Nathan got to play tee-ball (t-ball? tea-ball? How, exactly do you spell it?) this year.
Isn’t he cute?
He was on a 3 & 4 year old league (through the YMCA) since he was, in fact, four when the season started. But I do think he may have been one of the older kids on the team.
At this age the point is to just get them used to hitting the ball and, when out in the field, gaining control of it. There are no outs and you bat through the whole line-up each time you are up to bat (which is twice and sometimes it does take an entire hour just to play two full innings).
The first couple of games were pretty hilarious to watch. After having seen one practice, we knew it would be chaos on the field. We just didn’t know how much chaos there would be.
We fully anticipated the tears that would ensue from the little girl would would run from left field to try to field a ball that was hit toward first base.
We fully anticipated the kids that would run the bases and include the pitcher’s mound as they went. I mean really. We can’t have the pitcher’s mound left out.
We fully anticipated a lot of dirt kicking and playing and not paying attention to the game. And you know, we need to make sure those bases are completely cleaned off.
What we did not anticipate, though, was when the ball was hit many times in those early games, the entire team on the field would run after the ball along with the base runners from the other team who had just hit the ball.
It was pretty stinkin’ hilarious.
In the beginning, we were thankful that he was playing with the “Y” since their season started after Sarah’s softball season ended and we didn’t have overlap. But it wasn’t long before we wished we had picked a different league.
For one thing, starting so much later, it was swelteringly HOT out there. Practice was at 5:30 pm, which around here can be the hottest part of the day. And the season didn’t end until the end of June. By the end of June around here’s it’s a good 98-100 degrees every day. That’s just too hot. Period.
Then there was the issue of just the make-up of the team itself along with the parents. I tell you what, if you have kids, you know: There is some really good people watching to be done at kids’ sports games.
We had the head coach who had never coached a thing in her life nor had she had the opportunity to have her kid be on a team before to be able to experience a good kids’ coach. She was super sweet, but had no idea what she was doing and didn’t seem to know how to teach children nor would she have been able to organize a platoon of marines. She also didn’t seem to know that she needed to wear a tank top under her see-through mesh jersey so that her black bra didn’t show. Just sayin’
But there was the awesome assistant coach who is incredibly handsome to boot.
And there was the assistant coach’s wife who was a complete control freak and seemed to just want to take the whole thing over. *eyes glancing back and forth*
(Seriously, Mike did his best as an assistant coach, but it was frustrating. He didn’t want to take on a head coaching position because of the uncertainty of his work schedule, but we really kind of wish he had.)
There was the dad of the just turned 3 year old boy (youngest child on the team) who would get frustrated that the boy wasn’t paying attention. Really? He’s 3!
Then there was the older dad who really wanted to be cool but was just a little off kilter. He wore this to practice at least a couple of times and in a couple of different colors…. meaning he had more than one.
There are two problems with this. A) The 1980’s called and they want their mesh shirt back. And 2) you just can’t wear a shirt like that to a kid’s sports practice and not raise some suspicions and eyebrows. You just can’t.
And even though he said he said he wanted to help coach, he rarely did anything while on the field besides take pictures of his precious daughter. (Notice the knee-pads.)
It was an entertaining season to say the very least. But, my little man had a good time and at least got a little bit of exposure to how the game is played. I’ll leave you with my favorite action shot of him…
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