Baseball Highlights

Well, last night was the second game of the season for the Tigers, my son's 7-8 year old baseball team!

If you remember from the opening day games, that when Tiernan got up to bat he forgot to stop, and just kept running. Before the game, he was out on the bases practicing listening to the base coach and stopping. His first at bat, he hits a ball into the infield and is thrown out at first base. His second at bat, the team is down, and really needs a rally...Tiernan hits, the fielder bobbles the ball and he rounds first and heads to second, about this time the fielder gets the ball, and as Tiernan crosses second and starts to third he throws the ball towards the second baseman and it goes past...so on home Tiernan goes...SCORE.

In the end, they lost the game, but the kids had alot of fun. On another note...the other team! Ummmm. You know, the kids are seven and eight year olds, not high school ball players, some of them this is their first year, and yet the coach was really getting onto them about hitting and fielding. When they missed Tiernan and he game home, that coach was fit to be tied! You have to realize that Tiernan is probably the shortest, thinnest, littlest guy on the field and for him to hit and score a "home run" about did the other coach in. I was a little worried.

I have always put my kids in non-competetive sports up until this point. My favorite is Upward Sports, http://www.upward.org my son did Flag Football and Basketball, and my daugther did Cheerleading, and we love it. The focus is on learning the skills and good sportsmanship, not winning. I had heard that the local baseball league could be a little competitive, but I figured they were seven and eight years old, how competitive can you be at that age? It's not the kids that are competitive, it's the parents! UGH! I hid near the back of the duggout the whole time, and avoided the parents on the other team....because I wasn't sure how I would act if I got near them. I am hoping it was a one coach deal.

I have to say that we are blessed to have the coach we have for Tiernan's team. We know the family, his son is in school with Tiernan and they are good friends and he is not that competitive type person. His son is even pretty good, but he is more about having fun, learning the skills and being a good sport than he is about winning, and that is what I want Tiernan to learn from this whole experience anyway.