Wiffle Ball

Jack and his friends from school participated in a wiffle ball tournament last week. It's a fundraiser for the local sports team, a chance to get a bunch of kids running around together (which they'd be doing anyway) while a bunch of adults cheer them on. Jack had been coming off a week with a variety of sports and school and band activities, so I was a little unsure how much energy he'd have for what figured to be a late night of running around.

I needn't have worried.

To backtrack for a minute: the boys had spent the previous couple of days tossing around team names, colors, etc. They ended up settling on an adult-suggested Killer Bees in part because they were going to wear all black with these black-and-yellow Port Chester baseball caps. One parent ordered them yellow wrist bands and the Killer Bees were born. Jack spent some time demonstrating a Killer Bees dance where he pretended to stick his "stinger" out. Buzz.

To Jack's great credit, he gave the whole event the right amount of both effort and humor. He played hard, but didn't get worked up when things didn't go the team's way. When he pitched, he looked focused but happy. He mixed in a couple of crazy throws, including a behind-the-back pitch that I'm pretty sure didn't go for a strike but was cool anyway. When a teammate pitched, he repeatedly went to the mound to talk to them. Later, I asked him what he was saying to them. He said, "Well, I just said, 'Yooouuu got this....it's all on youuu getting this batter out....YOu can do it...'" Motivational speaking by Jack.

They won a game, and he did a little high-stepping dance with his arms flapping, a bumblebee flappy dance if you will. They lost, and he pretty much looked just as happy.

It was a late night. There were some organizational glitches, I think, and lots of time between games. But the last game, at like 10 p.m. (we'd been there since 5 p.m.), there was Jack still bouncing around, jumping against the cushioned gym walls to stay loose, coaching his friends. "Yoooouuuu got this...."

I didn't think I could enjoy watching him play wiffle ball so much.