Looks like a good start. Just promise yourself to PRINT these and HANG these in your home. No sense in having them live on your PCWarm regards,DOF..

You're got some nice action shots there, especially of the batter about to make impact with the ball, and you've captured some truly memorable facial expressions. I think you'll really enjoy those in the years to come..

My advice (I'm a newbie too, so take it with a grain of salt):.

Try not to place the subject in center of the photo. Instead, capture more space in the direction of the motion. For example, with batter, leave more space in front, and less behind. That makes the eyes anticipate the motion and bring the photo to life. This might require changing your angle..

Don't be afraid to get really close (with the zoom lens, anyway). Next time, try a few shots of just the batters head, or upper body. Or try cropping these ones, and see if that creates a different feeling to the picture..

Try playing with your exposure. In a few cases, the faces are a bit underexposed, while the pants stand out as brilliant white. Draws my attention to the pants instead of the face and bat. I'm not exactly sure how to fix this, but you will figure it out if you play with it..

Be nice if you could move that clipboard hanging from the fence in the background, or change your angle so it's not right in front of their faces. Kind of distracting..

Look at sports photos in the newspapers, and imitate the ones yout like. Try to duplicate those angles and compositions (I know, I knoew, easier said than done)..

Most importantly, keep shooting. Your shots already look good to me, and have a lot of potential...

Oh yes...and get the monopod. Or even a tripod...

Thanks for all the pointers and encouragement. I hope to use the shooting tips this weekend. I'll keep posting and hopefully I'll show improvement..

Responses are greatly appreciated...

Just bear in mind that a monopod/tripod (and IS) will help with camera shake but not motion blur. You will have to keep up a high shutter speed anyway to avoid motion blur.Chris R..