Schedule for Sunday's Optional Practice

If anyone asks, this is not an official team practice, just a few fathers (who happen to be coaches) and a few sons (who happen to play on the same baseball team) out on the turf to throw the ball around.

Here's the schedule...

4:00-4:40 - Eric, Tom, Jeffrey

4:40-5:20 - Micah, Jared, Tim, Dan

5:20-6:00 - Will, Josh, Drew, Zach

If I have missed anybody, please let me know.

Shorts or sweats will be fine for this practice, but once we are on the diamond all players should wear baseball pants.

The Official Spring Training Schedule Has Arrived!

I am pleased to announce that the White Sox Spring Training schedule is in! This schedule will cover practices during April. Regular season games will begin in May.

We will also add several pre-season scrimmages which have not yet been scheduled. I will let you know when these have been firmed up.

All practices will run 90 minutes, except that pitchers and catchers may report 30 minutes early for additional training on an optional basis.

White Sox Spring Training

• Sunday, April 1: OPTIONAL Practice 4:00-6:00 at St. Sebastian's
• Thursday, April 5: Practice 5:30-7:00 Newman 2  (upper field, closer to the school)
• Saturday, April 7: Practice 4:30-6:00 (4:00-6:00 for pitchers and catchers) at Newman 2 
• Thursday, April 12: Practice 5:30-7:00 (5:00-7:00 for pitchers and catchers) at Cusick
• Saturday, April 14: Practice 1:30-3:00 (1:00-3:00 for pitchers and catchers) at Newman 2
• Sunday, April 15: Practice 1:30-3:00 (1:00-3:00 for pitchers and catchers) at Cusick
• April 16-20 School Vacation -- we may offer an optional practice early in the week
• Thursday, April 26: Practice 5:30-7:00 (5:00-7:00 for pitchers and catchers) at Cusick
• Friday, April 27: Scrimmage v. Diamondbacks 5:30 
• Saturday, April 28: Practice 9:00-10:30 (8:30-10:30 for pitchers and catchers) at Cusick

Sox to Practice in Three Shifts on Sunday

Another productive session this evening! We packed in as many reps pitching, catching, and fielding as an hour would allow and benefited from some excellent instruction from Coach Ryan (TJO coach and former pitcher in the Orioles organization). The news gets even better, though, because we are back in Needham for our next practice, and we will be outdoors!

We will be at the St. Sebastian's soccer turf from 4:00-6:00 for another optional practice. I checked with Needham Baseball's field coordinator about use of St. Sebastian's fields on weekends, and his advice was keep the numbers small but that it should be fine.

So in order to keep the numbers small, we will practice in three 40-minute shifts: 4:00-4:40, 4:40-5:20, 5:20-6:00. Each player will be assigned one of these shifts. We'll have at most 4 players per shift, so numbers will be small. We'll hit, field, and maybe do some pitching in each 40-minute mini practice.

Please let me know (by tomorrow if you can) if your son plans to attend Sunday's practice. If you have a strong preference for one of these time slots in particular, let me know. Once I know who's planning to attend, I will assign players to time slots.

I should be able to let you know by Saturday morning which time slot you have been assigned.

I really appreciate your patience and flexibility with all of these crazy ad-hoc practices. Making good use of every opportunity to practice now and into April will pay big dividends as we prepare for our first games in May. We want to make sure every player is sharp, confident, and ready to roll.

I will publish the schedule of official April practices as soon as I get my hands on it, which I hear will be quite soon.

Optional Practice Added on Sunday, April 1

The coaches have been very pleased with what we have seen so far during Sunday's first team practice and today's pitcher/catcher session. The players are working hard, listening intently to the coaches, and they seem to be having a great time.

We have our next optional pitcher/catcher session this Thursday from 6:30 to 7:30 at TJO. We are also going to add an optional team practice this Sunday from 4:00 to 6:00 at Saint Sebastian's School. Outside at last! We will stake out some space on the turf soccer field, or if it's too crowded there, we'll move to football field or the grass field behind it. Park and Rec does not own this field, so we won't get in trouble for violating our permit.

We do not yet have a full spring training practice schedule. Coach Hohler is busy pulling that together (long story--the AAA Director stepped down a few weeks ago and Coach Hohler has graciously and valiantly volunteered to take over at the 11th hour). Until we do have the official schedule, I will continue to schedule these rogue practices wherever we can find some space. They will all be optional. Come if you can, don't worry if you can't.

White Sox to Report This Sunday!

The Needham AAA White Sox will gather for their first spring training practice this Sunday, March 25, from 9:30-11:00 AM at our team training facility, TJO Sports, located at 5 Carver Circle, Canton, MA.

Pitchers and catchers may report, on an optional basis, to two training sessions: one on Monday, March 26 from 3:30-4:30 and another on Thursday, March 29 from 6:30-7:30. If you haven't yet, please let me know if your son is interested.

While we require baseball pants for all outdoor practices, shorts or sweats are acceptable at these indoor sessions. Anyone who is interested in catching at the pitcher/catcher sessions must wear a cup.

The remainder of the spring training (April) practice schedule will be available soon. We will schedule a few scrimmages in April, but regular-season games will not begin until May.

See you on Sunday!