Man-day Post: The Boys (and Girls) of Summer
It's time for this weeks Man-day post by Jensguy.
This picture represents the entirety of my Little League playing career.
Some things about that:
1. Notice that we weren't named the Dodgers, Bears, or anything like that. We were Lin's Groceries. We matched up against teams like Chuck's Auto and Red Rock RV Resort. Also, note the blue jeans and the quality of our apparel.
2. We didn't even know what a baseball tee looked like, they just put some guy on the mound and said "throw it just to the front of that guy at the plate." Needless to say there weren't a tremendous amount of hits unless you count pitches hitting batters.
3. Not only did they keep score, they published the standings in the newspaper. Those sponsors definitely got their money's worth.
4. I'm top row, second from the right. The kid to the right of me, was a groomsman at Jennifer's and my wedding.
Today I am entering my fourth year of coaching. Evidently we are the type of parents that don't get to just show up, we are always either in charge or assisting. I'm a much better coach than player and the organizational aspects of Little League have gotten better, as has the swag and team names. Here is my son Caleb playing for the Muck Dogs.
This year is going to be different. Caleb's team has a great coaching staff so I am going to coach my daughter Bekah's softball team. It is made up of kindergarteners and preschoolers (I'm sure Jennifer will publish the pics after we get them.) I can tell this is going to be a different experience.
We had our first practice yesterday and here are the highlights:
1. One of the girls, during our base running drills rounded third and just sat down. We rushed over thinking she was hurt, and asked her if she was OK. She just sat there and looked at us, until she finally started to cry. Confused, at first I was like:
Then I did the correct thing and let the other coach, who is also a mother, handle the situation. It turns out that the girl wasn't hurt, but just didn't handle mornings well (practice started at 8:00 AM.) That I can actually relate with.
2. About 10 minutes later during batting practice one of the other girls screamed "I lost a tooth!" I rushed over assuming she had taken a shot to the face from a bouncing grounder and I was going to have to use my Boy Scout first aid skills. Then the shouts turned into squeals of joy followed by excitement from her teammates. Apparently the girl had been working on that tooth for several weeks and she had finally finished it off while waiting for the grounder to approach. The Tooth Fairy is due to visit, accounting for the excitement.
Opening Ceremonies Are Next Saturday. Play Ball!
