Justin started tee ball practice this week. Overall, he's an average kid (see previous post), but because he lives and breathes baseball, he's above average in his baseball skills just because he spends so much time practicing. It's fun to see him going thru all the practice rituals with his team. They did stretching exercises, practiced catching grounders, ran the bases a couple of times (some of the kids are still having trouble knowing which direction to run after they hit), and then took turns hitting.
Justin was very intense about every drill. When catching grounders, he would do diving catches. If they said for everyone to line up on home plate, he was the first one there. When it was time to take turns practicing batting and fielding, they put Justin at third base. No matter where the ball was hit, even if it was over by first base, Justin was running after it yelling, "I got it, I got it," and he usually beat the rest of the kids to get it just because he was paying attention and knew what to do. I did step in when he practically tackled the coaches' daughter trying to get the ball before she could (when it was clearly her territory) and talked to him about needing to stay by his base so that he could tag the runner out if someone threw it to him (although I don't think they do that in tee ball...they don't even keep score) and after that he stayed right at his position.
So far the coaches think he's cute and precocious. I hope it stays that way. The first thing he did when arriving to practice was to tell the assistant coach that he hadn't put home plate in the correct place and moved it for him. He talks way more than the other kids, and because we've read so much about baseball the things he says are correct, they're just way over the basic level that most of the 4-6 year old crowd is at. He's convinced already that if he "doesn't go to the Major Leagues and win the World Series" he'll "be in a slump."
I'm trying to learn the ropes of being "Team Mom" and realizing that there's a lot more to it than I agreed to. I'm also learning that when you join a team, you give your life over to it for the next several months and are expected to go places and do things on short notice and basically keep your schedule clear until the end of the season. I also failed to realize that on top of the registration fee (which wasn't cheap), there are also at least $100 in other costs that they don't tell you about up front. But who can put a price on the genuine joy he's having doing something be absolutely loves.
Anyone want to buy an overpriced candy bar?
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2 comments:
i saw sign ups for our little league...because justin was doing it i thought about isaiah...but he's quite a bit younger. i wish i could see j doing all that!
Your son reminds me of my own ten years back. He's still playing in high school now, but it's not quite the same as when we used to practice together all the time. I wrote about this: "Looking Back At a Rocky Little League Start"
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