Welcome 3 New Sponsors to the Redwood City Cardinals!

Major props to our newest sponsors, rounding out our sponsor roll for the 2015 Tournament season!

Twitch:

Twitch is where you’ll find the best online video shows in the gaming world. From behemoths like Joystiq, Gamespot, and Destructoid, to insiders like LiveonThree, ManvsGame, and Day9, this is where you’ll find the vanguard of live gaming entertainment.

 

Haslam Insurance:

Based in Burlingame, Edward J. Haslam Co. is proud to serve the insurance needs of the San Francisco Bay Area and all of California. Let us help you find the right auto, home, life and commercial insurance to meet your personal needs. Contact us now for quick, competitive quotes!

  

 

Today Sotheby's Intl. Realty

Representing Today's Sotheby's, Ed Gory enjoys helping his clients achieve great success in real estate. He has helped people buy and sell houses in various cities all over Silicon Valley.  As a native of the Bay Area and having lived here his whole life, he offers his clients valuable insights about Silicon Valley’s areas.

 

Welcome our Newest Sponsors!

Shout out to our newest sponsors!

FIT - Focused Individual Trainers! Find out more about this awesome "school of fitness" at http://focusedtrainers.com/

Guaranteed Rate of Belmont. Thank you Adam, and the The Adam O'Donnell Team! Your sponsorship is making a difference in giving these boys a great, unique baseball experience!

Cardinals Giving Back!

The late great John Wooden said: "A leader's most powerful ally is his or her own example. Leaders don't just talk about doing something, they do it."

For the third time now, our Cardinals team took some time off from baseball to help out a team of disabled kids play baseball locally here in Foster City. Our Cardinals were the “buddies” for the day for their Little League’s Challenger division, and it was so nice to see how helpful and caring our boys were – backing up the players, running the bases with them, and helping them field balls.

Setting examples. Role models. These boys rock. And, they're pretty darn good baseball players too!

A New Cardinals Team Added!

We're excited to announce that the Cardinals will now be adding a U12 team, starting this week! Coached by three guys that are well-respected in the local baseball community, this team, like ours, will be competing in a few local summer tournaments.

We're very excited about this development as we continue to grow as an organization dedicated to developing our young players in all aspects on the base path and beyond.

They have most of their team in place, but I believe might be looking to add a couple more players, so if you can think of anyone looking for a great summer baseball experience, let us know!

Be a Sponsor for the Redwood City Cardinals!

With our recent acceptance as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the Redwood City Cardinals are pleased to announce that we are now accepting SPONSORSHIPS!

Two Ways to Sponsor
We have now set up both an online and offline capability to accept sponsorships & donations.

Online, you can just follow this link: http://www.gofundme.com/m840k0

Or, if you'd like to see the various sponsorship levels we have, send an email to CardinalsRC@gmail.com for a sponsorship letter and form.

Donations for the 2015 Season are tax deductible (non-profit tax ID # 47-2731992).

Superb Fundamentals -- Start Early and Start Often

One of the best lines I read about the SF Giants, on their path to the World Series, summed up how they dominated the St. Louis Cardinals:

"The Giants are in command of the NLCS because they are playing superb fundamental baseball and the Cardinals are not. St. Louis is making critical mistakes on the most basic plays." (from article on SFGate)

Superb fundamental baseball vs. mistakes on basic plays.

This mentality of laser-focus on the fundamentals should start at the earliest stages of a player's baseball development.  A good coach understands that fundamentals are like the foundation of a house.  You can't build a house starting at the top, you have to start with a strong, rock-solid foundation. The notion of winning, at the youth baseball level, should be secondary to learning how to do things correctly.   It boggles my mind when I see other club players out there, on supposedly "elite" teams, make consistent mistakes on their fundamentals because they're trying to make "hot dogging" plays.  What on earth are their coaches teaching them?  Certainly not how to be a team player, because some of these kids are more concerned with making a flashy play than doing it correctly.

Bottom line, with our Cardinals, we PROUDLY emphasize three simple things: play hard, execute the fundamentals we've learned, and have fun.   We are more concerned about the kids learning the proper fundamentals than the final win-loss record.  After all, these are just kids, not major leaguers.

More Travel Team Considerations (Part 2)

Here's an important thing to consider when evaluating a travel team.

The Coach's demeanor

Do some scouting of your own to determine the coach's sideline behavior during games.  Is he a yeller and a screamer? Does he vent his wrath on individual kids if they make a mistake? Does he offer lots of praise, or is he just critical? How does the coach interact with the umpires?  Is he out of control with the officials, or does he exhibit good sportsmanship at all times?

Most top college and high school coaches follow the "5-to-1" ratio when it comes to motivating kids today.  That means 5 parts praise to 1 part criticism.  Kids today -- especially young athletes on travel teams -- need lots and lots of praise from the coach if they are going to perform well.  Critical comments should be minimal, and should be couched in very non-threatening terms.

Unfortunately too many travel team coaches see themselves as disciples of the legendary pro football coach Vince Lombardi.  The myths about Lombardi portray him as a hard-driving no-nonsense disciplinarian.  Too many travel team coaches feel that's the best way to approach kids: be loud, be demanding, and don't be afraid to single a kid out during a game for making a mistake.

This is, as you might imagine, the absolute worst way to work with kids today.  Kids don't want to be criticized, they don't want to be yelled at, and they don't want to be humiliated in front of their parents and teammates during a game.  If the coach of your child's travel team has the reputation for being this way, again, you had better think twice as to whether your child is ready for this kind of "tough guy" approach.  The truth is, most kids aren't.