Rice and Arlington Batting Cages

Tim and I have visited the recently refurbished City of St. Paul, MN Rice and Arlington Batting Cages, see also www.rabattingcages.com. The address is 1500 Rice Street, Saint Paul 55117, Phone (651) 558-2255.

Hours are on the web site, 12-8 Mon-Thur and 12-8 Fri (varies). Sat is 10-6 and Sun 11:30-5:30. There's abundant parking.

There are four cages, adjustable from 40 to 70 mph. One is softball-only, the others can be softball or baseball. One cage can be reserved for $22/30 min or $43 for an hour; you need to reserve over 24 hrs in advance. Cage reservation is suited to groups.

Other cages are open to all. The lines can be very long at peak times, but things are quiet from 12-4. In my limited experience you don't want to arrive after 6:30 pm.

Tokens cost $7 for 5, $1 apiece with a St Paul School photo ID (Jan-Jun). You can get a bit of a discount with a 22 round card.

Directions to Riverside 1 field (tonight)

I've discovered the HGRA web site doesn't have directions to Riverside One field.

5 – Riverside 1 – (Lexington and W. 7th, by the school bulding.)

You can see it on Google maps.

When I go south down Lexington, I turn left on Albion Ave (just before Lex meets 7th) then look to park. I think there's school parking we can use.

There are two fields seen in the sat map, I don't know which we use. The north one looks bigger.

Practice stretches and warm-ups

We're going to start adding more of a formal warm-up and stretches to our practices. We need to keep things light as our players will get bored pretty quickly.

Here's what I think we'll go with to start:

1. Our current slow toss warm-up for arms and upper body.
2. Hamstring, back stretches (see below)
3. Slow base walk/running (coach sets the pace) for one to two circuits. (May need to work them up to this!)
4. Faster base run for one circuit.
5. Practice.

I came across two web sites I thought were interesting (most of the sites target older players of course):

• Top 3 Baseball Stretches to Improve Performance and Reduce Injury
• Baseball Stretching Exercises (too many for our gang, but a good list)

From these I selected this set of stretches to start with. We'll start with 2-3 20 second holds for each and work up a bit depending on how rowdy the gang is. (They are more flexible to begin with than most teen players.)

a. Lying Knee Roll-over Stretch: While lying on your back, bend your knees and let them fall to one side. Keep your arms out to the side and let your back and hips rotate with your knees.

b. Elbow-out Rotator Stretch: Stand with your hand behind the middle of your back and your elbow pointing out. Reach over with your other hand and gently pull your elbow forward.

c. Calf Muscle Stretch: Stand a few feet from the fence and put both your hands on it at shoulder level. Step back with your right leg, keeping it straight, while the left knee bends. With both heels on the floor, lean forward by bending your left knee until you feel a stretch in your calf.

d. Groin Stretch: Sit on the ground with the soles of your feet together. While holding your toes, lean your upper body forward, bending from the hips.

Groveland Field games may move to Riverside 1 after 1st game

No changes until after the first game, but we may lose the Thursday (game day) Groveland field to Landmark League practices. If that happens there will be updated schedules on the web site; Groveland games would go to "Riverside 1".

Bill Mauer: Throwing drills

Bill reviews throwing drills

1. 6-10 feet apart, elbow in glove
2. Point elbow and toss
3. Point, proper throw
4. Use the legs -- heel click
   

Bill Mauer: when is the bat too heavy?

If you can straight arm the bat for 30 seconds, you can use it.

HGRA web site: Schedule and coaches manual

HGRA's web site is quite well maintained. It's easy to find even if you forget "http://hgra.org", just google on hgra baseball.

It has several important references

1. HGRA BaseBall Coaches Manual: An excellent guide to teaching baseball
2. Directions to the fields
3. Schedules: we're the Majors
4. The Rules

A few things to note from the rules (Majors):

• Maximum 6 innings, but no inning can start after 8:15pm
• Maximum 10 batters. The 10th batter can't strike out, if there are too many pitches the umpire can ask the batting teams coach to pitch.
• No lead offs.
• Max 2 steals per inning, no stealing home, no steals on an overthrow.
  
• If a player scheduled to catch the next inning gets on base, the player making the previous out may be inserted as a pinch runner.
• Each team must designate an official scorer. This person (a fan or coach) must verify the score at the end of each half inning with the official scorer of the opposing team.

We use the infield fly rule. This rule exists to stop the 3rd baseman or shortstop from intentionally dropping a fly ball and then getting an easy double play due to a force on 3rd. It's a judgment call by the umpire, it would be poor form for a coach to request the call be made. They can make the call when

• there's less than two out
• there's a force out situation on 3rd base.

If the umpire invokes the rule then the batter is out, just as if the fly ball had been caught. Runners play as they would for a caught fly ball.

Pitching clinic - Monday 6:30 pm

The HGRA pitching clinic resumes this year Monday, May 5th, 6:30 pm (not, as originally announced, 7pm) at the softball field behind Expo Elementary School. The clinic last one hour.

The clinic is taught by veteran coaches and high school pitchers. Even players who aren't going out to pitch will learn to throw correctly, and catchers can practice their trade as well.

We're often looking for parents to catch. If you're interested bring your glove. There's no protective gear, so don't try to catch anything tricky -- let it go.

Coaches: a note from Dennis Merley

This coaches note went out today:

1. The field we use at Highland Senior is the one that is tucked into the corner of Snelling and Montreal. Of the two softball fields, it is the one to the north.

2. The field we use for games at Homecroft is the west field, which is the interior field. It is the one at the end of the cul-de-sac, not the one that borders the street.

3. Minor League teams play 10 kids in the field. Please rotate them as evenly as you can.

4. Minor and Rookie teams should consider having a coach, parent or older sibling standing behind the catcher to retrieve balls that get by. It will really speed up the game. Have that person stand at the backstop.

5. All leagues (except t-ball) - know who is going to catch the next inning and get the gear on them while your team is still batting so that they are ready to go - this will speed the game up a lot!

6. If there are any cap or uniform issues, let us know. Some parents have tried going to local suppliers to ask them to give them smaller or larger shirts. Since they don't have the HGRA artwork, and since it is an infringment on our trademark, we are the ones who should take care of this.

So it appears we can get replacement cap or uniforms if there's a big sizing issue.

HGRA Baseball Schedules Online

HGRA Baseball Schedules are now online.

Pitching clinic Mondays 7pm Expo School softball field

The Pitching clinic is Mondays, 7pm at the softball field behind Expo school. The first clinic is 4/30/07. This clinic is for minor or major league players.

Here's the notice from our web site:

Any Minor or Major Leaguer can drop by the Carondelet softball field (next to Expo School) at 7:00 on Monday nights for an hour of free pitching instruction. If your child wants to learn to pitch or improve their skills, let our high school and college pitchers from our Penguin Baseball program work with them.

--
John Faughnan (assist coach)
651-336-5548
jfaughnan@spamcop.net

HGRA Parent Guidelines: The Minor leagues

The HGRA Schedule page includes a link to the Minor League Parent Guidelines (pdf). It's a one page document and it's very well done.

The key section is a list of how parents can help:

• Supervise the players on the bench and announce the batting order for the kids during the games;
• Coach first or third base;
• Create & distribute a team roster with names, numbers, parents’ names, treat schedule, etc.;
• Bring a jug of water and paper cups on hot days - those who forgot will appreciate you;
• Keep a first aid kit (or at least some bandaids) in the car, just in case someone skins a knee;
• Sign up for one night of post-game treats. They are a tradition in HGRA. Your coach or a volunteer will
usually set up a schedule. Juice boxes, cookies, cookies or popsicles are a few suggestions. Bring enough
so brothers and sisters can have some too;
• Write your child’s name on your child’s cap and glove. This will help you get them back when they are
left behind and picked up by a parent, coach or visitor;
• Remember that we are all trying our best - if your child has not batted first yet, or played 1st base, it is
probably just an oversight. A quick, friendly word to the coach is all that is needed.

Indelible laundry markers work best for writing names on gear and caps.

2007 Season: notes from the commissioner

Commissioner Dennis Merley sent some notes out to the coaches. Here are excerpts of interest to everyone:

3. Groveland 3 is the field on the west side of Groveland Elementary that borders Sargent Ave. Groveland 4 is the field on the west side of the school on the corner of Cleveland and St. Clair. Other fields - Highland Senior is the softball field on the corner of Snelling and Montreal, Hillcrest is the field in the Northwest corner by the parking lot, Homecroft is the east field that borders Edgcumbe Road. If you have questions about these fields, let me know.

7. If you are looking for coaching guidance, I recommend "Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way". It's a well-written guide to teaching skills and running practices, and it seperates everything by age groups. The age groups more or less correspond to what we do so the suggestions should be pretty applicable. It's available for $11.00 on Amazon. ..