Youth baseball season has come and gone and here I am just getting around to blogging about it. Well, technically I guess that's not true as I did share some early tales of extreme weather and extreme exhaustion.

And also, let's be totally honest, the phrase "come and gone" is not really an adequate descriptor. More like, "come and stayed and lasted and lingered and continued and finally--mercifully--gone." Did I mention it was a LONG season? Starting with winter coats at April practices, continuing through May flooding and relocation, and finishing with a five-games-in-three-days weekend tournament at the end of June. And that was just Edward! Daniel's coach-pitch tee ball was but a six-week blip in comparison.

They both really liked it and even after three months, I heard Edward sigh wistfully in the middle of the week after the season ended, "Oh, I wish I still had baseball!"

I think he really likes being a part of a team. Also, at his age they use a pitching machine, which (usually) makes it possible to have some success with hitting. (The machine wasn't always consistent.) 

Edward in right field; umpire feeds the balls into the pitching machine

He started strong, then went through a few weeks where he adopted a weird batting stance, holding the bat way over his head and striking out a lot, then allowed himself to be corrected and got back to connecting the bat and ball. 

John was often the third base coach

Now, it didn't always get past the pitcher, but that was actually OK since it was rare for any team in this league to be able to throw out a runner at first. After one of those little dribblers, one of the other dads commented, "Well, you know, his on-base percentage is actually pretty high with those." 

His fielding was...shall we say...unfocused. Early in the season they rotated the kids through various positions, but ultimately Edward ended up in left field, without much action.

Rare "readiness." Likely had something to do with
John standing at the fence to take the picture.

 The final weekend was a bit much with the last regular season game on Friday evening followed by two tournament games each on Saturday and Sunday. And it was HOT! But then it was over and only Edward was sorry.

Participation medal

Team at the end of the tournament weekend

Daniel was a trooper with going to all those games, but it helped that we let him play at the nearby playground and there were always plenty of other baseball siblings to have fun with. He also appreciated Edward's game day preparation:

Is it weird to fire yourself up for a game by reading
about Abraham Lincoln's funeral train?

Daniel was just as intense about tee-ball as every other sport he's played.

Happy to be on a team with his good friend, who we met when the
older brothers were on the same tee ball team two summers ago

His was a coach-pitch format with four or five chances to hit the coach's pitch before hitting off a tee.

Swinging too high

Note the tongue; sign of concentration

The kids all stood in the field while the other team batted, but it would be a stretch to say that Daniel did any actual defense. But he had fun and he could certainly tell you how many games his team won, even though they don't keep score and every kid gets to bat every inning.

Pre-game warm up

I tried to de-emphasize the whole winning/losing thing to focus on having fun and learning the game, but he was not buying it. This did lead to me being hilariously called-out in front of my parents when they came with me to pick him up from a sports-themed week at day camp and he said, "Mom, I know you don't care about winning and losing, but my team won both soccer games today!" He was pleased.

The last baseball-related item was a big surprise to me. I asked Edward to make thank you cards for his two coaches and he took his materials and disappeared for a while. When he came back, this is what he had created:

for reference

He had grabbed his hat and free-hand copied the logo with crayon and colored pencil. I had no idea he could do that--100% Kenyon genes at work!