Baseball

Today was the opening Saturday of the baseball season, with Jack playing at 9 and Kate playing at 11:30. Just last night, and indeed when we woke up this morning and it was raining, we didn't think it would happen. But the rain stopped, the tarp came off the field, and Jack and I headed over at 8:45 for his 9:30 game. On the way we saw a bunny on a neighbor's side lawn. We stopped and watched it for a few minutes.

Jack's game was against A team coached and well represented by his travel team coaches. Didn't expect to win, but in fact it was very competitive, with us trailing 7-4 entering the final inning. Jack hit the ball pretty well and was solid in the field, making a couple of plays at shortstop and playing a solid inning behind the plate. This was impressive because he was shakier in his first game, the previous night, and it was nice to see him step it up. Turned a nice putout with a school friend and nearly a great one with another teammate. We lost the game, but he and the team had every reason to feel proud of their effort. For my part, even though I at one point sent Jack into an out on the basepaths, it was nice to be coaching...in the summer, I mostly just kept score and assisted at practices.

It was like Jack himself said later, when I asked him if he was enjoying Minors. He said he was, enthusiastically; that, "you know, I had fun doing Summer Travel, but now I'm getting to DO more." (E.g., playing shortstop, leading off the batting order, etc.) On the travel team he wasn't one of the best players; now he is.

Kate's T Ball game was a nice little interlude, three innings of little kids knocking the ball off a tee, converging on it in the field, maybe throwing it to first. The games are kind of a hoot, but the kids had fun and most of the same coaches and friends from Jack's game were there -- one guy wore three different shirts while coaching three different teams in the space of four hours. Kate played with a smile on her face, which is about all you want to see.

Afterward we got lunch at the fields, chatted with other kids and parents from other teams, said hi to former players and teammates ("Hey weren't you my coach on Perrone Bros.?" Yup, hi Joseph). Just a really nice day.

For a couple hours or so, I talked to other coaches and watched other games. Jack played running bases, this baseballish game that all the kids play. Jack describing it later: "running bases is great because you never get tired of it. Until maybe after an hour, when you get bored. But then you take about half an hour off, and come back to it, and there are new catchers, and it's fun again."

We ate dinner out, watched Gilligan's Island, put the kids to bed early. Then I sat down to write about a great day of baseball.