Tanner's Tball Season Wrap Up

Tanner's Tball party the other night finished off his first season of baseball (well any organized sport actually). He had a great time and it was a great season all the way around, without any of the drama of Jake's season.

This is the 3rd year that I have coached T-Ball and this team was entirely different from the first two years. Normally one of the first things that you have to do is diffuse the "mob" mentality of everyone running to the ball no matter where it is hit. I got pretty creative about it in the past and came up with a game we played called "freeze baseball". I would hit the ball and blow a whistle and all the kids would freeze in place. Then we would talk about who should get the ball, why and what they should do with it when they had it. Then I would blow the whistle again and we would finish the play. I was pretty proud of my creativity given my lack of coaching experience and was all ready to do that again this year. The first time we tried it, I hit the ball and no one moved to get it. Everyone held their positions like they should have (including the kid who was supposed to get the ball). So it was an entirely different ball game this season from day one.

The kids were great, most of them paid attention, as much as you would expect at this level

anyway. Even Tanner ended up picking daisies

every once in a while. We played the league directors team the last game of the season and she made a point of stopping me in the parking lot after the game and saying how great and attentive that our boys were and that we were the best team she played all season which made me feel good.

They made a couple of rule changes this year that made the season a lot more fun also. After the first couple weeks, we were allowed to throw three pitches to the kids to hit. If they didn't hit them then they hit off the tee. This made the game a lot more fun for the kids on the team that were able to hit, like Tanner. By the end of the season, he was regularly belting them into the outfield. Otherwise it is still an "everybody hits, everybody scores, no stats, no score" league which is a blast.

Also, since there are no standings, the "everyone gets a trophy" thing is easier since every team finishes in 1st place. Tanner got his 1st trophy and is so proud of it sitting on the headboard of his bed. The parent group for this team was great as well. Coaching T-Ball is such a group thing as you have several parents in the field both on offense and defense, a parent pitching and a couple of parents manning the bench (as well as the all important snack parents for each game), and I always had plenty of help and everyone was really appreciative.

All in all it was a great 1st season and Tanner grew a lot skill wise over the course of the year. Here is his highlight video (Hey he's gonna need to got to college too!).

Congrats on a great season slugger. Can't wait for next year!