Baseball with Kate

Baseball is a great sport, and we live in a town that's baseball-mad. It's grabbed hold of Jack, for various reasons (including the fact that all of his best friends are equally absorbed by it), and it's reeled us in, too. Great as it is watching Jack play baseball, there is a degree of stress in it. I want him to do well, for his team to win, for him to have fun, for us to be there on time, etc. Big game tonight and I'm sitting here feeling stressed about it, for all those reasons. Happily, it's only like that for some of the games; for many others, most this year, I'm relaxed and can just enjoy myself.

Kate has sort of incidentally been reeled in, as one of the various little sisters to baseball players who run around the park having fun before, during, and after the games, and as a Tee Ball player last year, and this year as a Rookie level player with me as her head coach. For the most part, these games aren't stressful. We don't keep score, everyone bats, almost no one makes any plays of note in the field, good or bad, and it's a low-intensity evening with lots of smiles and fun. Not always (I've seen coaches and parents get into it), but mostly.

By and large the games have been a little closer to Tee Ball than the Minors level that Jack's age plays in. No matter how much you encourage/warn/plead with some, they don't always have the proper focus. Building sandcastles in the infield or batters box, that kind of thing. But some kids are definitely improving their skills, and judging by the attendance and smiles, most are having fun.

Kate doesn't always have her heart fully in it, but she's done pretty well. She hits OK (coach pitch, but there are strikeouts), she throws well. Hasn't quite got the catching down, but she makes game efforts at it almost all of the time. If she reacts a little quicker to balls hit in her vicinity, we'll have something!

She likes to play pitcher and first base, in part because those positions tend to get the most action. Lots of ground balls hit up the middle, lots of throws, seldom accurate of course, to first base.

So last night I put her at first base in the first inning. And a couple of batters in, there was a ground ball hit right to her. She bent over, picked it up, and stepped on the base. OUT! A broad grin broke over her face. She raised both hands in the air and pumped her fists, and that huge smiles wouldn't go away. Her first career putout. I thought she might keep the ball, but instead she threw it back to the pitcher.

I don't know what Kate's ballfield future holds (baseball? softball? neither?), but one night she made a play and was the happiest person on the field. One of the top two, anyway.