Summer baseball

There are lots of different sports programs out here in our area and towards the end of the school year the kids brought home a flier from school for a summer baseball program that would just be about a month long, 2 games a week. I have been wanting to give Luke the experience of playing baseball on a team to learn some of the basics and this seemed like a good program for us since he was involved with soccer in the fall and spring. When the deadline for the registration got closer I thought about asking M&M if she would be interested in playing as well. The league is coed and the age group that Luke would be in was ages 7-9 and M&M is still 9 until the end of this month. So I asked her if she wanted to play and be on the same team as Luke and to my surprise she said "sure". So I signed them both up and requested on the registration forms that they be placed on the same team.

The games were geared more towards just learning the basics of hitting, throwing, catching, positions and running the bases. They played with no outs and everyone got to bat each inning with no strikeouts. The coach pitched the ball to the kids and if they didn't hit it after several tries it was placed on the T for them to hit. They only had one practice at the beginning of the season and then there were games 2 evenings a week for a total of 8 games.

Their coach turned out to be the dad of one of Luke's friends from 1st grade. He was super nice and patient and did a great job coaching the kids. I tried to help out when I could but I could only do so much with my 3 younger girls with me. Unfortunately all but the first game were at 5:30 in the evening and went until 6:30 so DH couldn't make it to too many of them. My parents were able to come to quite a few of the games though so they helped out with girls when Baby K didn't need to be fed so I could help out the team. I never played baseball of softball on a team growing up but I know the basics enough to be able to help out somewhat.

M&M was one of two girls on their 10-player team. Most of the kids were closer to Luke's age but there were one or two that were M&M's age. They both learned a lot about the sport (but by no means everything) and they both improved greatly over the season with batting, throwing & catching. M&M has told me that she would like to play again. (I'm glad the season is over so that we can get back to a normal dinner & bedtime routine again. 5:30 games twice a week were just killing me...)

Some highlights of the season:
- M&M hitting a grand slam
- Luke trying to bat with his batting helmet on backwards - this was the second to last game too! He didn't realize it was on wrong until the coach said something to him. (Luckily DH was there and got a picture of it! ;)
- M&M running the bases and passing another runner on 2nd base. She just kept going until she made it home (the other runner woke up and started running after she passed him and made it home after her ;)

Check out that form (and the tongue)...