Tee ball season has arrived and with it twice-weekly two-hour stints in the park to watch/coach the boys' teams. Did you catch the part about "coach." Yeah, so the way the parks department keeps this program affordable is through the use of volunteer parent coaches. And the way said coaches are recruited (if they don't just spring up naturally shouting "I will, I will!") is through an email reading, "Your child's team is currently without a coach." The implication being that the team will be redistributed to other parks if a coach is not located. This would prove extremely problematic given our inability to be in two parks at once. So a friend of mine (whose son is in Edward's class at school and with whom I'd coordinated to have them on the same tee-ball team) suggested that we answer the call. She at least played  youth softball. The most involvement I've ever had is playing "running bases" on the sidewalk in front of our house.

Well, so far, it's not too bad, though I have to say it reinforces my early-life decision NOT to be a teacher. (My HS guidance counselor was an octogenarian nun who still held the quaint notion in the early 1990s that only two occupations were open to women. When she asked me, "So, do you want to be a teacher or a nurse?" I answered definitively, "NEITHER!" It is possible that she never fully recovered.)

The first two practices have gone well. Our team is small (nine kids but two have yet to show up), so with dividing into two groups for skills practice, each kid doesn't have to wait too long for a turn. Edward would insist that I clarify that his team is not tee-ball, but "coach pitch." This means that each kid gets three pitches from the coach to try to hit before we bring out the tee. We accepted the coaching gig with the assurance that the recreation-dept. staffer who serves as field coordinator (he brings the bases and other equipment) would do the pitching.

Edward plays from 5-5:50 p.m. and then Daniel's team (for which two other heroes answered the coaching call) plays from 6-6:50. Both in the same park about five blocks from our house. We load up the wagon with our baseball gloves, a cooler full of water, and a picnic "dinner" and head out the door at about 4:45. John joins us after he gets home from work. One week down and five to go (with the 4th of July week off.)

(The reason all the pictures are of Daniel is that I was coaching when John arrived during Ed's practice and he didn't realize I had the camera. We will try to rectify this at a later session.)