Long Island Chiefs Baseball Blog

Welcome everyone to the fall season

We welcome new teammates John, Sal, Eric, and Joe. Every new season brings new challenges. In our case the challenges are clear. We are in the top league and we we will be facing stiff competition throughout the season. Our goal will be to make the playoffs. However just to set expectations It will not be an easy task to accomplish, due to the fact that team practices will be non existent for the most part. That being said the coaching staff hopes that everyone will be practicing on their own for a couple hours a week. The best part of self practice is that everyone works on tactics they like (I am sure nobody is running). Remember school work is most important, so ensure that you keep good grades (it’s most important)..

We dropped two this weekend to the Saints. Although we lost the games the coaching staff was able to evaluate the team and assess our strengths and weaknesses. This team shows a high level of potential for success and could possibly excel in tournament play. We are solid in the batting order, we have speed, defense, and good arms.  I think this team would do well in tournament play. I also think we will do well throughout season play. We have an abundance of pitchers, which is great. We tried to get all our pitchers on the mound just to see how they pitch against a good hitting team. As a general statement our pitches should practice throwing strikes consistently, which comes with repetition. Overall the pitches performed well. Our biggest issues in both game revolved around mental errors which include 3 on the bases, 3 missed signs due to forgetting, and 1 in the field. As a guideline mental errors is what loses close games. We will improve this area as the season continues. Physical errors happen every game and normally wash out between both teams. As long as we keep these down to a minimum we will be in every game.

I look forward to coaching the boys this weekend. We may have a double header- lets see. In closing I will leave with a few questions that the team can answer. To reply to the question just click on the “comment” link at the end of the article and type in the answers.

1) What is a productive out? Please give an example.

2) When a pitcher throws a curve ball, what guideline does a batter follow to decide if he should swing?

3) During the season how many pitches will the coaching staff allow an individual to throw?

4) On a single who is the cutoff man if there was a runner on second base.

5) On a two man cut who covers second base and who backs him up.

Go Chiefs

Leadership, synergy, empowerment, and potential are common themes in team environments. Facilitating and directing mindsets of young teenagers into these complicated themes is a challenge for even the most educated people. Four parents with very busy schedules successfully met the daunting challenge to facilitate a baseball team of 13 kids. Although it is never stated or documented, measuring success of a youth baseball team is not as simple as winning. The environments that have evolved over youth sports seem to point in that direction. Winning is an indicator of success however it is only one of several, which include sportsmanship, friendships, a sense of accomplishment, teamwork and competition. To meet these requirements of success the Chiefs met once a week at Mckenna to practice a mindset that would synergize their efforts and bring this team to its full potential, and hopefully make the playoffs.

For the first three weeks of the season we showed some team progress, but it was not until the chiefs played the Warriors where we witnessed a team metamorphism. Although the score ended in a 6-6 tie it was definitely the turning point in the season. This was the game where the team started to jell. The coaching staff watched empowered kids take charge of plays. We saw leadership, communication, and the desire to compete. The missing piece to success was a week away. With the schedule pushing us to play 4 games in 5 days “game repetitions” were on the way.

For the most part the kids eliminated mental errors from the game. They learned how to play the game at an advanced level and operate as a unit. The only obstacle to victory would be they. The coaching staff’s responsibility at this point moved from teachers to mentors. We reminded the kids to play their game, stay focused and trust themselves.

Throughout the playoffs the Chiefs dominated on defense and consistently put the ball in play on offense. Play execution was for the most part flawless. A championship victory ultimately was the result. The boys pushed themselves to reach their team potential and the coaching staff was quite pleased not only with the victory but with the overall results of the team’s success.

Thank you parents for:

- letting us teach the kids how to play baseball

- bringing the kids to practice

- bringing the kids to the games

- and your support

Sincerely

L.I. Chiefs Coaching Staff

Bobby, Ed, Joe and Darren

It was a beautiful day in August of 2008, the 24th to be exact…we were all up early that day, we gathered at Salk Middle School baseball field in Levittown NY to finish what we thought we already finished the Friday before.  What we thought is that we beat the Massapequa Marauders one of our nemesis 9-5 in a 5 inning game that was called due to darkness…all year long we thought, 5 innings is an official game…the league responded to us that all PLAYOFF games needed to be finished in full, so here we are, 10:00AM to play 2 more innings against them.

Earlier in the week we played LSW Red - We rolled over them - 10-3 or something like that…Chiefs Win GAME OVER DONE. Then we took on The Long Island Warriors - now this team has been a pain in our side since they broke away from us last summer.  The teams were split up and we both created new teams.  Its like the Mets / Yankees, every meeting the Chiefs didn’t show up, we lost to them twice badly in the spring season and then during our summer meeting, we had the lead then blew it and the game ended in a tie…..We had to show up this time - This time we had to show we just had some bad outings against them….The Warriors scored 3 runs in the 1st inning and that’s it….we scored 14 - run ruled after 5 innings. GAME OVER DONE

Now back to the two innings we need to play against the Marauders….unlike our last outing against them (where the Marauders came back in the bottom of the 7th to tie ) these two innings went relatively uneventful, we felt confident we would win and did.  The Marauders did manage to get back two additional runs, but - no worries.  Final score Chiefs - 9 Marauders 7 GAME OVER DONE.
Winning the higher seed, the Chiefs earned the home team spot for the final game of the summer season 2008.
Now that we are on a 2 game winning streak in the playoffs…first beating the Warriors by run rule and overtaking the Massapequa Marauders (finally) by a score 9-7 we started the final game against the Bellmore Bulls on a this same sunny day of August 24, 2008, at 12:00PM.
The Bulls lead off strong in the top of the 1st inning earning 3 runs on 2 hits and 2 errors.  Mike Ruvio was brilliant striking out the first batter and the last batter in the inning.  3-0 Bulls
The Chiefs started off the bottom of the 2nd inning with a long fly out by Mike Ruvio deep into center field, long way to go for an out….  The Chiefs were here to play.  Both Baldwin and Livecchi managed to reach base in the bottom of the 1st inning.  With one out, Andrew Maione came to bat.  I was thinking to myself - if Andrew were to hit a home run here, this would get us back in the game.  so…Andrew went deep in the count 3 balls -2 strikes I was wondering, if thinking about a home run was a bad omen…well, from my thoughts to Andrews bat - long fly ball to deep left field, way over the outfielders head..two runs immediately scored and the outfielder held up his arm as if to say the ball went under the fence and was out of play.  Andrew continued to come home, the umpire reviewed the ball in the outfield and determined a home run for Mr. Maione.

3-3. It’s a new game.

Mr. Ruvio came back and started the top of the 2nd inning and with the help of the Chiefs defense - the Bulls went scoreless for the next 5 innings…Mr. Ruvio threw 120 pitches, Struck out 6 and walked none!….The Chiefs scored at least one run every inning since the Maione blast into deep left field….we couldn’t be stopped.  We perfectly executed the suicide squeeze in the 3rd inning (thank you Mr. Cummings)  Our numbers were staggering - 13 hits 3 strike outs, we had a home run, triple, doubles, singles…awesome.
We stopped the bulls….dead - not a threat in sight for 5 innings…..Top of the 7th, the Bulls only have 3 outs to redeem themselves against us, 1st batter up, hit the ball hard to short stop, Mr. Livecchi fielded the ball, but was just too late to put the batter out at 1st base.  Man on first….was this the Bulls last push to come back - did the wind change in their favor - I was worried, they have done this to us twice this season.  Coming back to win or tie a game after we had a comfortable lead….The next batter hit a pop up to Mr. Remi at 2nd base….1 out, man on first.
So here I am again, thinking to myself - you know what would be nice here, a game winning, season winning 6-4-3 double play. You know - Shortstop to second to first….we have been practicing this the whole year…I don’t know what I was thinking - the batter went to 2 balls no strikes…please - please - please…..next pitch….hard hit ball to Mr. Livecchi at shortstop - this time he got and got it good…Livecchi to Ruvio to Mastrantonio - 6-4-3 DOUBLE PLAY - unbelievable…..!!!!!!!

wooooo hoooooo  CHIEFS WIN - WIN CHIEFS WIN IT ALL!!!!!  11- 3 GAME OVER DONE!!!!

What else can I say, this was a exciting game for all of us - we came to play –everyone contributed - we came to win.  The boys earned it.
Congratulations Chiefs.  Thank you parents.  Keep an eye out for email for season party coming on Saturday Sept. 6th.

Casey - he didn’t strike out this time - !