Musings on Tee-Ball

Wow. I mean, I played softball in my late elementary school years and through middle school, so I knew that a sport involving a stick and a ball is quite a commitment. I didn't realize how all-consuming it would be at the 5- and 6-year-old level. Let this be the warning to you that we never got. Here are some parting thoughts.

-First and foremost, don't be THIS douchebag guy. I don't like to publicly judge people's parenting, but if you get yourself thrown in jail as a result of ANYTHING that happens at a little-league field, then you are just not a stellar parent. I am so glad that this ended up on the news. We arrived after the fight but before they got hauled off, so naturally I was happy to be able to fill in the blanks and share the klassiness with you folks.

-Tee-ball season made it clear that taking time off from working (after a year, I am still unable to refer to myself as a "stay-at-home mom," but that is another post for another day) was an awesome decision. Yes, it was intense with practices and games 3 or 4 times a week, but I was able to sit back and ENJOY it. Being a working mom was hectic enough when I was just trying to feed and bathe them, so I can imagine throwing tee-ball into the mix. I didn't have to feel like it was a burden or an imposition on the little free time I have. I just got to go sit and relax and enjoy watching my son wrestle in the dirt with the kid playing 2nd play tee-ball. This is one of the many reasons that I still maintain that being a working mom is harder than staying at home (I mean, the kids are napping or doing whatever it is they are doing in their rooms, and I am sitting here blogging).

-Our Rockies went 0-and-6 the first 6 games. It was really fun to watch them come together and kinda-sorta figure out the game midway through the season and then start winning some games. They learned what to do when they hit the ball, and they learned how to make outs. It was endearing. I think they finished the regular season with 3 or 4 wins, and then they stayed alive in the double-elimination post-season to play 3 games (if they hadn't, I would've missed the drama from my first bullet point, so for that I particularly thank them).

-I am about to sound all Mama-Tee-Ball-Bear here, which goes completely against everything that I hold dear about parenting, but my blood is still boiling from the last play-off game where we had the worst ump in the history of the planet. Seriously, they lost 12-6, and the ump is responsible for a good half of the other team's runs. We'd never had him before (he was like, 14), and in all games prior, the rule was that the team on the field could call "time" once the ball was under control in the infield. The runners would continue to advance to the base they were in the process of running to, and then the play would be over. This ump's take was that the kid calling time had to have the ball and be in the base path of the kid on the base closest to home. Our kids would call "time," the ump wouldn't recognize it, and the other team would just keep running; meanwhile, our kids didn't know what to do to get him to end the play. THEN one of the kids DID have the ball and WAS standing in the path of the kid on third. No other runners were advancing, the play was over, and any other ump but ours would have called "time." This one didn't, and as our kid was getting the ball back to the mound, the runners ran and scored another run or two. Meanwhile, as a base coach that day, it didn't even occur to me to play by any other rules than those that the kids knew. It's annoying not knowing whether or not they could have had a different outcome.

-How embarrassed was I. This was from the same game and same ump. There were runners coming into second and third, and our kid caught the ball and tagged 3rd base. It would have been an out if it was a force, but of course by that point it was not. EVERY mom on our team started yelling hysterically at the ump, and I am sitting there wanting to hide under the bleachers so no one would think that I was part of this mob yelling at the ump for a completely undebatable call. One of the moms was complaining about it to me after the game, so I explained the concept of a force. She said "they're just kids! They shouldn't have different rules for kids than they do for grown-ups!" I was thinking, "um, pretty basic actually..." and can only hope my response didn't come out sounding quite so smug.

-As crazy a couple months as that was, I really do hope Liam wants to do it again next year. I'm a baseball girl, and Andy loves it, too (though he will be Liam's biggest sympathizer if he never wants to do tee-ball again because Andy hated actually playing the sport). I mean, really. My dream during my pre-teen years was to play for the Braves when I grew up. Would have been sooo much better than insurance.