T-Ball

Zach has been done with t-ball for over a week now, but I'm just now getting to the pictures. We did t-ball through the parks and rec. department of our town, and it went well. Two mornings a week for 3 weeks, Zach went to the baseball diamond and the coaches worked with him and the other kids on learning the basics of baseball- throwing, catching, getting grounders, etc. This was perfect for Zach, because he's never really played much t-ball. This was not the case with some of the kids, though. It was very obvious which little boys out there had played lots of t-ball in the past and had older brothers who played. Those boys would come in their baseball pants, their baseball cleats, with their own bat bags and everything. And man, could they swing that bat! It was also pretty apparent which kids had no interest in t-ball and so far not a lot of athletic ability. I'm not saying that a kid's athletic future can be foretold when he's 4 or 5 years-old, but it is pretty interesting to think about. Zach was the youngest kid out there- the cut-off date was his birthday, so he barely made it. He did great, though, and he had a lot of fun. It was fun watching him, even if it was sometimes a pain to try to keep Drew entertained while we waited there for Zach. Zach's still talking about how he likes t-ball, and he's been into playing catch lately with his ball and glove. All that's fine, but I have to admit, I'm happy to say that when I asked him if he had to choose between soccer and t-ball, he said he'd choose soccer. Phew! I really am not excited about the prospect of sitting out at baseball games all summer long in years to come.

Here's the little slugger, ready to bat.

He hit a great hit, and proceeded to stand and watch his great hit, while Mike and I yelled, "RUN, Zach! RUN!"

So he finally proceeded to take a nice, leisurely trot down to first base...

and took a nice jump onto the base. In a regular game, as you can see, he would have been out. But since this is 4 and 5 year-old t-ball, Zach got to stay on base.

Always one for safety, Zach opted to keep his helmet on while he ran around the rest of the bases. As the next batter batted, Zach took off, and started running straight to second base, which actually happened to be the pitcher's mound. The coaches got him redirected, though, so that he really did make it to second base.

On Zach's last time at bat, he was the final batter. He hit a good hit, and didn't need quite as much prompting to run. He ran around all the bases, never touching a single one, other than home plate. Of course he said to me later, "I hit a home run!"

Once Zach's team was out on the field, Zach got to be "the pitcher." It's t-ball, so obviously there's no pitching, but it's a great place to be in to get a lot of the balls that those little tykes bat off the tee.

So far this summer we've done soccer and t-ball, and they've both gone very, very well. Tomorrow we start swim lessons, and I'm definitely more apprehensive about those. I reminded Zach that he starts tomorrow, and boy, did his smile fade and he said, "I'm a little scared." We'll see how it goes! It doesn't help that I didn't sign up early enough, and as a result, his lessons are at 8:25 in the morning. Oh well- we'll get it out of the way quickly and have the rest of the day to enjoy, right? That's how I'll sell it to him in the morning. I hope he buys it!