Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Today was a milestone day: E's first at bat in an official T-Ball game! He's officially a member of the National Youth Sports League's Bears Team.

It was, in a word, positivelylaughoutloudhystericallyfun.

Just as E is a newcomer to the T-Ball set, so was I. While the kids looked official in their uniforms, it turns out that they keep things pretty fun and easy for these 4-5 year olds, kinda like baseball lite. There are no outs, no points, no winners, no losers, just attempts to: bat, run the bases, catch grounders, watch a ball fly by you, miss a ball flying by you as you stare aimlessly into the sky or adjust your cap or tug at your sleeve. The teams are parent coached, and, so far there aren't any crazy competitive parents thinking their precocious preschooler is ready for the majors. Each team got to go to bat twice and the dads on the field were really encouraging of the kids to keep their eye on the ball, hit, run to the correct base and throw to first if they had a chance to catch one.

E got to "hit a home run" solely because he was the last batter for his team during the first round. And, not that I am keeping score or anything, but it was actually a grand slam since the bases were loaded.

You can imagine how proud I was. He was most proud of dirtying up his uniform.