Playing Baseball With My 6-Year Old Cousin

[ripdog]

I was disgusted with my uncle after this. My uncle is 44 and plays on 2 or 3 competetive baseball teams each spring, summer, and fall. Last Sunday at the family reunion I spotted a fat whiffle bat and ball and asked my uncle's 6-year old son if he wanted me to pitch to him. He nodded and we went and found a spot to play. Now I'm expecting the kid to be pretty good at the very least. I'm holding my 11-month old and pitching to him. My cousin doesn't even know the proper stance or that his hands should be together. I get him set up (hands together, neutral stance) and he whiffs a bunch of times. I hand my kid off to his mom and get my cousin into a decent stance, hands together, and tell him to swing a few times. I note where his cut is and put the ball there. After a few pitches he rips one across the street and we call it good. Now I feel like taking my uncle to task. I taught my brother how to hit when he was 3. By the time he turned 6 I had to whip the ball in pretty fast on him in order to make it a competetive game. By the time he turned 7, he was kicking my ass--I would have had to throw very hard to strike him out. So I'm pretty shocked that a life-long competetive player has not taught his kid how to play. I can't imagine not teaching my kid the game. WTF is wrong with my uncle?