playing catch

Jack and I played catch in the backyard today. As always, we started out with me pitching to him, and he'd hit a few good ones and I'd pretend to try to field them before he circled the imaginary bases. About a week ago I introduced the gloves and playing catch with a real baseball, or a "soft strike" which is the size of a baseball but slightly softer I guess? Dunno, feels much like a real baseball.

Anyway, since he starts baseball, or Tee Ball, this spring, I figured I needed to introduce him to the idea that there's more to baseball than just batting. Last week I was tossing it to him underhand and he had no idea how to manipulate a glove or anything; he wanted to put it on the wrong hand, and sort of waved at throws. I was careful not to throw it too near his head because the odds of him getting his glove up were slim.

Then we played a second time on I believe Thursday, just about 5-10 minutes. And then today I said, OK, let's play a little catch, figuring I'd slowly build him up to it, and he'd catch on gradually.

We played catch for somewhere between half an hour and an hour, breaking only for a few minutes here and there. And he got it. After 10 minutes, I was throwing overhand. After 15, he was throwing balls I had to reach up to catch, and I was moving further away.

That's what it feels like, to teach somebody something and have him all of a sudden just get it. It was great.

He still caught fewer than got by him, either because my throw was slightly off or he didn't react quickly enough. A lot bounced off his glove, one hit him in the jaw off the edge of his glove (he started to cry for just a moment, mostly startled I think, then caught himself, and actually physically "shook it off," bouncing up and down and shaking his head until he was OK, and said, "I'm OK"). But a bunch of them he caught, getting his glove up, hearing the ball smack into it, being pleased with himself.

I showed him a few kooky grips. This is a knuckleball. This is a forkball. Jack: "A forkball? Why don't they call it a 'Peace Ball'? Since you have your two fingers like this." And I laughed and said, I dunno, I guess the pitch is older than the peace sign is?

We'd played the first time with Laney out in the backyard, and her jumping up and trying to get the ball from our hands, or picking it up off the ground in her mouth and running off with it. That was a bit complicated. I'd forgotten it until Jack said today, out of the blue, "You know, this is a lot more relaxing without Laney here." He had a fair point, there.

A couple of times we took a break, and I thought it would be the end of it. But he said, "I'm ready, let's keep playing catch." And so we did.

I think I could have thrown that ball back and forth forever.