Friday, May 6, 2005 - That Rascally Rabbit and His Tales of T-Ball

Rascal began his first "real" sport today (what? I waited until he was 5 before getting him involved in such things?! oh, no, now he'll never become a professional sports star! *snort*). The glorious, magnificent sport of T-ball! Ah, fond memories (the ShadowAngel says whist fighting her gag reflex)...

It isn't a league or anything like that - it's entirely an instructional program for 5 and 6-year-olds to teach them the fundamentals of the sport. No real competition. It's a good thing. Ah, I remember those halcyon days as a 6-year-old, being utterly humiliated nearly every time I stepped onto the field {retch}.

Oh, sorry about that. If you haven't guessed, I don't miss my Little League days one bit. But since I think the skills are something good for a child to develop, and maybe, just maybe, he'll like the game, Rascal is in it.

I watched him. He was the kid who stares off into space, not paying one bit of attention to the coaches. The kid whose name the coaches learn first because they have to say it so often. "Rascal...Rascal...Rascal!!" The kid who, when it is his turn to run around the bases (after watching 3 other kids do it before him), runs to 1st base and then into the middle of the field. When the coach was teaching the kids how to hit, he told them to point their toes towards a nearby building. Yup, mine's the kid who picks his foot up into the air and points it at the building. The coach tells the kids to run and retrieve their baseballs. Yup, mine's the kid who slowly meanders into the field, doesn't pick up his baseball, but calmly picks out two new balls from the bucket sitting in the field.

I'm beginning to believe it's hopeless. He'll be as athletically incompetent as his parents were when they were young. But at least he's getting good at chess...

Of course, in fairness to Rascal, he was trying hard. And he also had the misfortune of having to use a tee that was broken so that he was having a hard time putting his ball on it. I'd get frustrated by that too.

So we'll have to see how it all works out. I don't care if he's any good at it; I just want him to have fun.