Baseball Boy

This past Saturday, while I was at the Mom's Retreat, Joel started baseball. I had called the local community centre a few weeks ago to inquire about soccer, but found out that I had missed the soccer season, by about 5 months. Oh well. They told me about the T-ball league that was coming up for 3-6 year olds and so I said I was interested for my 5 year old son. (I briefly thought about signing Kezia up, but I know she wouldn't be as keen. Can you just see her standing in the field with the glove, not engaged at all with the game, but the lovely bugs on the ground, the shape of the clouds, the music playing in the next field....)

I came home with the information to share with Carl. It was going to be 6 weeks of games with the first week being a clinic to teach the kids. Joel would play every Saturday and get his own team t-shirt to keep. At the end of the season he gets his own trophy, no matter the outcome of his team, and a BBQ party. And all for $35. Carl and I were pretty excited about this opportunity for Joel, but we figured it only makes sense to ask him if he wanted to. Well, after a smile and twinkle of his eye, he said, "I get to play real baseball with a real team?"

Now the season was suppose to start on April 12 but because of some unforeseen circumstances, the start date was delayed by a week. It was agonizing for Joel, because he had started the countdown to T-ball at day 13; and now he had to add another 7 sleeps! I was a bit disappointed because I knew that I would be gone. Carl got some good video footage of Joel learning how to play baseball, not T-ball like I originally thought, but pitch-it-to-the-kid-to-hit baseball.

At first Joel was a bit hesitant but after a while, he yelled to the side where Carl and Kezia were, "Hey Dad, I can do this. I'm not embarrassed anymore!" I was glad to see, as I watched the video, that he wasn't the tallest kid on his team. Joel is starting to feel a bit self conscious of being the one that sticks out among all the shorter kids.

My lil' slugger hit the ball after only two attempts, and figured out when to run to the next base. It was hilarious to see him standing on the base watching, with his hands on his hips, resembling his mother's stance. But he did what he needed to do and had lots of fun doing it. I hope that through this experience he will enjoy the game and benefit from being on a team. I think that experience is so life enriching.

I'm really excited about going this Saturday to see him and I'm going to be the crazy Mom with the video and digital camera. I hope I don't embarrass him!