Royals Baseball

If there is one sport that Daddy has an opinion about when it comes to Sam's participation, it would be baseball.  Something about his own years playing the game, feeling experienced, etc.  Chris had left every other sport registration decision up to me, as long as it met the "one sport per season" rule that is still ruling our roust.  But he was clear on this: Sam will play baseball, and he will not start until he has aged out of t-ball, which is a waste of time.  Ok, then!  Queue: Coach Pitch Baseball in spring of his Kindergarten year!

The team was pretty disorganized at the outset, but we were able to pull together a handful of mostly-available coaches and a clueless team mom (Hi!).  The drives over to the ball park during rush hour traffic were less than ideal, but at least we had a buddy on the team!  And Chris was motivated to meet us there in the evenings, so at least we were all together.  If not freezing.  There were some cold and windy evenings at the ballpark this season!  Don't get me wrong, I'll take it over sitting in 100 degree humidity, but one must ALWAYS remember that it is 10 degrees colder and much, much windier at the ball park.

Little kid baseball is, of course, adorable.  As much as they practiced passing and catching the ball, they weren't great at it.  Sam quickly learned that he was much more likely to make an out if he ran the ball the first base rather than throwing it.  Things to work on for next year, I suppose.  At least they all knew which was to run the bases and understood the concept of the game.

The Royals turned out to be a pretty good team!  Our coaches were keenly aware that next year these boys are moving to the machine pitch league where the competition is much more intense.  So although our games were not scored (on paper, mental scores were kept) and you were allowed to bring out the tee if a player just could not get a hit, our players were pushed to the next level in a very encouraging way.  It was refreshing to see the challenge placed in front of them; these boys are ready to move past the "participation" stage of sports an into some real competition!  Its time for them to learn that they don't always win, and more importantly, how to handle themselves when they don't.  Big picture/life lessons here, folks!

There was one game where the competition actually got a bit ugly and it reminded me how quickly things can turn, even in little kids sports.  Its also the primary reason that sports need unbiased refs rather than coach-monitored play.  Fortunately, due to rain outs, we didn't have to face that team again and an awkward encounter was spared.

Speaking of rain outs, we had lots of them.  At the beginning of the season we were trying our best to reschedule games, but there were so many at the end that we just couldn't keep up.  It was unfortunate, but the season really petered out at the end, culminating in consecutive canceled, un-made up games.  And a poorly attended, post school-year pool party celebration.  BUT everyone had a good season and lots of them plan to be back next year, and we're hoping to keep most of the team together.

Sam's third organized sport in the books!

*It is important to note that Annabelle did not feel forced to be at her brothers practices and games.  In fact, little sister has developed a solid ability to make real friends with the other younger siblings at Sam's sporting events.  This was true at swim team as well over the summer.  They all honestly did have fun together!