Baseball Boy and Softball Girl

Manti is intense. I got a flyer from school for city league baseball and softball sign ups. I asked the kids if they wanted to do it and they both did. Meg did tball when she was 3 and dropped out. Hee hee. She thought it was so boring and would inevitably be sitting in the outfield playing with the grass or just leaving the game to come get a drink from us on the sidelines. You know, because she was working so hard out there. We actually moved to Ogden from Orem so she had to quit. Granted she was only 3, but she didn't request to try again until now. Adin did tball last fall in Salt Lake. He liked it quite a bit and was definitely was one of the best all around players on the team. Both of them had games on Saturdays. Meg had one practice a week and Adin's coach just had them show up a little early for each game and got a little practice in. I assumed that was what I was signing up for. Ha. Ha......HAHAHAHAHA. Not at all.

 Adin got unlucky or lucky depending on how you look at it. He got put on a team whose coach is most likely aspiring to be the high school baseball coach and his drill sargent father. Brian went with him to the first practice and came home extremely concerned. His protective instincts had kicked in and he mentioned pulling Adin out. Adin was by far the smallest on the team and his skills were nowhere near on par with the boys on his team. They had all obviously played before and played a lot. Then pair that with super intense coaches. They yell at the kids if they do something wrong. One kid sat down in the outfield and he got reamed and told if he was going to sit down he could do that at home. Eeesh. They say stuff like, how many times am I going to have to tell you and what is it going to take to get you guys to get this. My blood has boiled numerous times at practice. The boys who have been on his team before were used to it and don't bat an eye. Adin is overall pretty darn easy going, but I was still surprised that he didn't complain about the coaches being mean. One time after practice he said, that old guy yells a lot, but he didn't seem bugged by it at all. We started working overtime with Adin. I would go out in the back with him every day after school and work on catching and batting. Brian was shocked by how fast he improved. Just when he hit his stride and started getting pretty confidant with catching, disaster struck. Brian took him to practice and called me for ice. Adin had taken a ball to the eye. He was hysterical. Poor kid. That was a setback because we had to work even harder because now  he was a little scared of the ball. Over time Adin has started to LOVE baseball. He had his first game last week and he was so excited he couldn't contain his little body. He was off the wall. He got a great hit in the game! His coaches have told us a couple times how impressed they are with his improvement and say he is by far the most improved on the team. When we practice in the backyard together he can hit the ball over our back fence and into the second back yard. The first time he did that, he was so proud of himself. He talked about it the rest of the night. He was like a broken record talking about it. He even had to call Brian and work and tell him about it. The best part about the team he got put on is that their family are Yankees fans as well and the kids ended up with awesome Yankees uniforms and hats. Adorable! I've been super proud of him and how hard he has worked. The other day we were walking home from school and Adin found a dandelion to blow. He made a wish and then blew it. Then he told me that first he was going to wish that he could get really good at baseball, but then he realized if he got really good he wouldn't get to practice with me in the back yard everyday and he didn't want that so he changed his wish. Heart melter.

Meg didn't luck out with her coach either. Her coach is the opposite end. She has only held 2 practices compared to Adin's three practices a week (probably 10-12 practices before his first game). Meg, of course is upset about that. I kind of am too, which is funny because I came into this with quite low expectations. She went into the season really pretty good. Brian said he could tell that things have clicked for her. She is good at catching and only took a little work on batting. I took her to her first practice and she was a nervous wreck. She was pretty timid during all the drills and you can just read anxiety on her face. She was even running timidly when they were base running. We left the practice and I planned to talk to her about not being so shy, but before I could she exploded into how her outfit wasn't right and she didn't have a special softball bag like all the other girls and could we please get her a softball bag to carry her mit and treats and water. Haha. That's Meg for you. Always concerned about her outfits and making sure she looks that part. I did get a chance to talk to her about her shyness and her next practice she was super brave and looked way better. She was sprinting around those bases. I have practiced with her in the backyard too. The problem we have run into is that the girls pitch and none of them can throw strikes. Brian took her to her first game and said that it is two innings of straight walks. No hits. No fielding. Apparently once you've walked 8 then the inning is over. This makes it so the only people playing are the catcher and the pitcher. It's boring for all the other girls and not the greatest learning experience. Too bad we aren't in the position to change anything about that. On a side note, I was talking to Meg about running and how she is probably pretty fast with her long legs. She assured me that she could beat Brian in a race. In my mind that was craziness. I told her she was crazy, and that we would have to test it sometime. She was confidant. This past weekend we took them to the school to practice and I mentioned to Brian that she was sure she could beat him. Of course, the race was on. She is a speedy little thing. Brian beat her but not by much. I was sure that he maybe held up a little for her, but he assured me he was going all out. She wanted to race me. Darn it. Brian kept warning me she was fast, but I was still thinking he had been holding up a little even if it was not consciously. I put everything I had into that race and we tied. She is fast. I'm bummed that her coach hasn't worked with her much, but thankfully Brian has been able to and she is looking awesome. We're trying to encourage her to pick something and stick with it to become really good. She really liked basketball and maybe this season of softball will give her some clarity on what she might want to focus on.

What we got ourselves into is games every single weeknight but Friday and Adin's coach is still having practices on the off days so he is usually at practice during Meg's game. Another thing we didn't anticipate is that all the cities in the county play each other. This has meant traveling for more than half the games and sometimes as far as 40 minutes. What were we thinking??? Problem is that there is a chance they will both want to do it next year.

.