Tag Archives: Fun

Coach, Fan, Player

Take me out to the Ballpark

April 11, 2022 Brooks Shumate 1 Comment

‘It’s a holiday’: Orioles fans flock to Camden Yards for Opening Day, filled with cautious optimism.

The Baltimore Orioles take a 1-0 lead into the latest series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Baltimore went 52-110 overall and 27-54 in home games last season.

Watch “Baltimore Orioles 1992 – The First Season at Camden Yards” on YouTube

‘This is a tradition in Baltimore’: Orioles fans celebrate return to normalcy during Opening Day –

ROLAND PARK BASEBALL LEAGUES

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What do people learn going to a professional baseball game? Well, if you have never been before, it’s FUN! Not to mention, Camden Yards is considered one of the BEST stadiums in Major League Baseball in the entire country. It’s both exciting and entertaining. It can be very competitive and suspenseful depending on the pitchers.

As a Head Coach for over 10 years, I am a “student of the game” and continue to learn new things going to a live baseball game. In my own experience, the benefits are countless!

Whether you are going with your son or going as a team, it’s a great bonding experience. Plus, the coach often can learn more about the player be better able to relate to them. Best of all, the kids witness first-hand, real time some of the best professionals in a chosen field of discipline – baseball. Watching MLB players performing at the highest level of skill is awesome, especially when you consider how much they are getting paid.

Coaches and baseball teams can build on all the PRACTICE hours, days and weeks trying to run drills by explaining situations and the reasons why. There is also a well-known FACT in the “Art of Pedogogy” – people can learn from reading it in a book, listening, watching or doing.

Teaching fundamental skills is very difficult if you don’t have much passion, interest and some natural ability. Read more

Coach, Fan, Player

Opening Day

April 1, 2022 Brooks Shumate Leave a comment

Baseball Really Is a Game of Inches

Baltimore Orioles win their first game 3-2 over the Toronto Blue Jays in the 11th inning. Read more. Mark Trumbo hits first opening day walk-off home run in Orioles history. Trumbo picks up where he left off last season, as he led the majors in home runs with 47 in the regular season and he also added one in the wild card game. Speaking of which, it had to feel good for the Orioles to take down the Blue Jays in similar fashion to how the wild-card game ended. The Trumbo walk-off winner here was historic, as it was the first walk-off home run on opening day in Orioles history. It’s also the first in the majors since 2014, when Neil Walker, then of the Pirates, did so to the Cubs. Read more

Unfortunately, our Junior Orioles U12 Little League team lost our home opener vs. the Bearcats 5-4. However, we were not able to finish the game in 6 innings of regulation play on account of darkness (7:25 PM – approximately 85 minutes – 5 complete innings) and the umpire was concerned about safety. Who knows if we had another 30 minutes of daylight what would have happened? Read more. Also, if you recall the letter from an earlier blog by Mike Matheny, he said, “We will lose a lot of games”.

Blake and I stopped to get something to eat on the ride home and anxiously awaited the NCAA Championship game. It was no surprise that the game was decided in the last 60 seconds. North Carolina (1) prevailed over Gonzaga (1) 71-65. Roy Williams deserves a lot of credit! I really enjoyed watching the FINAL FOUR this year. In particular, I loved what South Carolina’s Frank Martin, Head Coach said in an interview,

“People keep score when you play games 35, 36, 37 times a year, and sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. That score eventually goes away. When you impact people by the masses the way these kids have, that means you’re a winner as a human being and that’s what matters. When we get home and they realize what they’ve done in our community, their hearts will open up with joy because they’ll be so happy that the pain of losing a game eventually goes away.”

South Carolina lost to Gonzaga in the Final Four on Saturday, but Gamecocks head coach Frank Martin believes his players are still winners. Outstanding Performance Trophy In the press conference, he was asked what he has to say to the kids who are fans of the team. Martin took his time with his reply, while trying to hold back tears. Read more.

In addition, our Brewers Over 40 Baseball Team also lost 12-4 in our season opener vs. the Diamondbacks. However, the score was a lot worse after 9 innings than any of the previous games mentioned. Yet, the score was 0-0 after my first 3 innings of pitching on the mound.

Tonight’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award goes to Richard McLeod. He received the game ball and starting Thursday we will start handing out the trophy below (similar to the “Stanley Cup“) for the kids to take home till the next game (please be GENTLE so it does not break). He sparked the bench in the 2nd inning with a standup triple and later scored our first run to put us on the board.

Coach, Fan

Day at the Yard

May 6, 2016 Brooks Shumate Leave a comment

I was going to title this blog, “Day at the Ballpark”. But in Baltimore we call it the “Yard”. How many other teams use the same name?

A baseball park, also known as a ballpark or diamond, is a venue where baseball is played. A baseball park consists of the playing field and the surrounding spectator seating. While the diamond and the areas denoted by white painted lines adhere to strict rules, guidelines for the rest of the field are flexible. The term “ballpark” sometimes refers either to the entire structure, or sometimes to just the playing field. A home run where the player makes it around the bases, and back to home plate, without the ball leaving the playing field is typically called an “inside-the-park” home run. Sometimes a home run over the fence is called “out of the ballpark”, but that phrase more often means a home run that clears the stands and lands outside the building. The playing field is most often called the “ballfield”, though the term is often used interchangeably with “ballpark” when referring to a small local or youth league facility (read more).

The following is a list of Major League Baseball stadiums, sorted by capacity, their locations, their first year of usage and home teams. The newest MLB stadium is Marlins Park in Miami, home of the Miami Marlins, which opened for the 2012 season. All except eleven MLB stadiums (Angel Stadium of

Anaheim, Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park, Kauffman Stadium, Marlins Park, Nationals Park, Oakland Coliseum, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Turner Field, Wrigley Field, and Yankee Stadium being the exceptions) have sold the naming rights to their stadiums to corporations. Turner and Wrigley are named for the individuals and not the corporations; Kauffman is named for Ewing Kauffman who brought baseball back to Kansas City; while Fenway is named for the neighborhood and realty company at the time of ownership. This list will decrease to ten when SunTrust Park opens in 2017 as Turner Field’s replacement (read more).

The next time I visit the yard, remind me to thank Lawrence Berry, usher next to dugout. I don’t know if my son Blake appreciates how cool it is to see Manny, Chris, Adam and others so close, but I certainly appreciate their long road of hard work! Some of the pix above are from our 9-10 little league team, “Blaze” for Roland Park Baseball and I was excited to see good turnout, in spite of the rainy weather. Also, note the “Kids run Bases” which some of our players participated in and I’m sure it was a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, the games I attended on Saturday and Sunday (4/30 & 5/1/16)against the White Sox ended in losses. However, it was a nail bitter, where the lead changed 3-4 times. Thus, all this back-n-forth made it suspenseful. Moreover, the best part was the 2 out bunt by the CWS which turned out to be the game winning run. It goes to show, any way you can get on base counts. What was very monumental about this offensive strategy is Orioles closer Zach Britton sprained his left ankle while trying to field a bunt single by White Sox leadoff hitter Adam Eaton (read more). This was after Zach struck out the first two batters. Thus, CWS went on to win the game in the top of the 9th inning.

On Sunday, we saw another very unusual play defensively when Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy found an inventive new way to get an out at first (read more). A ball hit by Chicago White Sox’ Todd Frazier gets by Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado during the fourth inning of a baseball game, but shortstop J.J. Hardy, was able to get the ball and throw it to first to get put out Frazier on the play (read more). Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has a knack for making incredible diving stops down the line, but sometimes it’s nice to have some help (read more). Check out the box score.