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Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on May 31, 2012 at 12:42pm

Excellent question and opportunity to check-in on how the next generation is taking to it.

We started Tivo-ing Baseball tonight, presumably to watch in the morning and look for our players. School just let out for the summer, so that routine hasn't taken hold yet (but maybe tomorrow). We started collecting baseball cards, although so far it has been limited to one trip to Target a couple weeks back. We're going to make more regular trips to a local card store, though, and try to get some interest going through that project. We also have TBD plans to head north (or south) to a minor league baseball game to scout a prospect for our open Farm slot.

Archie (8) is my main partner in this, as my 12-year-old is mildly interested in the cards and mostly interested in possible logo redesigns. I am hopeful that going to some games is going to help us watch a few together, or at least be more invested in a daily boxscore checking routine. So far, I've gotten instructions to acquire Chicago players (I've extended that to Cincinnati, too), which we've only be able to do via free agency.

Permalink Reply by Nick Krahn on June 1, 2012 at 12:23am

I'll second the excellent question....

Its a struggle for sure!  We had been catching Sports center in the mornings during breakfast and before school in my lab/classroom.  I always made sure to point out which players were ours and which players we were playing that week.  We have been working in more games on TV as well even if its not "our" teams (the Royals or Red Sox) with bonus points if the game involves a player on our team.  With school being out since last week we haven't caught Sportscenter together in awhile so I might need to rethink that quest.  I LOVE the idea of DVR-ing Baseball Tonight.  We wouldn't have to watch it everyday but it would be a great chance to talk baseball when a game wasn't on.  

For a touch of different I hooked up my old original Sega and Nintendo Gamecube to their TV and we bought a few old baseball games on eBay.  My son has taken to playing those during his game times and it made our search for cards more fun as I own most of those players but lack newer cards (so far) that have our team on them.  The games have also increased his interest in real baseball and our team as well as providing some good bonding time as I relive my favorite games and get to spend time with him.  

Making moves have also helped keep both kids interested.  I don't think they understand that the roster is pretty much set except for a move or two a week.  I've even taken to letting them toy with my other "personal" teams in other leagues.  We've been able to make a few trades here and elsewhere.  They love the give and get of a deal, especially when we can nab a favorite player.  Our recent trade for Alex Gordon was a HUGE boost for team morale since we can watch him play nearly every night.  Gordon gets HUGE bonus points for talking to the kids during our last trip to Kauffman.  It wasn't much but a wave and a smile mean a lot to 6 and 8 year olds.  

Permalink Reply by Thomas Watson on June 1, 2012 at 1:33pm

One of my favorite ways to get my 9-year-old involved is to show him highlights on my phone.  We ordered MLB.tv this year, and the app has been great for this.  I've also got the Fanstar app, which isn't too bad.  When I see that a player has made a big play, I can usually go to the Videos section and see the highlights.  My kid has enjoyed watching Big Papi's homers!  Often I can look and see if a player is coming up in the lineup and can put it on.  We've also been catching a lot of games on the MLB app in the radio feed in our car.  

We're working on the baseball card project.  So far, we have one card of one of our players.  We're going to go to a baseball card show next weekend and can hopefully pick up the rest.

We are in New Orleans, so we're in a bit of a no-man's-land when it comes to Major League teams-- nearest is 5.5 hours away in Houston.  I'm hoping we can catch a game at some point, but it's not looking too likely.  I'm jealous of you folks in the Northeast who have five or so ballparks within a few hours!

Nick-- re Alex Gordon:  I recently used him as an example to my son of why you should wear a cup while playing baseball (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1186901-alex-gordon-takes-a-foul...).

Permalink Reply by Steve Henry on June 10, 2012 at 7:10pm

The biggest thing we do is get on the internet together a few times a week.  It helps having Albert Pujols on our team, so he loves following him.   As a result of having Jay Bruce on our team, he has become a fan of him as well.  He also noticed a Matt Wieters Orioles jersey a couple weekends ago. 

My son actually loves reading the baseball box scores each day.  He told me earlier this week that Capauno had a lousy outing.  It is like having real-time updates from my son.  

I am fortunate that Joseph is a sports junkie.  He is also competitive to a fault, so he is asking everyday if we are winning or losing this week.

Permalink Reply by Steve Henry on June 24, 2012 at 11:24pm

We picked up a local player at 2B.  Evansville, Indiana is across the Ohio River from Owensboro, Kentucky.  We were in Evansville last weekend for a Frontier League Game (independent baseball league - like a low A).  The Evansville Otters play in historic Bosse Field that was featured in the movie, A League of Their Own.  It is the third oldest baseball stadium in the US after Fenway and Wrigley.  In any event, my son thoroughly enjoyed the Evansville Otters game, but we heard about a local Evansville boy that played college at Evansville and was having a good season for Minnesota at SS.  Since we are hurting in the MI position, we thought we'd take a flyer on our local player.  My son has aspirations of being a pro MLB, NFL, NBA, PGA (or whatever sport he is playing at the moment - hey , he's eight years old).  He loves reading about local players who made it the "major leagues." So this pick up will be extra special for him.

Permalink Reply by Nick Krahn on June 25, 2012 at 11:42am

Very Cool about the local pickup!!!!

During our recent trip to the card store to try and acquire a few more players my son got to roll for a card (if you spend $20 you can roll the dice, the first roll is the column, the second the row and you get whatever card you land on) and he was lucky enough to grab a rookie card of a local kid from just outside Wichita who just got called up to the A's as a Catcher.  He really wants to pick him up but hasn't been able to decide who he wants to drop yet!  

It has been fun to watch him take ownership of the team in more ways as the season progresses.  I had worried that this was going to be a dud after a few weeks when I had to nearly force him to make moves and check in on the team.  The combination of him finding joy in watching our local big league club (the Royals) and having fun in collecting cards (I can thank the local card shop, Rock's Dugout, for that one) have really increased his joy of watching and evaluating the big leagues.