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2008 CABA TEAM INSURANCE

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2008 FALL YOUTH BASEBALL LEAGUES
08U October Schedule is posted      
09U October Schedule is posted   
10U October Schedule is posted   
11U October Schedule is posted
12U October Schedule is posted 
13U October Schedule is posted 
14U/15U October Schedule is posted 
HS October Schedule is posted 

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2008 HIGHLANDER FALL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULES 
08U Double Header Schedule     
09U Double Header Schedule    
10U Double Header Schedule  
11U Double Header Schedule  
12U Double Header Schedule   
13U Double Header Schedule   
14U/15U Double Header Schedule   

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2008 HIGHLANDER FALL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE 
1-DAY DOUBLE HEADER-SATURDAYS & 2-DAY TOURNAMENTS - FREE!!   
3-DAY ANDERSON/ELITE HOLIDAY TOURNAMENTS - COMING SOON   
18U SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FALL CLASSIC          

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2008 SO-CAL BASEBALL/SOFTBALL ACADEMY'S & CAMPS
PLAYHARD BASEBALL ACADEMY Contact Danny Ricabal (626) 318-7848.
WALLBANGER ACADEMY Contact Wallace Gonzales Jr (626) 967-7700.
TOP PROSPECTS BASEBALL ACADEMY Contact John Elliot (949) 355-7825.
LAS VEGAS BASEBALL ACADEMY Contact Mike Martin (702) 232-1330.

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2008 WORLD SERIES EVENTS
2008 CABA WORLD SERIES 9U-18U
2008 AABC WORLD SERIES 8U-18U 
2008 CCYB WORLD SERIES 10U-18U 
2008 FLETCHER WORLD SERIES 8U-18U
2008 SANDLOT "WOOD BAT" WORLD SERIES 11U-18U 
Contact Ben Herrera (626) 437-9696.

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BASEBALL & SOFTBALL CHAMPIONS
2007-08 Champions & Runner Ups - Click Here
West Covina Fear - 10u Labor Day CHAMPIONS
Los Angeles Aztecs - 10u Labor Day Runner Up
Los Angeles Longhorns - 09u Labor Day CHAMPIONS
Riverside Roughriders - 09u Labor Day Runner Up

"PITCHING BY THE NUMBERS - Guerry Baldwin; East Cobb Baseball"  

It becomes more and more bizarre each year as baseball organizations wrestle with pitch counts and innings per week that they should allow pitchers to throw in games. Although their attempts to regulate pitching are better than no rules at all, they usually just mask their inability to address the real problems. The real problems are their fears that too much regulation will cause teams to move to different associations.
Innings a week is a common practice in youth baseball, but what is the number of innings one should throw? How can we determine how many innings in a week? When does a week start and end? And how does this make any sense? It’s not the number of innings, but when they are pitched. It is perfectly fine for a pitcher to pitch Monday and Saturday, for instance, but not 10 innings in 3 days which some youth programs allow.
Now we have pitch counts as a way of helping to protect pitchers. Although this is a better plan to help pitchers stay healthy, once again it is not the number of pitches thrown, but when they are thrown. How is it alright to throw every other game when sometimes that is every other day, just by saying we are holding the number of pitches to 75-80 pitches? Here again, it’s not the number of pitches in a game, but when those games are played.
Simply, number of innings per week is ok with some better explanations; and number of pitches in a game is ok with some better knowledge. The two together handle the problem with the knowledge of how to use the two correctly.
Here is one scenario that happens often: pitcher #1 pitches a complete game (we’ll say 7 innings) and throws 60-65 pitches and pitcher #2 throws 4 innings in a game throwing 90-100 pitches. If pitcher #2 completes the game, he might throw 130-150 pitches. In this example, innings in the game didn’t work.
A second scenario we might have is pitcher #1 pitches deep into the game with over 100 pitches but remains loose with good actions and is not laboring. This pitcher is fine. Pitcher #2 is in the 3rd or 4th inning and is overthrowing, laboring, and has lost command at 40-50 pitches. He needs to come out.
Solutions:
1) First, we start with players (pitchers) learning how to play catch correctly. Coaches need to monitor this, making sure players catch squared up, but throw in a closed position. Secondly, coaches need to watch the ball release of their players, recognizing an improper release. If it is wrong, correct it and don’t allow it to continue.
2) Improper throwing or bad mechanics doesn’t just pertain to pitching. Every ball thrown
poorly contributes to arm injuries. Learn how to play catch right! Next, players (pitchers) need to throw everyday. It just needs to be correct throwing. Throwing strengthens your arm. Muscles need work, use them.
3) All pitching need not be from a mound or at 100%. Flat ground throwing is easier on your arm; therefore, it is not preferable to always throwing from a mound. You can gain the same good results from working on your pitches and mechanics without a mound. Actually you can receive great benefits in mechanics, rhythm, and repeating delivery without a mound or even a ball.
4) Throw to strengthen your arm. Long toss is a great way to do this. Get on a great
long toss program and stick with the program.
The final solutions are not easy. Youth baseball teams need to solicit the help of baseball people who know about arms and how they work, and then listen to them. Youth players need to throw a lot, but properly and almost year round. Coaches need to understand there might be baseball after youth leagues. The game they are playing is not worth abusing a talented athlete’s arm. They need to develop more youth players to pitch. Don’t get hung up on winning, but learn to compete in every game. Understand you can learn just as much about your players if they lose as you can if they win. Coaches need to protect their players. Don’t expect youth organizations to do so. They can only come up with “simple” solutions that don’t protect your pitchers as well as they should.

"YOUR WORD MEANS EVERYTHING - Coach Paul Bear Bryant"
At a TouchDown Club meeting many years before his death, Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant told the following story:

I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was havin' trouble finding the place. Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said "Restaurant."

I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me. Seems I'm the only white fella in the place. But the food smelled good so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?" I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today? He says, "You probably won't like it here, today we're having chitlins, collared greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't even know what chitlins are do you?

I looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from Arkansas, I've probably eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I'm in the right place." They all smiled as he left to serve me up a big plate.

When he comes back he says, "You ain't from around here then?" I explain I'm the new football coach up in Tuscaloosa at the University and I'm here to find whatever that boy's name was and he says, yeah I've heard of him, he's supposed to be pretty good. And he gives me directions to the school so I can meet him and his coach.

As I'm paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him, but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay. The big man asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to show I'd been there. I was so new that I didn't have any yet. It really wasn't that big a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him one.
   
When I got back to Tuscaloosa late that night, I took that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it under my keys so I wouldn't forget it. Back then I was excited that anybody would want a picture of me. The next day we found a picture and I wrote on it, "Thanks for the best lunch I've ever had."

Now let's go a whole buncha years down the road. I'm back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed. Y'all remember, (and I forget the name, but it' s not important to the story), well anyway, he's got two friends going to Auburn and he tells me he's got his heart set on Auburn too, so I leave empty handed and go on see some others while I'm down there.

Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it's this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still want me at Alabama?" And I said, "Yes I sure do." And he says OK, he'll come.

And I say, "Well son, what changed your mind?" And he said, "When my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said no, he pitched a fit and told me I wasn't going nowhere but Alabama, and wasn't playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since y'all met." Well, I didn't know his granddad from Adam's housecat so I asked him who his granddaddy was and he said,

"You probably don't remember him, but you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a picture that he's had hung in that place ever since. That picture's his pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear Bryant came in and had chitlins with him."

"My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to remember him or to send him that picture, but you kept your word to him and to Grandpa, that's everything. He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I'm going to."

I was floored. But I learned that the lessons my mama taught me were always right. It don't cost nuthin' to be nice. It don't cost nuthin' to do the right thing most of the time, and it costs a lot to lose your good name by breakin' your word to someone.                                                                  

When I went back to sign that boy, I looked up his Grandpa and he's still running that place, but it looks a lot better now; and he didn't have chitlins that day, but he had some ribs that woulda made Dreamland proud and I made sure I posed for a lot of pictures; and don't think I didn't leave some new ones for him too, along with a signed football.

I made it clear to all my assistants to keep this story and these lessons in mind when they're out on the road. If you don't remember anything else from me, remember this. It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable.


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