Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Play Ball

Last night, while sitting at E2's ballgame*, we heard the other team's coach negotiating with our coach the number of at-bats left for each team. This isn't the first game where this has happened, and I commented to Rob that I couldn't believe it was such a big deal-who cares if one team had more at-bats than the other?

He noted that it probably wasn't the coaches, or even the parents, who cared; it was most likely the kids.

R: "At that age I would have been mad if I'd only had two at bats when everyone else had three."

Me: "I would have just been glad that I didn't have to bat again."

R: "That doesn't surprise me."

* It's one of THOSE leagues that it's P.C. to bash these days. They don't keep score, nobody gets out, half the team bats each inning, each kid can slide into home plate if they so choose, etc. The teams aren't always equal in size, thus the batting negotiations. As one of the parents on our team put it, "It's like an hour of batting and fielding practice with uniforms." And it is. BUT, I think it's a great way for these 4-6 year old's to learn what is supposed to happen during the game before any of them get too skilled to snark on those less athletically inclined. During the first game there were kids batting and then running after the ball, while still holding the bat, as seven or so kids from the other team converged to try and field the ball. It's highly entertaining to me. Rob's counting down the games until she's done.

2 comments:

Glenda said...

Oh, now, to me, THAT is the perfect way to handle a team sport for kids (and for a few of us adults who hate playing team sports).

Daisy said...

My son is on a team that works like that. He is disabled, as are all the other players. The few who understand the game are with-it enough to understand why it's modified for their league. It sounds perfect for little guys just learning to play!