The 2011 Some Stupid Insurance Company Home Run Derby with Chris Berman will be telecast on ESPN at 8 PM Eastern Monday night. It’s required viewing for MacDougal Post fathers who play ball with their kids.
Your kid doesn’t want a dad on the diamond. He’s already got one of those back at the house. What your kid needs on the diamond is a real batting practice (BP) pitcher. One who puts the ball in his wheelhouse on every toss.
WHEELHOUSE on EVERY toss. That’s way beyond merely throwing strikes, Pops.
So forget the home runs at the 2011 Some Stupid Insurance Company Home Run Derby with Chris Berman on ESPN. Let the kid watch those. You’re taking in the show to see how BP pitching is thrown.
All kids are great hitters, if we give them what they need. And that includes great BP pitching.
If he’s less than awesome with the bat, it’s on you, not him. Superstardom at the plate has everything to do with what a kid’s BP pitcher makes him practice on. Keep putting it, as they say, there, and he’ll eventually work out how to line it back.
Here at the Post we usually end up viewing to see whether or not the winners have better pitching. Since everybody brings his own, the competition seems inherently unfair. If someone's old high school coach freezes up, you'd think that would have to cost his batter any chance of winning. And one pitcher having a really great day would have to make some kind of a difference. Plus we've thrown enough BP to identify with these guys. The real story has to be about them pitching in front of tens of thousands of screaming spectators. Should a familiar baseball name head out to the screen, we'll get awfully suspicious.
(Note: Sometimes these derby sluggers won't swing until they're ready, even when it's there, and that's part of what every hitter has to be doing too. Get over it now. Some day the kid will start pulling this shinola on you.)
