Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Tuesday was Aiden’s first baseball game. 
While I haven’t been on the official coaching staff, I have been helping out as much as possible. I guess I’m a sucker for helping out even though I won’t commit at the beginning to actually be a coach. It happened with football and soccer down in Tennessee and now it’s happening in baseball up here. That’s OK, though. I’m not complaining. This is such a great age to watch kids play! And I’m getting to know some of the coaches, kids, and their parents. That makes it a win-win, right?
This was the first game for most of the kids – and you could tell. They’d only faced a pitching machine one or two times during practice. Add to the fact that they were excited about the game, there was a big crowd cheering them on, and they were actually facing an opponent…most of them had that ‘deer in the headlights’ look on their faces when they got up to bat.
My problem when I’m coaching kids is that I get super-excited whenever they do something they’re supposed to do. In football, whenever one of the kids would catch the ball, I’d jump up and down, yelling for him to run as hard as he could. Not because I was angry, but because I was happy to see what they’d been practicing actually come together. I enjoy watching other people succeed. Same thing here. Every time one of our players made contact with the ball, I was jumping up and down, encouraging him to run as hard as he could. I’m sure I was a sight to behold. I hope I didn’t scare any parents. That’s just what I need.
“Who’s that weirdo jumping up and down yelling at my kid? He’s kind of…spooky. I don’t know if I want him around my kids.”
“Oh, he’s the Pastor at that church on the other side of the tracks.”
“Oh. I’ll make sure not to visit that church this Sunday.”
Yeah. That’s what we need for publicity.
So I tried to keep myself somewhat calm. But there were a few times I couldn’t. Of course, there were the times when Aiden was up to bat. He hit the ball both times. His first time, he was thrown out at first base (although it was probably a tie and he should have been ruled safe). The shocking thing about his first at-bat was what happened before he hit the ball. Alyson kept hanging on the fence behind the plate. I warned her that she didn’t want to do that because a foul ball could hit her through the fence. She didn’t believe me. So she stayed close to the fence. Aiden hit a foul ball and it went right towards her face, almost hitting her in the nose! It was one of those ‘I told you so’ moments for dad. Of course, she was back up against the fence a few plays later.
He hit a double his second at-bat. Pretty impressive.
I really like that the coaches all have the same attitude about this game. They’re at the age where the important thing is to learn about baseball and to have fun. Winning isn’t important. In fact, we’re not keeping track of wins – even though we’re keeping score. There are some coaches in the league who are all about winning, but I really believe we’re really with the right team (even though it is the Red Sox!). It’s a far cry from our basketball experience a few years ago.
There were these two kids who had struggled with hitting during practices. One of them was the first kid on the team to actually get a hit and I was excited for him. The other kid is probably the smallest one on the team. And he hit a home run. Well – it was really a single with three errors, but a home run sounds so much cooler! I was almost as excited for him as I was for Aiden.
I hope I don’t embarrass Aiden.
Too much.
I know I won’t be as bad as “King James’s” mom a few nights ago.
