Time again for a thread to share our exploits on the diamond.

I am once again suiting up for the helplessly disorganized PABC Mariners in Portland. 38+ league, wood bats this year after years of metal bats. I will pitch, play 3B/SS and anchor the bottom of the order once again. Usual off-season BS wondering if we have a full roster, getting skunked at the tryouts and hoping for a miracle to avoid forfeits. Just get to the games already so I can remember why I put up with this crap.

Missed the end of last season due to knee injury. Hit only .300 but .462 OBP. 3.78 ERA and an opponent's BA of .198 in a league where most teams average .400. Only gave up 5 doubles and no 3B or HR while striking out 21 and walking 7.

Expecting my hitting stats to drop a bit due to wood bats but pitching stats to improve. 4:1 K:BB is my main goal. Getting more XBH is my second, but I know my value is pitching and defense.

Who else is playing?

2010:

Batted .398/.508/.592 with 3 HR, 11 doubles. League average is tough to calculate, but from a liberal basis it was .351/.460/.439; it was likely quite a bit worse than this. 1100 OPS vs. the league average 899 OPS gives me an OPS+ of 145. Meaning: I guess I am 45% better than the average hitter in my league. Hooray. Competition was primarily 24-28 year old ex-HS and ex-college players. Pitching was very good in the league; every team had a guy that had command of two pitches with reasonable velocity (high-70's to low-80's). Our pitching staff had three college pitchers and one ex-pro (88-90 mph).

Pitching didn't go so well - I didn't get a whole lot of opportunities, and I wasn't prepared enough. I spent the offseason strength training and generally being pretty large; it paid off very well with regards to my power numbers but my defense and pitching suffered as a result. 38 IP, 7.34 ERA, 35:29 k/bb ratio. Not good.

2011:

This offseason I dropped 40 pounds of bodyweight to be around 6'1" 225 lbs. I have spent many hours swinging and throwing this offseason and maintaining as much strength and power as possible in my barbell lifts. I have switched from a tougher league to an easier one, as I will be having a kid in July and don't want to miss many games. Additionally, I will be the #1 starting pitcher on my team now and hope to be in the top 5 pitchers of the division in both ERA and k/bb ratio categories. I would like to post a 4.00 ERA and have a 2:1 k/bb ratio.

I want to build on my successful year at the plate and think I have become an even better and more dangerous hitter. I want to hit at least 20 XBH and bat .400 this year; both goals I think are completely achievable.

Really looking forward to this year. I haven't been this prepared for a baseball season since college.

played my first game in 11 years tonight.

2 for 2, both singles with two strikes. 1 RBI, 1 SB. We lost 13-3. I sure as hell better not be hitting 8th again.

I'm playing softball again this year.

I really want to pick it up again and find a hardball league to play in, but I'm really nervous I'd embarrass myself. That's something I don't have to deal with when I play men's league hockey - the whole being a liability to your team thing - and that's a comforting thought.

I mean, aside from corec softball in university (which doesn't count ldo), I haven't played since I was playing rep hardball (you Americans call it travel I think) when I was 12. That's over a decade ago now, lol. Any tips for guys just getting back into it? Anyone else going through that experience?

this is essentially me as well

I hit a couple times a week for the last two months. Took it easy throwing for a few weeks until my arm felt good. Still trying to work my body back into shape.

I've been hitting since October and throwing off a mound since February (though I was throwing off flat ground in Decemer).

I am a motor moron and it takes me a long time to develop my swing again.

My biggest tip would be to take video of yourself swinging a bat. Compare it to Pujols. Laugh. Try to look more like Pujols. Tape yourself. Laugh some more. Continue ad nauseam until you don't want to throw up when you watch yourself hit BP fastballs.

This is me for the record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZkbeFMTCrQ

Man playing baseball sounds like so much fun. What's the best way to get better for someone who is likely terrible?

Relevant info: Fairly athletic and tend to pick things up very quickly, don't remember the last time I swung at an overhand pitch (slo pitch softball ldo), haven't played organized baseball since I was 5 (so a little less than 20 years ago), and every time I pitch and pretend I know what I'm doing I hurt my arm (I did hit 60 at work a few weeks back and was painting the corner too)

This helped me a ton.

It is important to be honest with yourself. That being said, I am not uploading my swings from three years ago. Jesus god they are bad.

Alright, alright. There's a 2p2er on this board who is a former MLB player and thinks highly of my hitting instruction. As a way to pay it forward (and make good on my advice), if you post a video here of your swing from the side, I will help you analyze it and give you some tips free of charge.

I recommend taking video of you hitting your best pitch (where you like it the most) for the desired result (double/HR). Yes, I want your biggest selection bias here and what you think represents your best swing.

For example, I think my best swing is the first ball I hit middle-in and down for a HR in my video above.

To be fair, I will try and take video of myself, upload it here as a GIF, and compare it to A-Rod/Bonds/Pujols to show where I fail. Which is a lot of places.

who's the former MLBer? Thought tdarko didn't quite make it.

also, I don't hit this way because it's not how I learned but if you were teaching someone from scratch would you teach them to start very wide like Pujols and basically not stride? It looks like that's basically what you're doing in your vid though I think Pujols is a bit wider.

RedBean is a former MLBer.

I use a trigger like Bryce Harper's. I used to use Chipper Jones' step-stride-step trigger

I've tried the step/stride/step. Did not work for me at all. I envision myself more like Ryne Sandberg. Very plain, very quiet pre-pitch. I was messing around with the Pujols and I kind of liked it, but it's a little late in the game to be switching.

Nice work. What league?

I started playing again in 2008 after not playing since 1986. Met kyleb in Seattle and started hitting off a tee, soft toss and throwing. He is a great teacher, I can attest. Helped me a lot, using the video techniques he is offering.

I tried out for a Seattle league that summer and didn't even get picked. My swing was super long from softball and I sucked hard in the cage at the tryout. Played fall ball in a no-tryout rec league and sucked at the plate but played good defense and put myself on the mound in a game and did well, that really lit the fire to pitch again. So that winter/spring I threw a lot more with kyle and moved to Portland and easily got on a team as a pitcher.

Between my first and second Portland seasons I took pitching and hitting lessons. Pitching coach was Tom Gorman a former MLBer. He helped me add a change up and cutter. The swing coach helped me a lot, but fixing your swing is hard work. Mine is better but not a ton better. I still struggle to catch up to a lot of pitches and have a lot of bat drag.

The biggest thing is to get your arm stretched out and hit. But start with a tee and soft toss. I think that helps you much more than going right to the cage.

I would not worry about embarassing yourself too much. In my limited experience people are pretty happy to have other people to play with who try hard and also show an enjoyment of the game they love. And in adult leagues, being reliable is huge. If you show up and give a full effort I think you will be appreciated.

I have friends that play in a fairly competitive league, it isn't very organized (from what I can tell), they ask me to play all the time but I am busy and I never throw off the mound, hit or anything, definitely not in any kind of baseball shape. They asked me to pitch last week, this was on Tuesday.

Pitched 4 innings and was tired. 7 k's, 0 bb, 1 hit, 0 r (I think I threw just under 60 pitches). Not a brag, players weren't good and I am still sore. My arm is in decent shape, I throw constantly (never off the mound) so my arm is in decent shape, I guess. But my ass hurts so bad. ****. Still, today. Hurts. Getting old sucks.

Uggg, you guys make me jealous. I'm all old fat (200lbs, my best playing weight seemed to be about 182-185) and out of shape now. I think I've permanently made the transformation to golf but I ****ing suck at golf.

My swing is the one thing that I doubt has any rust on it. Always been able to pick up a bat and time a fastball after seeing like 1 of them. But my arm must be in terrible shape right now. Last time I threw a baseball was about 18 months ago on a camping trip. And it would take me a while to get back to playing respecatable D at 2nd (or even 3rd). Sprinting... haven't done that in a long ass time. lol. And pitching would be out of the question for weeks.

Maybe I'll take some video of my swing though and post them here. My lefthanded swing is so much better than my righthanded swing. They are very different. Though I am a natural righty.

I think I geared them to the kind of pitching I would see. In the league I played in the lefties all threw slower garbage that tended to be higher and away in general. (Think an awful changeup). So my swing was much less about power and more about lining the ball back up the middle for a single.

Lefthanded hitting is so much sweeter. The righties all love to pound that fastball and seemed to keep it down in the zone. Or they'd throw a decent curve but it was easy to recognize b/c it was so different from their FB. My LH swing I crouch down a bit more and it's more about opening up the front foot (barely any stride), getting a good plant, allowing my hips to twist, then just dropping down with a strong top hand and lacing liners (well that's the plan). My power LH was better even though I felt like my swing was quieter and more basic. It seems like I was able to let the pitchers supply power and really just turning around on it. Definitely a better lowball hitter LH and better highball hitter RH

You guys rock on though, will be living vicariously through this thread

Ill throw a bunch of bullpens with an ex-college/milb player from my local gym to improve for the future. He will help with my mechanics, and basics, since I guess I'm still pretty much a 15 year old in a 24 year olds body in regards to pitching experience.

I'm probably still too skinny now at 6'4'' 190, ideally wanna be 210 or so with more muscle & greater strength to help out with velocity, as I probably don't throw much above 75 now.

kyleb,

u guys ever have games in boston? dorchester, roxbury, roslindale or hyde park areas?

I wonder if there are leagues around the city? i see a Dominican team practicing all the time in roslindale, definetly older group but not sure the exact age range or who they play.

Omaha Men's Senior Baseball League. League is 30+, though I snuck in there at 28.

subbed for an over 40 game today. they play wood bats which I have never played with in a game. I came up in the top half of the last inning with based loaded, 2 outs, tie game and cracked one almost to the fence to clear em. Our 59 year old pitcher who had gone the entire 7 could not hold the 3 run lead in the bottom half and we lost 8-7. Was a ton of fun though.

for the season, I am now 4-5, with 1 HBP, 1 BB, 3 SB, 4 RBI, and an OPS of 1.817. Sick brag or sick beat to have to count stats from an over 40 game? Either way, it's a good time and I recommend it to anyone who is thinking about it.

SB on over 40 guys? Come on man.

I pulled a hamstring doing it if that helps my cause.