Little League Baseball Makes Me Happy

I have been teaching baseball since my oldest boy could walk. I've coached 3 different teams with my boys: machine pitch, Minors and Majors. My teams have won the league each year and this year shouldn't be much different. This will be the first time I have not had both boys on the same team. Son number 2, while not saying so, is ready to be out from under the shadow of his brother.

Last year was a rough year. It was the first year that I had a parent whine to me about playing time and I had two complain. I offered to let them coach, but they walked away. It's never the parents of the good players that complain. Anyway, we won the league on the last night of the season, in the last inning. It was awesome! Since we won the league, I got the honor of being the all-star manager for the second year. We almost beat the defending regional champs, losing 3-2. When it was all over, I didn't think about baseball for months.

Then, in January, I saw a parent of one of my players. He greeted me, "Hey, Coach." That was it, I was ready for baseball. (NOTE: If you are a baseball parent, either help or support the coaches. Most of them work like mad and don't need people whining. Either help or get out of the way. Oh - teach your kids how to play; coach them at home.) What am I to do to fill the months before the season? Statistics!!!! Baseball is a statistic lovers dream.

So, I am on a quest to find the following: which position in the batting order leads off an inning the most and bats with runners in scoring position the most. I'm curious to see if there is a pattern that can be exploited to our benefit.