Ethan's First Tball Season

Well! The season's over... and we're all a little bummed about it. It was the first team sport we put him in, and he enjoyed it a lot... looking forward to every baseball practice and the "real game" on early Saturday mornings. The early wake up calls aren't going to be missed as much, but being able to give Ethan the opportunity to make friends, learn the fundamentals of a sport he clearly loves and learn about teamwork was priceless.

And because I was a bad mommy and didn't post after every weekend of tball, here's my sad attempt of a season wrap up.


The kids were all a hoot, 9 boys and 1 girl. They don't have much concept of "positions"... it's more like "whoever gets the ball first wins". For the first few games, the kids were like puppies climbing over each other to get the ball, arms and legs flying wildly in the scrum. Frequently, whichever kid won the ball in the scrum would just hold it up over his head triumphantly... then look around while the coaches and parents (including myself) yell "Throw it to first base!" Eventually, towards the end of the season, they started to learn to stay within their own boundaries.

But attention spans being what they are, each game would start to deteriorate a bit after the first two innings. The trick was to rotate the kids so that they all have a chance to "do something" other than wait. Seeing as we played 90% of the games on grass and not dirt, the balls didn't normally go past the pitcher's mound, so unless you were the pitcher, the short stop or the first baseman, there really wasn't much action to go around. In Ethan's case, there are times when he said he didn't want to play anymore because he didn't get the ball... but when he did get the ball, you would think the boy had just won the World Series. Their favorite part was batting and running around the bases. They all got considerably better in the few weeks they played, and Ethan especially loved wacking that ball as hard as he could!

He also loved being the catcher, or as we called it, the "Transformer". Putting on all that gear never appealed to the kids until we started calling it that, then everyone wanted to be the Transformer. Since the kids hit from a tee, the catcher's job was solely to get the ball thrown from first base and put it on the tee and sometimes tag the kids running to home plate.

During one of the games, several outfielders got into a wrestling match, which the coach decided wasn't worth the effort to defuse. There was one particular kid who would sporadically take himself out of the "game" and just hang out with the rest of us on the side. Ethan danced when he got bored......

The sidelines (ie makeshift dugouts in the outfield) were always filled with proud parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in lawn chairs, many with dogs and/or younger siblings trying on helmets that covered their whole head. One of the best parts of the season was watching parents step up to be base coaches. EVERY SINGLE PARENT of the kids on the team were at some point on the field cheering on every player (not just their own). Of course, I instinctively became the unofficial team photographer. Everything was so chaotic, not necessarily in a bad way, but most parents were too busy either coaching on a base or getting the next batters up ready, that they got too busy to take pictures on their own. I made sure all the parents had a chance to have some of those memories preserved....

Coach Mark and Coach Mando were great with the kids, especially Coach Mark. His kid played in the same league last year, but this was his first year coaching. Practices were at 4 on Tuesdays so my mom and dad took Ethan to practice, so my interaction with the coach was limited to the Saturday games.... but he was GREAT with the kids. He coached them no different from coaching his own. And the best part was that at the end of the season, he was truly and genuinely proud of each of one of them. So proud, in fact, that he ended up buying personalized trophies for all the kids (the league would only provide medallions).

The end of the season was bittersweet. Yes, these are only 4 year olds, and yes, there will be plenty more baseball seasons in our future. But this was his first. His first uniform. His first team. His first single. His first slide home. His first coach. His first trophy.

Way to go Ethan! Mommy and Daddy are PROUD OF YOU!

GO CUBS!!!!