Baseball

Caleb's first season of baseball has been interesting.  Apparently, 5-years-old is too old to start playing baseball around here.  The other kids on Caleb's team have been playing for two years, and most of them are really good.  Not just skilled, but also very knowledgeable about the game.  Caleb started out completely lost and now he hovers around mildly confused.  After watching him suffer through the first couple of games, I decided it was time for baseball boot camp with Mommy.  The next day, I took all three kids to a nearby park.  I put Lydia in her stroller, safely shielded from any runaway balls, sent Ethan to the playground, and spent 45 minutes teaching Caleb how to bat.  He was resistant and whiny (as he usually is when being taught something he doesn't necessarily want to learn at that moment), but we plugged away.  By the end of that session, he had down the basics of swinging a baseball bat.  

Over the next couple of weeks, I played baseball with him every chance I got: batting, throwing, catching, running bases, fielding, etc.  And he has gained a lot of ground in the five weeks since the season started.  He can hit pretty well off the tee (though 5-year-olds play machine-pitch here, so he first has to miss five pitches on the machine in order to get to the tee).  He can throw decently and stop a grounder pretty reliably, and he generally knows where to throw the ball when he gets it.  His favorite is running the bases, particularly that last stretch to home base.  I think he would like batting better if he didn't have to miss those five fast pitches before getting to the tee.  Most of the other boys on his team connect with the fast pitch every time they bat.  He's only hit a pitched ball twice this season, and one was a foul ball.  Even so, he is catching up, and, if baseball turns out to be his thing, he will probably be on par with his peers in a couple more seasons.  

His best moment in baseball so far was during his most recent game.  He was up to bat and the machine-pitched ball slammed into his thumb, mashing it against the baseball bat he was gripping.  It hurt pretty bad, but he choked back the tears, took a moment to compose himself, and then got back in the batting stance, ready for the next pitch.  That next pitch was one of the two that he's connected with this season :)  The coach was impressed with how he handled himself, and came over to tell us so right after Caleb got to first base.