We signed the kids up for their first season of baseball this summer (I didn’t realize how much that would fill up the calendar!). I figured it was a safe enough sport during this crazy pandemic world we still live in and that my boy needed to at least have one season of baseball/tball under his belt. And when my daughter found out her best friend was playing, she decided to join in too.

As for Lincoln, he’s been known to have an outburst or two when things don’t go his way. I’ve seen 4 year old tantrums before; I’d put his up against anyone’s. When we would just play around in the yard and he would make an out, he’d run crying and screaming to the front porch or the edge of the yard and just sulk or cry huge tears. I fully expected him to do this when we started a league (his first scrimmage is next week so that will be in Volume 2 :))

Emerson had her first scrimmage tonight – Tuesday, May 18th, 2021. I didn’t have anything else to do so I helped out and coached third base. There was such a buzz around the field – kids, parents, siblings, the bright lights for the 7:10 start time. The kids did a great job getting all their equipment together and gathering in the dugout. They (mostly) paid attention in the field and listened to their coaches.

Watching your kid go up to bat is…something. I kept waiting to see where she was in the batting order and wondered how she would do. Nervous, jittery, anxious…all those words applied to ME. I think she was okay the whole time. She got up for her first plate appearance in the 2nd inning and there were 2 men on and 2 out. She took 2 pretty good swings (and 1 not so good) and struck out to end the inning. She didn’t make contact with the ball. She took it like a champ, got some encouragement from her coach, grabbed her glove and headed out to play the field. She wasn’t the first strikeout and she wouldn’t be the last.

Her 2nd at-bat came a bit later. She got to an 0-2 count and then barely fouled off what would have been Strike 3. I was getting a bit nervous and honestly, expected another strike out. But she took a swing and made contact! The ball didn’t make it back to the pitcher but it didn’t matter. She paused for what felt like forever before dropping the bat and taking off for first. I had a runner coming to me for 3rd base coaching that I needed to handle but she made it to FIRST. Her first hit in her first scrimmage! I couldn’t have smiled bigger!

She made it to 2nd base on her teammates next hit and was heading for 3rd when the last out of the inning was made. She told me later on she wanted to get to third so she could spend some more time with me (what a kid).

She started in the field at catcher and did a pretty decent job. She was able to dribble the ball back to the pitcher and she fell down once trying to grab a ball on the move but she shook it off well. She fielded a ball in the outfield and threw it back into the infield (“fielding” and “throwing” in the loosest sense of the word but hey, we know what to practice on now). She also had a few balls squeak past her in her various positions in the field but we’ll be working on anticipating where the ball is going too but hey, she’s only SEVEN and it was her first live action.

I am so so so proud of this girl – if you can’t tell from my writing. I honestly thought she might want to give in when she found out her and her best friend weren’t on the same team – and that would have been