SlugFest 2007
SlugFest was Perry's first venture into baseball competition. He has played baseball for the past 3 years on a parks and rec league. The past 3 summers playing baseball has been about building skills, learning the game and most of all - having fun.
(And of course, let's not forget how cute they look in their baseball uniforms.)
But this weekend Perry learned another skill that can't be taught taking hitting practice. It is a skill that he wasn't even used to... losing. And for twelve 8-year old boys, losing can be tougher than learning the game.
On Perry's parks and rec league the past 3 summers, scores were never kept. It's all about giving kids a glimpse into the game of baseball. Without the losing. That all begins with kid pitch when they are 9 years old. But from the time he has played t-ball, coach pitch, and now machine pitch, it's all about learning the fundamentals and "fun" of the game.
The first game we played in our first-ever tournament was at 8:00am Saturday morning. Perry woke up at 5:45am that morning, calling out for us. He wanted to make sure we were up. His first words that morning... "Dad, it's time to play ball."
The Comets won their first game. And it was a nail-biter too. The score was tied in the 6th and we had to play 3 more innings to win the game!
Go Comets!
But, the Comets lost their second game at 11:50am which meant we had to play at 9:30pm. That night. After we had played at 8:00am in the morning.
They played tough. They played hard. But the Comets lost their 3rd game and our time in the tournament was over.
"If only we had made one more catch. If only we had one more inning."
"If only" was the saying yesterday evening at dark o'thirty. We would have loved nothing more than to get up early again and watch them play another game the next day. I think as parents we may have even been more disappointed than they were.
But the boys got their taste of competition. And they had a taste of winning and losing. They liked winning a whole lot better. We'll play more two more tournaments this summer, as well as our weekly parks and rec games.
Competition will be in their blood now.
And the camaraderie they built as a team this weekend will be their best team-building skill yet.
A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. ~Earl Wilson
Labels: baseball
2 Comments:
Oh my goodness, Lori, who is that handsome OLD kid??? You really better look out for him.
Nice post.
Don't you hate those learning moments--you know the ones that you yourself learned so many years ago and can see you own child struggling with the same elations and disappointments.
Mom stay strong and breathe--it doesn't get any easier as a mom and the harsh reality is that your son will soon learn that sometimes you gotta lose.
Wait until High School. There are more learning challenges for you and your son...try outs for high school baseball, cheerleading try outs and perhaps even football. Of course there is that passage to independence LEARNING TO DRIVE A CAR!
Lori isn't this what we signed up for when we became parents??!!
Keep telling yourself that this too shall pass and he will overcome other challenges :)
Post a Comment
<< Home