April 20, 2007

A Terrific Night for T-ball

Big I had her first t-ball game tonight. Due to the recent weather, her team had about four practices total before their first game. I’m guessing that the last practice was heavy on the base running because tonight, only one kid decided second base was completely unnecessary and skipped on to third. Yes, literally skipped as in "We’re off to see the Wizard".

Despite all my worries about Big I’s sometimes complete and utter lack of paying attention, she managed to get through the three innings completely unscathed. In fact, despite playing in a soggy mess of a field, she didn’t even really get dirty except for the cleat print one kid put on the top of her shoe when all the kids were swarming for the ball. And yes, I mean swarming like a bunch of pre-menstrual women to a vat of chocolate. Have you ever seen a bunch of 5 and 6-year olds play t-ball? I’m not exaggerating in the slightest.

There were some close calls, like when one of our players threw the ball and nailed a little girl from the other team on her batting helmet while innocently hanging out on second base. Another player pelted another little girl in the calf with the ball trying to "tag" her out.

There were other really funny moments like when our third basemen decided it was imperative that he ask his dad if he could use the computer when he got home, as the other team’s batter was swinging. Another one of the kids from the other team tried to hit the ball in the direction of the catcher, much to the surprise of the batting coach who narrowly missed having the family jewels permanently rearranged. And almost every single time a ground ball was hit to the infield, a swarm of kids would go after that ball. Inevitably there would be a pile-up in the mud of at least three little boys, as the girls decided it just wasn’t worth it and promptly went back to their positions without a drop of mud anywhere on them.

Big I was the very first batter tonight, and she hit a ground ball out past the pitcher and made it onto first base without a problem. She was also the first run to score, because all the kids stay on base and run the bases one at a time until every kid has batted once each inning. After all, t-ball is all rainbows, bubbles, and fairies people. The last batter gets to pretend they hit a home run, and all the kids run home. Sometimes they pass each other. We haven’t gotten that far on the base running yet.

While I understand that the ego’s of children are fragile and all that good stuff, I was not prepared for the complete lack of competition. Everyone bats, everyone plays every position. When you’re "out" you’re not really out. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings do we? Of course we do! I don’t know; I guess I’m of the opinion that it should be fun, but they should still learn how to play the game. Baseball or softball will be a rude awakening for these kids if they’re never thrown out at first base.

My opinion aside, it was obvious that Big I was a hit. The coach put her in at the pitcher’s position in the second inning and she chased down almost every ground ball and promptly threw the ball to the appropriate base, without taking a mud bath in the process and without hesitation.