Woe to the little boy who is born in July. Hope he has no interest in baseball, because he will be fighting an uphill fight for as long as he plays the game.
When he goes to play T-ball, he will be the youngest kid on the team. He will never play pitcher, shortstop, or first base; all of those positions will be filled by kids who were born in August, September and October. He will, by th end of the season, have many fewer At Bats than the older kids, because they will bat earlier in the batting order. After all, they are almost a year older than the July Baby, and the coaches fill those positions with the kids who are most skilled (relatively speaking). When they get to Little League, they will still be the youngest in their age group, and their playing experience will be half of what the "older" kids had. They didn't get as many times at bat, never played the "skill" positions, and in fact never had the same success as the older kids, which is what motivates you for the future.
This curse will follow them for as long as they play baseball.
I always laugh when I (occasionally) watch the finals of the Little League World Series on television every August. Virtually all of the pitchers and the key players on every team are thirteen years old during the tournament, because they all have August birthdays.
Amazing coincidence.
I have never confirmed it, but I've been told that the same phenomenon shows up in Hockey, because Canadian kid competition has a similar July 31 cutoff. Most of the Canadian players in the NHL have August and September birthdays.
If true, it's amazing.
When he goes to play T-ball, he will be the youngest kid on the team. He will never play pitcher, shortstop, or first base; all of those positions will be filled by kids who were born in August, September and October. He will, by th end of the season, have many fewer At Bats than the older kids, because they will bat earlier in the batting order. After all, they are almost a year older than the July Baby, and the coaches fill those positions with the kids who are most skilled (relatively speaking). When they get to Little League, they will still be the youngest in their age group, and their playing experience will be half of what the "older" kids had. They didn't get as many times at bat, never played the "skill" positions, and in fact never had the same success as the older kids, which is what motivates you for the future.
This curse will follow them for as long as they play baseball.
I always laugh when I (occasionally) watch the finals of the Little League World Series on television every August. Virtually all of the pitchers and the key players on every team are thirteen years old during the tournament, because they all have August birthdays.
Amazing coincidence.
I have never confirmed it, but I've been told that the same phenomenon shows up in Hockey, because Canadian kid competition has a similar July 31 cutoff. Most of the Canadian players in the NHL have August and September birthdays.
If true, it's amazing.