Managing Our Quiver: Opening Day: Clippers vs. Suns

Saturday was Opening Day for tee ball. They had planned a big parade and ceremony for that morning, but we had bad storms Friday night and apparently it was too muddy so it was canceled. Our game was scheduled for 2pm, and there was a chicken-que for lunch. We got to the field around 12:30 for lunch, and then enjoyed the game. Here are the pictures from the day.

The minute we got to the field, Andrew asked to put on his eye black. Coleman got to wear some too.

Coach Mitch brought our jerseys to the field with him.

Our lunch came with half of a smoked chicken, chips, and a moonpie.

Catching a little snooze before taking the field.

Coleman asked for a treat from the "snack store" so Gigi was happy to oblige.

warming up

We really like our coach. He is a mild mannered man, and has obviously coached before. He told our players that we were playing base ball. He meant that as long as the ball was in the outfield, they could keep running, but when the ball came back to the infield, they needed to stop at the next base. In tee ball, there are very few catches made, and a lot of wild throws. So a player could easily get a home run just from errors by the other team. Mitch said we're not playing in the major leagues, so there's no need to run up the score. Even though we don't keep one.

The players don't have permanent positions, so for this game Andrew was assigned catcher and third baseman. The catcher position in tee ball doesn't really do much, but he was very engaged the entire inning.

When the team took the field and Andrew got behind the plate, Coleman stepped up to the fence and said, "I want you to do a good job Andrew! You can do it!" Andrew gave him a big thumbs up and a smile.

The entire line up bats each inning, so we got some good practice in. He made one great stop at third, and then we had a hilarious event. The ball went past the pitcher and toward Andrew. There was a runner coming from second to third. As Andrew was stooping to field the ball, Mitch and Brent started yelling for him to tag the runner. They meant after he had the ball in his glove. Andrew left the ball on the ground and immediately went and tagged the runner like they were playing freeze-tag. Needless to say the runner was safe at third, and all the parents and coaches had a good laugh. Mitch commented, "Well at least he listens!"

I was so proud of him. No picking daisies or watching airplanes from our boy!

Here he is on third getting ready to come home. He ran so fast when he got a hit. I think he absolutely loved it.

crossing home plate

Our team did really well with fielding the balls. Both teams scored lots of runs, but our team was able to get several of their players out. We were also proud that our boys didn't play "swarm" ball. They knew (and remembered) to let the person closest to the ball go for it.