Baseball

Baseball season finished last week. I love watching my boys play baseball. I love being outside in the spring - most days. But it really does take a toll on our family. I remember my dad saying that his father didn't make it to most games because he was working. He and his brother walked to the ball fields. Dan tells me that his parents didn't make all his games - and if he had a parent there it was only one. He had a large family and sports schedules definitely disrupt the family. I have fond memories of evenings spent at the ball fields watching my brothers but I don't know how many of the total games I actually went to. It's hard to get the whole family to these games but we do it. I only missed one game and Dan only missed about 4 games out of 16 . I think Piper and Ainsley made them all.


There were many days when the boys got off the school bus at 4pm. Then I'm yelling at them to find their uniforms and get dressed. They are exhausted from school and just want to crash and have a snack. Then we're eating dinner at 4:30 so we can get in the car by 5:05 so we can fight rush hour traffic and get to the field by 5:30 for warm ups and 6 pm game. Whew... . We'd get home sometime after 8pm and then it was time for showers and homework and music practicing. The kids were completely worn out and we parents weren't far behind them. I'm tired just typing it out!!


I do love baseball - the kids love playing too but I've told them that one team sport a year is all the family can take. Chase wants to play lacrosse and basketball. MacGregor wants to play flag football. I said you have to choose one. The others you can play in the back yard with friends. It's hard cuz they have friends that play everything but either their friends parents are super human or they don't have little ones to entertain during all these games and perhaps their friends don't have cub scouts at church and take piano and trombone lessons which require practice time. I can only take one season a year at this pace.


This is the little one we have to keep busy and safe for 2 and half hours several times a week. Here she is fascinated by the clover. She was picking each piece very carefully.


Then she gleefully gave them to Daniel.


Her favorite thing though was to play with the big kids. I didn't mind that one bit either. Then I could actually keep my eyes on the game.


We heard there was a little ghost that haunted the ball fields. Every once in a while we caught a glimpse. I even managed to catch it on film one day.
Doesn't she look like a little ghost or little angel floating above the field?

For the end of season party we had a "parents" vs the "kids" game. It was really fun. Both moms and dads played and I was surprised at how well many of the moms did. I had to watch Piper so I didn't play the field, which is just as well - throwing a ball really isn't my thing. When it was time to get up - they asked me if I wanted a turn at bat - the other parents would watch the baby. At first I sort of refused - I really didn't want to embarrass myself but on the other hand some of the other parents had struck out so I wouldn't be the only one. So I was debating. Daniel got up to bat - the dad's had to bat on the non-dominant side. Daniel had to bat right handed against Chase. Well Chase struck his old Dad out. Very Surprising - especially for Daniel.




So I decided to give it a whirl. If Dan struck out then I didn't have to feel too bad right? There was a new pitcher put in - Tim. He warmed up and then I stepped into the box. He hit me on the first pitch, only on the shoe. They told me to take my base - but I wanted to HIT the ball so I asked if I could stay in. You'd think that the fear of embarassment would have been enough to send me running to the base - Get to get on base without looking like a fool - who wouldn't do that? But the pride in me kept me in the box. I wanted to have a chance to prove I could do it. CRAZY! So they called that a ball and then I got 2 more balls and swung at 2 really bad pitches. The kids coach was coaching me in the box - sad! So now it was a full count 3 balls 2 strikes - here comes the last pitch. I swung. I made contact. I ran! I didn't look back. I made it to the base and had to look up to see if I got there in time. I did! I did! Dan said I ran like a cheetah! How sweet of him. Then I wasn't sure if I should steal and my heart was pumping on base waiting to run. I wanted to make sure I did it right. I made it to second but then I got thrown out at third when the dad up to bat bunted it directly toward 3rd. What I realized is that it's a lot of pressure in there. It's a lot easier to coach the kids from the side - we say don't reach, we say don't swing at the high ones, we say "swing" that was a good one. It's alot harder being in that box and making that decision. Even their head coach felt this pressure. He totally wasn't aware of where his team was. He was on second and didn't think he had to run. The batter hit the ball and he hung out on second until the first base runner got almost there. The kids tagged third and the Coach was out!! The assistant coaches were laughing and yelling "Fundamentals Coach - Fundamentals" which was the mantra of the season. I also realized how out of shape I was because one time at bat gave me a sore knee and sore abs. For days every time I sneezed my abs were sore and I thought - that's from swinging a bat a few times? I need to get out more!


I think the parents ended up winning by 1 point. After the game we ate pizza and the coaches gave out the game balls to each of the kids. They each received a game ball in which they had an outstanding performance. Chase recieved a ball against the Red Sox when he struck out 4 players. MacGregor received a game ball where he slid into home and scored a run right under their catcher. I think that was really thoughtful of the coaches. It was a great season and I was so lucky to have the boys on the same team. We won't be so lucky next year when Chase has to move up. (That will really add a kink in our schedule!) The event ended in a "rockin thunderstorm" and everyone grabbed all the gear and ran to their cars. A few of the dads, including Daniel, got pretty wet as they were the last to gather trash and supplies.
GO TWINS!!! What A Year!