I play in a competitive men's wooden bat baseball league with 15 teams. My season is now 6 games in, so I thought I'd start sharing my stats. First, here's a look at the prior season, which was good for my pitching, but lousy for hitting.

2017 Season Summary (31 total games) - I wasn't able to train during the 2016/2017 off-season at all. I was weak for a slow bat for the first half of the season. I was getting out of a difficult toxic relationship with someone I inevitably learned was an untreated schizophrenic, my Dad was battling terminal brain cancer, and I was experiencing large crypto price swings for the first time. I lost sight of exercising, especially since I was also at the tail end of recovering from a partially torn UCL in my elbow.

These reasons are why I started my daily fitness challenge, where I gained about 20 pounds for the 2018 season.

A baseball field has always been my space to get away, but for the first time, I was too burned out and distracted. I remember one time pitching where I didn't want to be there for the first time I could ever fathom in my life. I also had to use a lighter bat to overcompensate for my lack of bat speed with my normal dimensions. For scale, I usually hit around .300-.350 as a batting average on a good season with lots of doubles and the occasional home run. I usually bat fourth or fifth in my lineup. I've been an All-Star many times and a team MVP, so it was tough to see my teammates and me lose faith.

On the bright side, I had my best pitching season as a knuckleballer, placing 6th in ERA out across 15 teams at 2.15 during the regular seaso. I was voted in as an All-Star pitcher and was the winning pitching in that game, however, I've usually always been voted in for my offense. I didn't even get to hit.

As for the knuckleball, given the nature of the slower pitch against lots of ex-college and some current college players, giving up a higher amount of hits (with low strikeouts) is somewhat normal. It's a contact-inducing pitch, which gets most batters off their normal timing. The goal is to get weak groundouts or lazy pop flies for outs. To be successful, I need a solid defense behind me.

Shockingly, I made it through my first 20 innings without giving a single walk, which is INSANE. Here's my grip:

FYI - our games are usually in the form of a double-header per weekend, meaning two 7-inning games.

2017 All-Star Pitching Stats: (bueno)

2017 Sad Hitting Stats: (no bueno)

On to 2018!!

I pitched one weekend so far, but hurt my shoulder in the ~35 degree cold weather. I don't think I'll be able to pitch for a while, so I'm back to my normal positions at second and first base in the infield.

My hitting has been on fire because of all 126 days of exercise out of 127. The ball is jumping off my bat again. My legs are rock solid, my core is strong, and my hands are the strongest they've been in a while to handle the faster pitchers with ease.

In my first weekend, I found out that I got one or two hits off of Major League affiliated pitchers who recently played summer ball for two clubs. I don't know who they were, but I think one of them got me swinging on nasty curveballs (so I don't feel so bad anymore). I think that I got a hit or two off of the other one.

2018 Offensive Total Stats:

2018 Offensive Per Game Log:

My current batting average is unsustainable, but it's currently ranked 4th in the entire league. To put this in perspective for the strong start, I have half as many hits as I did in 31 games last season in just 6 this year. I've also hit the top of a fence one and hit a foul shot, to just miss two home runs so far. No pitch has been too fast for me yet. I'm also using a 33" x 31.6 oz bat. Knock on wood. Most of my hits have been hit with conviction. Two have even been to the opposite field, which is rare for me.

I don't have any pics or videos of me this from this year yet, but I'll try to get something soon.

Our first three weekends have been in the 35-45 degree F range with plenty of wind, starting around 8:30 AM. Ouch.
When it gets warmer, it'll be much easier to play.

Hope this was fun to read.

@steemmatt