Required Reading for Parents and Players

Welcome to the AAA Red Sox ! Your coaches are Rob Merlino and Fred LaGreca. We have both coached at different levels in the League for a number of years. Fred was the “third coach” on the AAA Red Sox last year and this is Rob’s third year as the coach. The Red Sox were one out away from winning the AAA World Series last year and we hope to put the boys in a position to win it all this year. We’ll both be involved in practices with various drills. We WILL need help at some or all of the practices, so be prepared to volunteer. Help at practice would involve supervising 2 to 4 kids through an individual drill or drills; help at games would involve coaching a base and being on the bench during the game. Please let us know if and when you are willing and able to assist and in what capacity. Note that league rules only allow 3 adults on the bench during games. We will be looking for a “third coach,” so think about whether you’d like to be that person. Rob will be the main information person. We'll email rosters and phone numbers.

AAA is a competitive league. We have umpires, we keep stats, we keep score, publish scores and standings on the web and hand out trophies to the winner of the AAA World Series. The goal of the Red Sox is to win. The goal of each boy is to do his very best to help the Red Sox win. Remember these three things:

Safety: Nobody swings a bat or throws a ball without checking to be sure that everyone around them will be safe;

Fun: We are here to have FUN. If anyone is not having fun, let the Coach know and he will work to remedy that;

Winning: "Winning" is an Attitude. If you are Safe, having Fun, and have a Winning Attitude, the Score will take care of itself!"

I will be putting an emphasis on pitching and would like to get as many kids on the mound as possible. You must demonstrate the ability to throw from the mound to the plate with consistency to get into a game. For the first few games kids will pitch one inning. Then they’ll pitch one and “earn” the next inning. Over the course of the season, pitching ability will become evident and the kids who can really shut the other team down will get 3 or possibly more innings in an outing- it will depend on the game situation. I will throw in a few “pitching potpourri” nights where we’ll revert to the one inning philosophy for all or part of the game. This becomes necessary when we have games that are bunched close together. We will use the ¾ walk rule: walk 3 in a row and you come out, walk 4 in an inning and you come out. This doesn’t mean you won’t get another chance-it just means you can’t help the team that particular day with your pitching. Getting the boys to understand the importance of the team will be an underlying theme in everything we try to do.

We’d like to do as much scrimmaging at practice as possible and I am working on a pre- season scrimmage or two. We’ll also devote time to all the skills through a variety of drills and exercises. Infield and outfield defense can only be improved upon by getting a lot of reps and we will get as many as humanly possible. The boys will have baseball homework: they must play catch for 10 to 15 minutes every day until the start of the season. Good arms come from thousands of hours of throwing, SO GET STARTED. On game days, at least one of us (most likely Rob) will be at the field an hour prior to game time. I do infield before every game. Come early for extra practice.

We’ll also be working on Base-running and Batting:

Base-running – AAA allows you to steal a base once the pitched ball crosses the plate. You can continue to steal bases as long as the ball is live. The ball remains live until the pitcher has the ball in his glove AND his feet are on the mound. Red Sox base-runners will EXPLODE off the base as EACH pitch crosses the plate and will decide to continue to the next base or return to the starting base from about two strides out. The runner will SLIDE into any base where there is the possibility of a play. AAA rules state that if you do not slide into a base where there is a play, the umpire will call you OUT for creating an unsafe condition - (possibly colliding with the defensive baseman). The AAA Red Sox will become expert at sliding and stealing bases! Therefore, you must always wear long pants. Sliding pants (worn under your long pants) are a very good idea. Your outer long pants will get dirty and torn. Expect to get dirty at every practice and game.

Batting – We will emphasize Pitch Selection, Batting Discipline, Bunting, and drawing Walks. The purpose of an At-Bat is to get On-Base. You cannot score from the Dugout!

Pitch Selection and Batting Discipline: We will learn the difference between a Pitcher’s Pitch and Batter’s Pitch. A Pitcher’s Pitch is outside of or along the edges of the Strike-Zone. A pitcher is trying to strike you out. A pitcher will try to get you to swing at a (lousy) pitch that is either too high (pop-up into an out), too low (ground out into an out), or too far inside or outside (foul off for a Strike). We will not swing at Pitcher’s Pitches unless you already have two strikes. If you have two strikes, you will learn to Foul-off Pitcher’s Pitches until a Batter’s Pitch comes along. A Batter’s Pitch is a pitch pretty much down the middle that you can readily put into play to get on base and/or advance a runner.

Bunting and drawing Walks: Hitting a Home-Run is glamorous and exciting. You may think that bunting or drawing a Walk is not so glamorous and exciting. However, the 2005 AAA Giants got into the playoffs because the smallest kid on the team drew a walk to get on base, and then ended up stealing home to win the final regular season game with two outs at the bottom of the 6th inning. The AAA Giants then went on to win the 2005 AAA World Series.

You will often hear Coach say: “If you bunt or draw a Walk to First, you can Steal Home on the NEXT Pitch, and you better be Home on the Third Pitch!”

Rainouts will be made up on Sundays at noon, 2PM or 4PM. The rainout hierarchy for field availability is Monday rainouts get first priority, Tuesdays second and so on. In the event of rain, we’ll try to call the game as soon as possible and we’ll contact you by phone.

MORE ON TRASH: I personally can’t stand seeing empty water bottles, paper trash, cans etc. lying around on our town fields, it sets a poor example for our children and shows tremendous disrespect for our fellow townspeople. Don’t be a part of the mess: KEEP NATICK CLEAN!

The Little League Parade and Opening day ceremonies begin at 8AM, Saturday May 5.