Baseball Beginnings

Last month, Little Man announced that he wanted to play T-ball again this year. I explained to him that he's too old for T-ball now, and that 7-year-olds play machine-pitch baseball. He was all for it -- until I signed him up and paid the deposit. Then he changed his mind and decided he didn't want to play baseball after all.

Fortunately, he's come around (again) and is excited about being on a baseball team. But playing as a 7-year-old is much different than when he did T-ball two years ago. First of all, there's a "skills assessment." It was held last weekend, and all the kids interested in playing, and all the coaches, came to a field to see what the kids could do. We arrived early and fortunately ran into Brennan, Little Man's best friend from preschool who he hasn't seen in a while.

There were four events: running the bases for time, fielding a ball and throwing it to first base, playing catch with the head administrator of the league, and batting. Little Man was about average in his running speed, but all his baseball skills definitely lag the average kid out there -- who has probably been playing year-round since 3 years old.

Direct link to the video: https://youtu.be/FcKcPzitwII

I shouldn't have worried about him enjoying himself -- he had a huge smile on his face the whole time. He can't wait to find out which team he's on and start practicing.

"I'm not one of the ones who's the best, Mommy," he told me as we were leaving. 

"You know how those other kids got to be so good?" I asked him. "By practicing. A lot! So you could be really good too, if you practice."

And later that afternoon, he was invited to Brennan's house for an awesome playdate. So it was, pretty much, Little Man's best day ever.