Tee Ball!

When people say to you "it's different when its your kid" I always kinda knew what they were talking about. But as each day goes by with Ryan I see it more and more. When I found out he would be old enough for tee ball this fall, I was pumped, then kinda nervous. More nervous for him, its a weird feeling. I didn't want him to fail and I wanted him to enjoy it and have a great time. He and I always have fun throwing the ball and playing around, but this is different. Anyway, we got him all signed up and ready to go. He and I went out and got a new tee ball bat, some balls and some sweet cleats. He was ready to roll and was gonna look good doing it. As it got closer, he was excited and ready to play. And finally we got a chance to see how this whole thing would work.

Friday night was his first practice. And if you've ever been around 3/4 year olds you know that this was crazy. He got out there and after getting over some initial shyness, went up to the plate, did everything we worked on and hit and ran the bases like he belonged out there. He LOVES to hit and run the bases! Hitting is the fun part, but once he had to go play the field and wait for balls...that's another story. He definitely takes after his Dad and wants to hit! He got down and worked on his defense for about 5 min and then was ready to hit again..ha.
So after practice, he got his cool new jersey and hat (they are Scrappers) which is a Class A affiliate of the Indians, a big dog on the hat is all you need to know!

So game #1 was Saturday, all very interested to see how he would do and how this whole thing worked. Picture eleven 3 and 4 year olds on a small infield and each one has a parent with them. Then there is a parent on each base to help the other team run bases and direct the kids where to go! Total chaos and a ton of people on a tiny field! Then each time a ball was hit at least 5 kids jumped on the ball and that was only if the ball was able to get past the baserunner who would leave the base and grab the ball first sometimes! It was quite the sight to see. We had kids locked in and playing and some sitting down and some drawing in the dirt, and only a few tears.

When we got there, I tried to get Ryan to warm up and throw. Nope, just wanted to hit. Well luckily we got him to use his glove a little bit and get excited about it. Then the game started and of course, we were the home team and on the field first. So Ryan and I assumed our positions at shortstop and Ryan was ready to go. Then he saw the other team getting ready to hit and decided that he wanted to hit...RIGHT NOW! So inning #1 was interesting for me while I was trying to convince him that we had to play defense as well as hit and wait his turn. Bad part is, he played on the left side of the infield and all the kids hit the ball to the right side so our action was limited. The other thing that didn't help was that all the other team had cool helmets and he decided that he wanted to hit and wanted a helmet!! Finally it was our turn to bat. So Ryan quickly tossed his glove down and ran to get HIS bat. Then when it was his turn, he grabbed his helmet and was all grins. And he did GREAT hitting, walked up there both times and knew what he was doing and hit the ball great and ran the bases like a champ. A couple smashes up the middle! Uncle Matt did a great job catching the hits on video as well as an awesome picture of his first run he scored with a huge grin. He also caught a quick video of what happens when they take too long to hit (the helicopter!).
Defense the second time started out bad then he was OK with playing then decided he was tired and declared "I'm done" ha. We only played 2 innings and it took a long time! But everyone got to at-bats and had a good time! The next game should operate more efficiently.
Ryan's first game was a success, he did great and I"m sure the first of a million games spanning who knows how many sports. Can't stinkin wait!

Here are the videos and a picture. I posted a lot more pictures on the shutterfly site (and tried this cool thing that posted the slide show on the blog) Enjoy!

Click here to view these pictures larger