Starting June Off With A Hit

I'm not talking about a baseball card hit.

Half a million people have seen this already, but it's worth seeing again.

I love batting practice.

You know what's even better, pay attention to the cute girl in the right-side background.

Go on, I'll wait while you watch it again.

Yes, she's laughing at him.

I love batting practice.

In case you're wondering, that's at Dodger Stadium last year, not that it matters. That kind of thing happens all the time at parks around the country.

Which brings me to a little public service announcement.

Parents, don't bring your little kids to batting practice with a glove to catch home runs. If you supervise them, I have no problem with them catching balls tossed from the outfield. But I know I'll eventually see some 6 year old girl with her pink Barbie plastic baseball glove try to catch a monster shot to left-center. And then MLB will stop letting us in to watch BP or put up giant fences to protect the fans from home runs. Just because your 8-year-old son plays on a travel team doesn't mean he's ready to catch a big league fly ball. Seriously, I'm afraid for them. Talk to your kids, let them interact, and all that, but make sure they know to watch for and stay away from home runs.

And beyond that, kids or not, if you go to the game early enough (more than 45 minutes before first pitch), whether or not you're watching batting practice, read this article, written by the guy who filmed the video above.

Oh, and please tell your kid that they shouldn't expect to catch a ball. It makes for a good lesson in winning/losing and being a sore loser. And if they have one ball, they should quit there to be fair to the others. There was a really overambitious kid in San Diego that I saw catch five or six balls, and he did it literally by pushing and shoving and jumping his way to the ball.
(Ryan steps down off his soap box.)