Baseball, Baseball and more Baseball

Matthew, our 12 year old has played organized baseball every year since he was 6 and like his father, brothers and uncles at that age, lived for the excitement that comes with spring time and the chance to get out and compete with other kids on the baseball field.

Matthew is a very solidly built kid for 12, a bit on the upper end of the height scale for his age, but is an incredibly strong kid with an abundance of atheletic ability and great hand-eye coordination.

This year's baseball plans started out just like any of the past 6 years with the anticipation of trying out for the upcoming season. We watched 40 to 50 kids go through the tryout process without any of the kids who really stood out from the rest of the crowd. The line of coaches who were sitting comfortably in their lawn chairs in right-center field calmly took notes as each kid went through the motions of hitting five 60 mile per hour pitches from a pitching machine, fielding three ground balls from short stop and making the throw to first base, fielding three fly balls in left field and then throwing three pitches from the pitchers mound in the bull pen.

Matthew nervously waithed the uncomfortably cold 90 minutes until his group was called to take their turn on the field. As he was getting up to go he sheepishly looked at me and said, "I'm gonna try to hit one out." I told him that he had better concentrate on just hitting the ball well. He just laughed and trotted onto the field.

I was a bit nervous for him as he stepped into the batters box and the first pitch came toward him. He lined the first pitch into right center field right over the heads of the coaches who were sleepily watching what was going on. He hit the next 2 pitches off of the left center field fence like a rope. I though that both balls were going out of the park. The coaches all seemed to wake up and sit up on the edge of their chairs. Matthew hit the last 2 balls on a line into the out field.

The coaches seemed to be paying a little closer attention as they hit three ground balls to Matthew and he cleanly fielded them and threw all three smoothly to first base. He equally handled the three fly balls that were hit to him in left field, and by the time that he moved to the pitchers mound, all of the coaches were talking to him and asking where he came from and why they didn't know who he was. Matthew threw the first 2 pitches in the strike zone at a considerably higher velocity than any of the other 12 year olds that i had seen that day. He stepped the third one up about another 10 mph and threw it right down the middle.

Since we had moved into the area only less than a year earlier and had moved to Texas a year earlier than that, Matthew wasn't known to any of these coaches. They excitedly talked to him wondering how they could have possibly let him stay below the radar for the past year.

As we packed up Matthew's equipment and started toward the car, we were excitedly talking about how well he had done and how all of his work with the Derek Jeeter training pole over the past year had paid off. We didn't make it out of the parking lott before we were approached by someone from the stands who told us that he was scouting kids for a AAA-Elite Select team and wanted to know if we were interested in trying out for the team. We talked for a few minutes and gave him our contact numbers, not really expecting him to get back with us after he didn't bother to give us his contact information in return.

Over the next 2 weeks, we had at least 6 phone conversations and maybe a dozen e-mails from a couple of select teams who seemed to be very excited at the prospect of getting Matthew to play with them. We did our research and decided to let him play with the "Katy Curve" which is a AAA-Elite 12 year old team that placed third in the National Little League World Series in 2008.

Matthew is very excited to have the opportunity to work with such a high calliper baseball program and seems to be up for the challenge. He has been playing third base with some success and has been hitting pretty well; although we are expecting him to improve drastically due to the high level of personalized coaching that is now being made available to him.

They are planning a grueling 50 to 60 game schedule this year and the program is supposed to be pretty much a year-round thing. If he continues to display the heart and desire to play this great game, this will give him the tools to play high school and possibly college baseball.

Who knows? Matthew might be the next great left-fielder at Fenway Park.

Here is some of the basic information concerning a DW Plug. It is a slip type plug that can be set directly in the tubing without the aid of a landing nipple.

Also attached are images of theD Plug assembly which is attached to comlete the DW Plug assembly, the W running tool which is used to set the device and an R Pulling tool which is used to retrieve the device (The image featured is an RS pulling tool. The correct pulling tool for this application is an RB pulling tool which is the same tool with a longer inner core).

The DW Plug is only good for a 1500psi differential. If this differential is exceeded, the sealing element usually swells and distorts to the point where it is very dificult to retrieve. It is usually necessary to go to a heavier line (.108", .125" or 3/16" Braided line) and the device has to be dragged and beat out of the hole. It is not uncomon for the plug to break at the fishing neck releasing the locking slips which then have to be fished out individually before the rest of the plug can be retrieved.