Merley will help us with that.

The player positions web page has the latest summary of who we think will be available on each day.

So we expect to have some fun opportunities for our Bees players on Thursday and Saturday. On Saturday Free Davanni's pizza and drinks will be available for lunch, courtesy of HGRA Baseball.

I think we can be considered underdogs, so everyone should aim to have fun and not worry about making mistakes. In other words, swing and go for the ball!

Lastly, we’re staring Fall Ball in September, registration is online after 7/23:

... HGRA Fall Baseball is on deck. The league is open to anyone with a date of birth between 9-1-96 and 8-31-00. We start on Sept. 13, at 1:00 and will play every Sunday at that time until the weather stops us. If we get enough players, a team might get to play a double header or two.
There are no practices - just games on Sundays. All games are at the Homecroft School fields on Edgcumbe and Sheridan Rd.
Starting Thursday, July 23, you can register online for Fall Ball. Just follow the directions listed on our home page. Then show up at Homecroft on Sept. 13 at 1:00 ready to play...

Weather clearing out for tonight

We had some severe weather in the Roseville area at about 5pm, but it's clearing out.

I think we'll be good for our scrimmage and party, but do bring warm clothing (long sleeved shirts, a rain jacket) and be ready to get muddy (a towel might be a good idea too!).

john

Update 6:20pm: Weather is moving from NW to SE and looks decent on the sat maps and the eyeballs in the NW. So Tim and I will be there with the ice cream treats! We'll move 1st base, it's pretty wet.

HGRA 2009 Major League Tournament and practice reminder

The HGRA web site how has the official bracket.

We finished tied with Buckeyes, Bees and Mustangs with a 2/7 record - officially 7th place.

We play the 2nd place Seals Thursday at 6:30pm at Highland Senior High.

We might yet surprise the Seals, but if we don't then we'll play Saturday 7/25 11am at Homecroft East (see the brackets for what happens if we win!). If we win that game we play again at 1:15pm. We expect to have pizza and drinks for the 11:30 - 12:30 time frame on Saturday, and a portable bathroom will be available.

Again, see the brackets for the official story, I'll bring a printed version to our practice/party.

Tuesday 7/21 is our practice/party. It starts at 7pm (usual time) at Aldine. We'll have treats for all. Parents and adult supporters please bring your gloves to play!

End of season party and Family-Player game pitchers

John will be away next week, so he won't be able to pitch for us Thursday and Saturday.

So we're going to rotate our pitchers quite a bit during our scrimmage Tuesday, giving our relief pitchers some starting experience.

Fielding, Pitching - great. Hitting, not so much.

We had very good pitching (John esp) tonight, and excellent fielding (Tim's glove was hot), but it wasn't our night to hit. The Grays, on the other hand, were hitting well.

Tuesday practice is our team party. Coach Paul will bring beverages, coach John will bring ice cream sandwiches, and coach Marty will bring something solid. For the Bees v. Parents scrimmage the big team will bat 'opposites'.

Thur is our first playoff game. Check the official web site for location, we'll also have that information at practice. We play our final games Saturday morning (25th).

Equipment drop-off procedure (July 26)

From Dennis, the procedure for dropping off our equipment after our playoff games Saturday

Since every team plays at least one game in the tournament on Saturday, July 26, you should just bring your equipment to the fence where you enter the west Homecroft field (by the cul-de-sac) when you are through playing on that day.

The losing team at Highland should drive their gear to the drop off point.

Please take a few moments to empty the bags of any old line-up cards, water bottles or other garbage that might have collected, and try to dump the dirt out if possible.

Also, when returning the equipment, please point out any defective items.

If your last game is rained out, please deliver your equipment to me at the Hillcrest Rec Center storage area between 6:30-7:00. Just walk down the service drive and look to your left for an open door in the corner.

Pitching clinic is still running

It often wraps up around this time of year, but there will be a clinic today (Monday 7/13).

Bees lance Hawks 13-9

The Bees are moving up.

Last week we lost a squeaker with the 3rd place Spiders. Tonight we decisively beat the Redhawks who were previously tied for 2nd place.

We are competitive with any team in the HGRA Majors. That means on any night we will put up a good fight and we can certainly win.

We did well just about everywhere. I'm impressed with Oscar's fielding readiness and his keen attitude. Tim did very well catching, hitting and pitching -- he saved the game for us in the 5th, allowing only 1 run and making the game ending out on a hard bounce and a smooth toss to Ben.

Ben excelled at pitching, fielding and hitting. Matthew played his very first game in the Majors and was one of our best fielders -- and had a lovely double.

We all did well at bat - nice hit Lucas!

The Hawks and we were equally matched at bat. They were stronger in the field. We won because we had strong pitching performances from John, Ben and Tim.

When we're at full strength we have a large number of pitchers. That will really make a difference in our championship games when most teams run out of pitchers. If we keep our numbers up we may surprise several teams over the next two weeks. I know we shocked the Hawks tonight.

New players, Team party 7/21, Fall Ball, Playoffs

We have two new players moving up from the Minors - Liam Morrisey and Matthew Goldade. Both are excellent ball players. Liam will be away Thursday but Matthew will be on duty. Sophie has decided to retire from baseball - she had a lot going on this summer.

I've done part of the rotation for our Thur game. Even with our two additions we only expect 11 players. We know Aidan, David, Jimmy and Liam will be away. If you will be late for the game or will miss it please let coach john know (jfaughnan@gmail.com). Please try to arrive around 6pm.

Oscar will bring treats Thursday. There's a glitch on one of the web site schedules, but the schedule on this site is correct (see above).

Our 7/21 practice will be a team party. Parents, family and friends vs. the Bees. Coaches will bring treats. Usual time and place - Aldine field, 7pm.

We have two regular season games left, then the playoffs. The official web site front page has information on the playoffs and on Fall ball.

End of season Family/Friends vs. Bees scrimmage – July 21 Aldine Field 7:00pm

We have to move things around a bit due to schedule conflicts.

Our end of season party will be at our last practice. We’ll start with a scrimmage between Family/Friends and Bees. This will be an unofficial event in place of the practice.

Coaches will bring treats for after the scrimmage.

Coach Paul is putting things together!

HGRA All Stars 2009 - Red Team pictures

From our team at noon we had Wylie, Ben, and Tim on the Red team (colors got switched!).

They all did well, but Wylie in particular pitched very well. His last inning was a quick 3 up and 3 down!

We have a few pictures, including a team picture. Click below for the album.

HGRA Share

Bees 8, the other team 9, All Start Game info, Practice next week, end-season party tentatively July 30.

We looked good at our last game. Good hitting, some nice catches, and very good pitching. I really appreciate Ben Taylor stepping up; he’d been reluctant to pitch until now. With Ben, John, Lucas, Wiley, Aidan and Tim all pitching we’ve got people to go to and we can manage away times.

We were playing a very strong team, and they really didn’t expect any problems. We surprised them! It really could have gone either way.

This Sunday is the All Star game at Highland Senior Softball field. I’ve published the roster.

Commissioner Dennis wrote:

HGRA Baseball's 9th annual All Star Event is scheduled for Sunday, June 28.  We play two games - one at 12:30 and one at 3:00…

If you are on the Red or the Blue team on the roster, you play at 12:30 and should plan to arrive at our regular Highland Senior Softball field no later than 12:00. 

If you are on the Purple or Gold team, you play at 3:00 and should plan to arrive no later than 2:30.

More detailed instructions on what to wear, etc. have been mailed to your home - basically, wear your regular uniform pants, socks and cap, and the all star jersey we will give you can either be worn over or instead of your regular shirt.

Please note that these rosters are final and cannot be altered.

As always, there will be contests and games between innings for siblings and family members, and prizes this year include tickets to the Saints game on July 11, so please try to make this a family event.  Unfortunately, we are unable to provide concessions this year.

Let us know ASAP if you have any questions, or if your plans have changed.  Otherwise, we will see you on Sunday for this always entertaining and exciting event!

I’m helping with the 12:30 pm Blue team including Wiley, Tim and Ben. Marty is helping with the Purple Team with Collin, Lucas and David.

Be sure to bring fluids and shade!

Coach John will be at practice this Tuesday (yay). Marty is going to be teaching a unit on player positions. Our players are ready now to start thinking about what they ought to do when the ball is hit – including what to do when it’s NOT hit to them.

THERE’s NO GAME JULY 2.

We’re getting to the end of the season; we wrap up on July 25th! We’ve tentatively scheduled a team party on July 30th from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. John is still checking with Paul and Marty on availability July 21 from 7pm to 8:30 at Aldine field.

At the end of season party Coaches will bring treats. We’ll have a Parents vs. Bees scrimmage so you might want to start practicing now.

The Commissioner chirping

Commissioner Dennis "tweeting" from http://twitter.com/HGRACommish.

I've added the feed to the lower left of this page. You can follow from twitter or add a feed to any feed reader (ex. Google Reader, OS X Mail.app, Outlook 2007, Safari, Firefox etc) using: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/48475110.rss

(I think you can add it to a Facebook page too, but I haven't done that myself.)

Grand Slam outing: what we learned, Parent-Player game

I was very pleased with how the Bees Grand Slam outing went. We had Tim, Oscar, Wiley, Aaron and David turn out, pretty good given vacations and the weekend day.

Everyone improved significantly after about 2-3 tokens ($5 for 3). Most were getting a bit sore or tired after 6-9 tokens, so $10 to $15 is a good amount to budget per batter. If possible bring a familiar bat, though they had a good range of bat weights and sizes.

It's a great way to learn foot position, bat size/weight, and especially standing distance from the plate. I also recommend it for all parents. I learned I had to stand much further from the plate than I'd imagined, and that it's easy at these speeds to swing too soon. I think some of our players are too close to the plate.

We focused on not pulling or falling backwards, on hip rotation, on a steady bat and hand position. I learned that for this kind of practice batting gloves are a big help and wooden bats are much easier on the hands. When I practiced I even used a heavy softball bat to give my hands a rest.

There are two speeds that are relevant to us, either 30 or 45 mph. (55 mph is too fast for most). In our league most pitchers are closer to 30, it's rare to have someone throwing above 40 mph. We used the slowest speed 30 mph to work on form, and the higher speed after a player is doing well at 30 mph. Unfortunately the height adjustment on the 45 mph ball was a bit high for shorter players.

For our next practice I want to work with selected players on soft toss drills that isolate the hips and help players who tend to fall back from the ball. Please note too that on the left of this page there's a link to the St. Paul city batting cages.

We also discussed the annual Parent - Player game. There' s a proposal to hold it on the first Thursday after the season end at 7 pm. We'd need to reserve a field. Please send thoughts to jfaughnan@gmail.com.

Bees 10, Buckeyes 7

We and the Buckeyes have now each one a single game. They are our natural rivals; we are evenly matched and both teams have a competitive but friendly attitude.

It was an exhausting game to coach! We were even, then ahead, then we fell several runs behind, then we caught up and pulled ahead in the 5th inning. It was very tough on pitchers for both teams. John pitched marvelously and Lucas did a great job finishing the last inning. A very big thank you to Wiley and Tim for filling in at pitching.

In addition to taking on a big pitching challenge Wiley drove in the winning runs with a near Grand Slam in the 5th inning. What a hit. He also had a great catch early in the game, so it was a bit of a Wiley fest.

A number of our players did very well. Tim caught for 3 innings and Collin for two -- very tiring positions but neither complained. Tim pitched a strong 1st inning but had a sore arm in the 2nd. David Shanahan had a great hit, and Oscar and Lucas did well at bat and in the field. All our players did really well. I was particularly glad to see everyone taking good swings at the ball.

A special thanks to Luke Shanahan for recording our outs and score.

Max Celandar is heading away for the rest of the summer. He was to play tonight but fell ill at the last moment. We'll miss him, I wish he could have been there for our win. Ben is away at camp but will return next week. Will and Sophie were also absent.

A number of players arrived late today and two players were missing without notice. These are tough times for a lot of families -- people are either working two jobs or are looking for work. There's also a fair bit of illness going around. Even so we do need to find ways to work on the late arrivals and the unannounced absences. It's not fair to the players who show up, it's not fair to the other team, and it's kind of hard on the coaches too.

Saturday is our outing to Grand Slam. Coach Marty can't make it and I think Paul will be away, so Coach John will be solo. I'm not going to be watching or supervising anyone but my own son, so please do come along with your player. I will be at the batting cages working with the player at bat, but I can only watch one at a time. As noted previously everyone has to buy their own batting cage tokens, lunch, etc. It is a fun spot so I hope to see some Bees on Saturday am.

I will be away for next Tues practice (business travel) but Marty will be there and we expect Coach Paul to be back. We really appreciate parents who come and help out.

Grand Slam outing for HGRA Bees (not official)

Our optional and unofficial Grand Slam outing is Sat June 20th to Grand Slam Burnsville: http://www.grandslammn.com/.

There’s no car pool and each player has to have their own money including lunch money. Each player needs a responsible adult – the coaches are there to have fun and give batting tips. Coaches will hang out by the batting cages.

Coach John and Marty will be there around 10:30 am on Saturday.

Here’s the calendar entry: Calendar entry: Grand Slam outing for HGRA Bees (not official).

Hope to see some Bees!