2007 County Champions!!!

2008 Whitfield County Early Bird Champions

Remember to bring your camera to each game to take action photos

Forward these pics. to cubspics@westsidecubs.net

2010 Game Schedule Now Available

Cubs Batting Leaders:Logan Hilton .532, Jackson Bell .500, Drew Guffey .486, TRey Hasty .412

Cubs Pitching Leaders: Logan Hilton 34 Innings -71 K's, Jackson Bell -29 innings 44 K's, Drew Guffey 21 Innings -37 K's,

Cubs vs. Dug Gap Rangers

May 6, 2006

Previously Scheduled April 21, 2006 (rainout)

Rangers 8

Cubs 7

Batting Line-up for Dug Gap Rangers

Logan Hilton
Blake Ownbey
Drew Guffey
Clay Phillips
Ethan Neal
Ethan Hayes
Jackson Bell
Chip Brown
Dakota Ware

While I may not have told the boys how proud we where of how they played, each of our coaches was very proud of how they played against Dug Gap. The game came down to four critical mistakes and these four mistakes meant the difference between winning by three runs and losing by one run. While I emphasized these mistakes at the end of the game, it was to emphasize how close we are to being the elite team in the county.

Dug Gap came to the park with the mentality to "win at all costs". One of their players never had the opportunity to bat. I could never face any of our parents, if our parents came to the park to see your child play, and we ran him out into right field for three-outs and then pulled him out of the game before he had an opportunity to bat. In my opinion, this is disgraceful, and while Whitfield County Recreation rules allow this to occur, it is a severe lack of character on a coaches part to limit a players involvement, simply because he may strike-out or hit into an out that costs the team a chance to win. Each child deserves an opportunity to play and develop. This destroys a child's self-esteem, and excludes him from active involvement in the win or loss.

While we had a very tough week schedule-wise (the toughest schedule of all the teams), I realized The Cubs are the only team in the league with three good pitchers. We played the three best teams in the county and we had the opportunity to win each game. This was especially evident today, when Dug Gap's best pitcher was replaced. All other teams are very shallow, with regard to pitching, once you get through their two designated starters.

This will be especially important during tournament time. We always see the opponent teams best pitcher. During tournament week, the good teams must find a way to generate 18 innings of pitching during tournament week. I like our chances.

As we move into the easier portion of our schedule, we may use other pitchers to begin to prepare them for next year. Our regular starters will see a lot of work, but we may supplement an inning or partial inning here and there with boys we want to evaluate for next year or to gauge their progress.

The Dug Gap game was a great game. A fun game to watch and a fun game to play. We had great plays all day long and while we came up a little short, we learned a great deal from our mistakes and successes.

We moved Ethan Neal into the fifth batting spot and he drove in our last two runs with another base hit. He represented the tying run, but was stranded on base.

In watching each player's improvement, we have come a long way. Each parent must remember, these boys are "under construction". We continue to use Ethan Neal as our example, because last year, Ethan was a part-time player who could neither throw, catch, or hit.

Real baseball begins at 10, 11, and 12. Each parent must be patient with their child's progress and the progress of the team. The longer they play together, the better we will become, and we have a great nucleus. Each parent needs to set aside some quality one-on-one time with their child and simply play catch. You will surprised when the light suddenly "turns on" and they throw a player out at third base from right field, or they drive in the winning run in a tight game. It requires work and patience.

Also, as these boys "grow", the players with talent today, will be surpassed in talent, by boys who are struggling in yesterdays (or today's) game. It is easy to become frustrated when your boy strikes out three times in a game or backs out of the batters box on every pitch, or allows a ball to get past him in the outfield and looks like the "goat" when 4 runs score on his mistake. It's "just" 9 year old baseball! The important thing is to keep him interested in coming to the ball park with each opportunity. Baseball is much better for the boy than a Sony Playstation.