Batter Up!

I've decided that I'd be more effective at blogging if I actually learned to tell a quick story "quickly"-- imagine that. So here goes my first attempt...

So Max is obsessed with baseball. Really obsessed isn't a big enough word for what he is- the moment he awakes, he's ready to play. Of course this meant that we signed him up to play tball this fall, thinking it would relieve some pressure on the rest of us to pretend like we want to pitch it and watch him play imaginary ball all day long. But no, there has been no relief. We've just stepped it up to a new level.

Once we got the email informing us that Max's team would be the Orioles, we had to head to Dick's (what he calls "the ball store" the next day because he needed gray baseball pants and a helmet.

This is serious business folks.

Then I had already picked out new cleats for him for his birthday and let him open them 3 day before his birthday and 1 day  before his first practice ever.

The child was elated. He floated on a cloud as he ran bases around my living room for the rest of the day.

Well, early Saturday morning (8am) was his first practice... and none of us wanted to miss it, so we loaded up the van.... all 6 of us.... to go watch Max practice tball. 

And when we got there, our little athlete wouldn't speak or make eye contact or throw the ball for the first 15 minutes. Um, can you say anticlimactic? 

Finally he loosened up a bit-- they were supposed to throw the ball towards the bucket which served as a target. Most of the kids had a hard time getting it in the general vicinity. But Max? Well, he either got it IN the bucket or hit the bucket every single time. 

Then he moved to some hitting practice. The coach tried to tell him where to stand and how to hold the bat. Max looked at him with disgust, turned and got himself ready, and then bunted it off the tee. He is very proud of his bunting skill. We're just glad he didn't switch hit for them.

And then he fielded some ground balls before running the bases.

By this point, my child who has dreamed of running the bases since he escaped my womb was overtaken by his introversion and melted down. Luckily Chad was able to maneuver him through the last 5 minutes without any permanent damage. But after Max was able to process through it all, he declared his first practice as the greatest day of his life.

Slowly but surely, our little Jock is relaxing a bit-- although communication is not his forte, and he won't be caught dead actually speaking audibly to his teammates or coach. It really is too bad there is no "i" in TEAM for Max's sake-- but this will be good for him. 

Life can be properly divided into 5 compartments now-- we play baseball, watch baseball, read about baseball, talk about baseball, or GO to baseball.

And that's it!

His first game is September 4th- it should be highly entertaining! Details to follow....