Back to 1974, East Tacoma Washington, it is game day, almost 10am. As Players and Parents cross the parking lot, silver haired seniors begin to gather at the fringe of the field. For them between the talking and their pace, it will still be 10 more minutes or so before they reach the bleachers.

For the seniors there are no pressures to finish a blog on Myspace.

This park opened in 1992 and pays homage to the early days of baseball. With its graceful wrought iron embellishments and brick facade, Oriole Park set the new standard for modern ballparks and is still considered the best park in the country by purists. Architects incorporated the B&O Railroad warehouse into the design of the park, creating a pedestrian area called Eutaw Street where fans can stroll before and after the game.

There is some intense training that occurs throughout the life of a baseball player. Some of that training begins when they are very young and is not considered as a guarantee that anyone would be training for Major League Baseball play. At this point in life, they are simply learning how to hold a bat and the purpose of bases and perhaps how to slide into home plate a time or two.

A significant amount of events occurs in Major League Baseball during any season and some are more memorable than others are. Fans are exposed to the works of people who might just become baseball legends one day. From opening day celebrations in towns across America, fans can enjoy parades and get charged up for another baseball season that is sure to be filled with lots of cheers and good natured booing when a fierce competitor comes to the plate.

Off the wall in left center, the fielder scoops up the ball as the runner approaches third. The Catcher has aligned the cut off man for a straight ball path from the fielder to home plate. Center fielder drills the ball to the cutoff man with all his might. Cutoff man does the two step shuffle, catch, shuffle throw and off goes the frozen rope to home in plenty of time for the tag.

Like life in traditional society, but unlike football and basketball, the other two major American team sports, baseball is not governed by the clock and amazes many foreigners that it is the "national sport" in a fast-paced United States. Being a very popular team sport, apart from North America also in Latin America, the Caribbean and East Asia, baseball is a bat-and-ball game in which a pitcher throws a fist-sized hard ball past the hitting area of a batter.

The shift from 1974 to 2007 has been dramatic. Baseball once relegated to the dreams and comforts of summer is now a year round ambition for a surprising large number of players. Not only for paid players but for the amateurs as well.

Way back when, well if you were born after 1985, pre baseball season followed the winter sports of basketball and in some areas soccer.

In recent years, the arrival in the United States of players like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui has enlightened Americans about the popularity of the sport in Japan. But most Americans don't know that Japan has almost as long a baseball history as the United States.

The exact date that baseball was introduced in Japan is not known, but it is attributed to American professor Horace Wilson sometime between 1867 and 1912.

A key part to any good training program is to know the current status of an athlete with regards to their strengths and weaknesses. How fast is the athlete now! How agile is the athlete! What is their reaction time like? Are they fast only over a short distance or do they possess speed-endurance! Does the lack of good flexibility inhibit their ability to become faster? The only way to answer these questions is to perform some pre-season testing.

Have you faced these baseball concerns as a coaching dad?

Has your son become the player he is because he wants to be , or because you forced him into the sport? Dad, if this sport has become more about your feelings and not your son's , then you need to step back and rethink what you could be doing to your son.

Do you put more pressure on your son , than the rest of the team? If so, you are turning your son against you.