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| DEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL FAMILIES: |
Welcome to a special World Series edition of News & Notes. Whether you are cheering for the Phillies or the Yankees, this is the time of year to celebrate our National Pastime. Find out what middle schoolers have to do with pitching and hitting: enjoy!
Kyle Armstrong
Middle School Director |
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| DIRECTOR'S DESK: KYLE ARMSTRONG |
Baseball 101: A Guide to Raising Middle Schoolers
The game of baseball is fascinating. It is a mysterious game of twists and turns, where the action occurs in unexpected places at uncertain times. Critics claim the game is slow-moving and boring, yet, upon closer examination, men in tight pants are constantly shifting, moving, sending strange signals to each other, and preparing for the pitch that is still two pitches away. Deception rules the day. Pitchers may seem stoic, but in fact the job of a pitcher is to lie and deceive. Can you think of another game like this? Baseball is an untimed event where every game unfolds differently, and each pitch subtly changes the course of the game. The great Jackie Robinson once said, "Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when you are losing, and nobody wants to quit when you are ahead."
Baseball is not unlike life in the middle  school. Adolescence is a seemingly untimed event, yet we know it will eventually come to an end. The story of a middle schooler is captured by twists and turns, deception, winning, losing, constant shifting, and uncertainty. Yogi Berra once stated that "baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical." Yogi's greatness is due precisely to his innocent, confusing, half-true statements about life and baseball; doesn't this describe the greatness of your middle schooler?
Baseball is a game of nine players on a side playing for nine innings, but it is that classic confrontation of pitcher versus hitter that provides the most food for thought. Looking at this duel of all duels, imagine - in a light-hearted way, mind you - that your middle schooler is the pitcher and you are the hitter.
It is the pitcher's job to keep the hitter off balance. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, depending on the pitcher's strengths or the hitter's weaknesses. Some  pitchers rely on the fastball, often challenging hitters with brute force. Think Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens (or, for you contemporaries out there, Joba Chamberlein). These types of pitchers typically do not disguise the fact that they would like to cause havoc in your world and offer no apologies.
Other pitchers rely on deception and guile in order to get what they want. These types of pitchers will throw anything to the plate in order to fool the hitter. Many times, just to let a seed of doubt germinate in a hitter's mind, a pitcher will shake off the catcher three times only to come back to the original sign indicated from the catcher. In the popular film Field of Dreams, wide-eyed rookie ballplayer Archie "Moonlight" Graham finally gets an at-bat against a wily, veteran pitcher. During a break in the at-bat,  the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson calls Archie over to the dugout to give him some advice about what pitch might be coming next, telling Moonlight to "watch out for low and away kid, but be ready for in your ear."
Can you relate to Moonlight Graham? Do you ever feel like you have no idea what's coming from your middle schooler? At times, I am sure you feel like they will throw anything at you to get what they want. In some cases, you can probably see the fastball coming from a mile away yet are helpless to do anything about it. A swing and a miss - strike three. No apologies offered.
The great manager Casey Stengel once said that "good pitching will always stop good hitting and vice-versa"; so, let's look at this dance from a hitter's view. In the game of baseball, a very good hitter only averages three hits out of every ten at bats. A hitter fails most of the time because, as Ted  Williams once stated, hitting a round ball with a round bat is generally considered to be one of the hardest things to do in any sport. As a result, hitters study video, practice their swings over and over, watch what other hitters do, and often work with hitting coaches who have been hired to help them achieve success. When a hitter connects on the sweet spot of the bat, though, there is no other feeling like it in the world. Cheers reign down, and, for a moment at least, you feel on top of the world. I mean, look at Reggie Jackson. Should we really refer to him as Mr. October just because he hit three home runs on three pitches in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series? Does this happen in any other profession?
Occasionally, we do hit home runs with middle schoolers. Watching them grow because of work we have done with them is indeed exhilarating. Even if we don't connect for the big one, there are many other ways to have successful at-bats. Sometimes, if the situation calls for it, a ground ball to second can be a productive out. This is also the case with middle schoolers. A small victory can lead to a larger breakthrough down the road, so we take that outcome and play on. Oftentimes it may seem that nothing you say to your middle schooler seems to work its way into that middle school brain, but, when you least expect it, you'll center one on the bat. The crowd won't cheer for you, though, and your name surely will not gain an association with a month, but you should pat yourself on the back because living and working with middle schoolers is hard work.
It seems like another lifetime, but for 26  consecutive seasons I played or coached the game of baseball. My Dad taught me the game at a young age, and the lessons I learned from him about baseball and life are numerous. Baseball is a humbling game, and it is a game that teaches you how to deal with failure. After a rough outing, the advice my Dad always gave me was to get back out there the next day and play. Just go out there and play, he preached, because good things will happen if you stick with it.
As the Fall Classic comes to an end and the weather begins to change, let's continue to "just play" with our middle schoolers. Setbacks are a part of life - for adults and middle schoolers alike - but we must compete for all nine innings. Let's help our middle schoolers develop into resilient, strong-minded individuals. As Mr. Cub Ernie Banks once said, "It's a great day for a ballgame; let's play two!"
Director's Bookshelf
Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager, by Buzz Bissinger
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I hope you enjoyed this special World Series edition, and we will see you next Friday at middle school conference day.
Sincerely,
Kyle Armstrong
Middle School Director
karmstrong@swain.org
610-433-4542 ext. 116 |
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