Opening Day

Okay, so we have had two practices now and our Opening Day was this past Saturday. We have one more practice before our first game against the Tigers on Thursday. One of Jake's school friends is on the Tigers so he is very eager for that game.

I am having a little bit of fun doing this; those of you who know me know that being polite and civil to large groups of strangers is not "in my wheelhouse" to use a baseball term, but if I grit my teeth enough to get thru that part of it, the kids are really great and they are having a blast so far (I think anyway...). It's kind of a tightrope to keep practices fun and yet mildy organized, but I think it has been okay so far. We play "freeze-tag" instead of warm-up running (I have almost collapsed twice), we play freeze baseball so they can learn who is supposed to go for the ball (their default programming is everyone....) and what they are supposed to do after they get it, we do our drills and play our "scrimmage". The best part of every practice (and I remember this from my own Little League and Soccer days) is snack break. Practice is one hour and snack break is about 15 minutes of that, so we're not taking it too seriously.

This has been a good way for Marisa and I to meet other families up in Hidden Springs as all of the kids on our team are from here. But we have years of this to look forward to; ferrying kids to practices and games, being roped into managing or being "snack coordinator" (Marisa's job this year...) and are trying to ease into it. As an illustration, I had a new parent call and ask if their kid can join our team late, I said sure if the league says okay. She asked what the practice schedule was and I said we had games on Tues or Thurs and we practiced the other day. She was quiet for a minute and then said, "So nothing on Saturday? That's so.....great! Thank you!"

After pictures on Opening Day, there were run, hit and throw stations that you could cycle through as a team and compete for prizes. I gave the parents and kids the option to go for it or not and we voted to give it a shot. We did the running and the throwing, but the system really bogged down at the hitting station and pretty much everyone bailed at that point. Only one kid went thru the hitting station, and I know what your thinking, but I asked her to turn in my clipboard for me when they were done with it.....

P.S. Not to be that dad/coach guy, but look at Jakes form in the two pictures above. The kid is a natural!