Little League in Singapore

One of the great things about being part of the community that goes to the American School in Singapore is that there are always so many great activities for the kids. There are three "seasons" of sports that are run by the Singapore American Community Action Council (SACAC). Most of the activities occur at the school grounds, but they are all run by SACAC.

This spring, Jack was finally able to sign up for his first season of Little League Baseball. On top of that, the league was a bit short on coaches this year, so Jack’s dad (me, woohoo!) is lucky enough to be the coach of the 2nd and 3rd grade Pirates baseball team.

We’ve got 11 great kids on the team (when they all show up, which is rare), and everyone seems to be having a great time. Every Tuesday night, we get together at the school for a practice. We work mostly on our fundamentals, like how to throw and catch and how to swing a bat. One of the toughest parts of practice is that there is a heck of an athletic difference between a young 2nd grader and an older 3rd grader. Regardless, the kids do a pretty good job of being good teammates and working together as a team.

By far, the highlight of practice is that the kids get a chance to use “the machine.” This is a “machine pitch” league where all of the pitching is done by a pitching machine. It’s good that the kids get to see a “somewhat” consistent pitch speed so that they can improve their batting. Everyone loves getting a chance to get a few at-bats that are just like in the real game.



We’ve got a game almost every Saturday morning playing against one of the other 5 teams in the league. Please trust me when I say, “It’s hot out there.” The kids have a 1:15 hour time limit to play a 6 inning game, but they almost never last that long. After about 45 minutes in the 90deg heat, the kids are really dragging. Getting the kids to pay attention while they’re in the field is hard enough, but when they’re tired, it’s almost impossible. Most games, the coaches make a mutual decision to call it after 4 or 5 innings.

This Saturday, we played against the Athletics. We had a great first two innings scoring 9 runs and only letting up 1 run. Unfortunately, the next 3 innings weren’t as good, and we ended up losing 9 to 10.

All of the kids like to play catcher, and this game, Jack had his turn.



Jack says that he enjoys playing baseball more than any other sport he’s played this year. He’s doing extra practice on his own (if “with dad” is considered on you own) and he’s getting better every day. He went 2 for 3 against the A’s and scored a run.



Jack’s looking forward to continuing with baseball and we’re all glad he’s found a sport he enjoys.