The rain and cold have settled in around here, meaning that it’s unlikely that we’ll play ball tonight. It’s too bad, because my bat has finally started to wake up. I think next year I need to take a day near the start of the season and just hit some balls at the cages. My average is up about 100 points this year, despite a poor-ish start to the year, but the hits I’ve been getting lately have been of a different variety than early in the year. To start the season, I was hitting hard grounders and beating out infield hits by forcing the infielders to rush their throws - it works, but speed isn’t exactly my strength any more. The last few games, I’ve been spraying the ball into holes in the outfield - well hit balls, some with a little too much air under them, but for the most part nothing that the fielders have an easy play on. My off field hitting has improved quite a bit, which is funny because at the start of the season I was trying to take everything off field and wound up not getting good contact. My typical progression has been to pull the ball for the first couple of at bats, then once the defence thinks they have me pegged as a pull hitter, punch one into the virtually vacant right field. After that, they tend to play me more straight up, so I can pull the ball with some more power.

Meanwhile, it’s freezing in here, cause it’s supposed to still be summer, but it’s only 12 ??C outside.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Conserve your precious hatred for the game!” - Apu