There is nothing quite like a freshly prepared baseball field laying in wait for the first game of the season. The weather was perfect, the early evening sun was bright and all the kids had just gotten their team T-shirts and hats. Opening day at the little league ballpark.
This is the first year of my son in the "kid pitch" league. He has played with essentially the same group of kids for the past two years in the "coach pitch" league. So this was the first time that they really played a game by themselves - no adults on the field telling them what to do, no coach-thrown pitches perfectly aimed for each kid's individual swing. The first time that balls and strikes really counted. The first time that "you're out" really means that you are out.
They did really well! OK - they lost (if you insist on keeping score), but they still played very well. Ground balls were fielded successfully and thrown to first base for the out. A pop-fly was tucked away for the out. A ball was hit into the outfield and the shortstop went out to take the cut-off relay from the outfielder. Lot's of walks, for both teams. But more than a few bats came off the shoulder and connected with the ball - or not. At least they struck out swinging - not backing away from the plate for fear of being hit. All in all - a very good game!
And now I get to brag about my son. He pitched the third inning and completed it just before the game was called on account of time. His pitches were, for the most part, hittable. No wild pitches, no short-hop pitches that hit the dirt in front of home plate. He threw 10 pitches, which resulted in four batted balls and three put-outs - one of which was his. In contrast, the starting pitcher for his team walked a lot of batters, reaching the maximum of five runs allowed for both of the innings he pitched.
Going into this game, I was a little worried. He didn't go to practice on Sunday and our play/practice on Monday was cut short by his pain when he missed a return throw from me and the ball hit him on his shin and by his frustration at not being able to hit the pitches I was throwing to him. But it all came together for him yesterday.
To celebrate, we went out for pizza and he ate an entire small pepperoni pizza. Life is good.
6 comments:
You express the feelings so well. It does indeed sound like "a life is good" day.
It brought back to me memories of the early soccer games of my own children, those first few seasons, at kindergarten and first grade level, the teams looked more like a schools of fish chasing a ball, but within a few years the skills were learned, and the individual players morph into true teams, in soccer at least it became beautiful to me, the players knew their roles, a good game was a choreographed dance. On 'perfect' game days, it didn't matter if they won or lost, not if they played well.
Awesome!
You've disappeared...hope is good in your world.
All is good - still here - just have been really busy with end of semester work. I'll be back soon!
Here's hoping all is well.
What's up with you? Semester over yet?
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