My son's first T-ball Game

Last Thursday my son played his first T-ball game.  Let me start by explaining that the rest of his team has played about ten games by this time, but we were out of town so we missed those games.  Yes, I am ok with missing them.  I was sad, but now that I've been to a game, not so much.

At the beginning of the season they used the T to let the children hit the ball but as the season progressed they've now gone to the coaches giving each player five pitches.  My son did not know this of course because we didn't know.  So they made my son the lead-off hitter.  Right.  He didn't hit the pitch his first time at bat but he didn't let that bother him and when the coach told him to run to first base he ran as fast as he could.  Now the whole team bats and no one counts outs and then it's the other team's turn to bat.  Remember my son was the lead off batter, this means that unlike everyone else, there's no one on base in front of him.  So of course when they told him to run to second he stole third.  Why did he steal third, not because he wanted to score a run, because the pretty girl on the other team was playing third base.  Yeah, that's my son.  He waited of course to run until he absolutely had to and then didn't really step on home plate, but he turned back to smile at the girl as he ran to the dugout and almost ran into the kid coming up to bat.

The bottom of the first inning my son played first base.  He was the best first baseman ever, just ask him.  The coach told him where to stand and so he concentrated on standing there.  My girls started cheering for him before the pitch, he looked angrily at us and said "Shh, you are distracting me!" so we had to stop cheering.  He played first base like a pro, fielded the ball, got a couple kids out, wondered why they still got to stand on the base, threw the ball at the back of the coach, and didn't tackle his teammate.  More on the tackling later.  All in all a good first inning, don't worry there were only three innings.

Second inning he went up to bat first again, this time he hit the ball on the fourth pitch and ran his little heart out to first base.  The little girl was playing right field, I saw him start over that way but then decided he didn't want to be too obvious.  He didn't bother stealing a base this time around because all the other fielders were boys.  Also, because she was in right field the run to the dugout from home plate was safer.  He played out field during the second inning and only touched the ball once, but he did not tackle anyone.

Third inning he hit the second pitch and ran to first, beating the ball that was actually thrown well to the first baseman and the smile on my son's face made the entire hour worth it.  I thought he was going to steal third again but the little girl was playing center field so he stayed on second a bit longer than he should have smiling at her.  Then he got to play third base.  This was his favorite because the little girl was the lead off batter so he got to talk to her when she was on third.  After she left he played in the dirt the rest of the game.  I figure that was pretty good for a four year old, he didn't play in the dirt until the last ten minutes of the game.  Here's hoping every team we play has a pretty little girl for him to talk to, otherwise there's going to be a lot of playing in the dirt!

After the game we all told him how great he was and I asked him what he thought of T-ball.  "Well Mom, I'm pretty sure we won.  I think the other team didn't run as fast as we did.  Mom, are you proud of me?  I didn't tackle anyone.  Then, when that other kid tackled the other guy I told them that you don't tackle in T-ball."  Now I love my son and I enjoy a good baseball game, perhaps more than some people.  I must say though if he's not that into T-ball next year we might try a different sport.  I can watch him play in the dirt at home.