Plaaaaaay Baaaaaaaaallll!

Heidelbeereʻs oldest is the right age to be playing in the local league this year.  The youngest players start with t-ball.  Boy does that bring back memories of when our kids were in the local sports leagues as they were growing up. Ours played baseball, soccer, and football.  Summers were always busy. Crazy at times; rush home from work, wolf something down for dinner, and hit the playing field.

Anyway, every kid loves being at bat.  Her team has a very patient coach.  The kids are hilarious - all levels of skill.  You can really tell that some parents have worked with their kids - theyʻre out there all focused and in the game.  Others not so much.  Our little player, well, sheʻs out there in the middle.

So she comes to bat ....

Gets a few pointers from the coach, like how to hold the bat, where to put your feet, how to swing at the ball so you donʻt kill the tee, donʻt hit your coach when you swing.  Basic stuff like that.

Sheʻs does alright at the tee.  Good swing, usually hits the ball instead of the tee.  Pretty good form.

At her first practice I asked her what you do at bat.  You hit the ball, she said.  Then what, I asked.  "I donʻt know."  You run to first base!

Sheʻs a pretty good runner.  Some of the kids tear off for first, fast as they can go.  Some not so much.  Some kind of dance their way between bases.  At this age, if you hit the ball passed the line you get to run.

The rule is one base hits all the time, no matter how hard you hit the ball.  It works out well, most kids donʻt hit it hard enough to get any farther than that anyway.

Most of the kids arenʻt that good at catching or throwing so thereʻs never any real contest in getting to first base.  Its pretty much guaranteed youʻll make it.  Same with second base.

So each time a batter comes up the kids on base advance to the next base.  The only out Iʻve seen so far was once when one of the kids actually caught the ball on the first bounce and made the throw to first in time to hit the runner.  The runner went back to the bench but I think it was more a matter of it having hurt a little rather than counting it as an out.

So in to home plate she runs.  The bases fill up and stay loaded for the whole inning.  They bat until everyone has been at bat twice, then the last runner runs all the way in, pushing the other runners ahead and in.  Nobody keeps score, though our player is starting to notice that the other team seems to get lots of runs in  We just point out that her team does, too.

Outfield is a different matter.  The interest is high at first.

But gradually, as there is far less action in the outfield than at bat, interest begins to fade a bit.

Yeah, interest begins to wane a lot, readiness suffers but in the end it doesnʻt make a whole lot of difference.  In field pretty much always gets the ball.

Summer is upon us.  One nice thing about these summer games is the pleasant evenings. Nice sunset.  Little league is pretty nice.  Brings back lots of pleasant memories.