Opening Day

Opening Day of the Little League season. Kind of been a lot of snow and rain and cold for the last month, so it was a little unfamiliar to wake up this morning to perfectly blue skies and sunshine. We had slightly later schedules for our games -- Jack with his Majors team, Kate with her Minors team -- so we had breakfast, guzzled coffee, and headed over to the fields at a leisurely pace.

Lot of hurry up and waiting for a while. We had to be there 90 minutes before game time for team pictures, just in case they took a while, but they actually didn't take long, so there was plenty of waiting. And since there were games on the fields, we couldn't practice or anything. Bought Jack a hot dog, had one myself. Kate showed up, bought her a soda. Went back and forth between being one place or another for pictures and trying to keep kids from falling out of trees.

Jack's team won, 5-1. He struck out in his only at-bat, but made a diving catch on a shallow fly ball to center with runners at 2nd and 3rd and one out that saved two runs. Next batter struck out and Jack, amped up, charged off the field, and I saw one of his coaches, also fired up, meet up with him to give him a big clap on the back.

Emily, unfortunately, had gone home to get a jacket and missed the play. She came back and I told her about it, standing with another Mom, and she said, You're messing with me, right? Took a few more tries before she believed us. So the rest of the day when people came up to her and said, great catch! She had to say, yeah, I missed it...

One of his other coaches walked near me later and said, helluva catch. I saw Jack later and he said, "At the meeting afterward, Coach said, I learned a lot about the team today. And I also think we've found our new centerfielder."

Right after his game ended, Kate's began. It was her first Minors game and my first as her head coach. I knew the team has some good players from last season, but I wasn't sure what I'd get from the younger kids. And I didn't know how Kate would do in the field or at the place. I pitch to her in the backyard and the batting cages, but it's not nearly as fast as the pitching machine, just soft toss really, and I was afraid she'd have a hard time making contact.

First half of the first inning, we threw the ball around and the infield and gave up 2 runs. Bottom half, we scored 5, and pretty much kept on hitting the rest of the game in a blowout win. But that wasn't the best part.

First time up, Kate swung and missed twice, and then got a base hit on a hard ground ball up the middle. Stood at first base beaming, proud of herself. Second time up, another ground ball single. Not sure where it was hit. Third time up, another ground single. Maybe this was a well-placed infield single, I don't even know, I was sort of giddy for her by this point. A three-hit game for Kate.

After the win, out in the outfield, I couldn't think of anything bad to say. Told the kids I was proud of the way they hit the ball, ran the bases, and made plays in the field. Snuck a couple of glances at Kate, who had a big smile on her face. Then we pulled up the bases, raked up the field, gathered up happy kids, and headed home.

We burned off the rest of the day with TV baseball and ordering takeout. I sent the kids up for showers, Jack first and Kate second. I heard Jack, upstairs, doing play by play for Kate's.

"Now showering.....Number five....Kate.....Richardsonnnnnnn!!!"