The 2008 Tee-ball Season

When the local kid soccer league was in progress back in March-April, it was also time to register for the following Saturday sport, tee-ball. Carson said yes, Amalie no. She'd played last year and didn't want to again, not this time. Fine. I signed up Carson and checked the "I'll coach" box on the registration form.

So I got to be an official coach, with the tee shirt and everything, along with my co-coach Ray. I drove around to various Academy sporting goods stores getting the small, unadorned caps to match our red shirts. We named ourselves the Red Rockets. Ray and I worked on some very basic practice drills -- fielding, throwing, hitting, running. Our roster, eleven boys total, were all three years old, so getting any lessons to stick is a triumph. I think the basic throwing motion, of stepping with the glove-side foot first, was our biggest success. Some of the youngsters have pretty good cannons for their age!

We played six games over a seven-week schedule (no games on Memorial Day weekend), which included one rescheduled due to rainout, and seven practices. Almost everyone showed up every time, frequently with both parents or even a grandparent. And the families all helped out -- snack suppliers, extra game coaches, ball collecting, basic shepherding. It worked out really well.

Tee-ball for three year olds is a very basic form of baseball -- everyone bats in every inning (we never played more than two), the last batter runs all the way around, there's no outs, no score kept, fielding is usually the first one to get to the ball and everyone is playing the infield (boys and girls this small just don't have slugging power). Oh, I think we did ingrain another lesson: when you're all on the same team and wearing the same shirt, it doesn't matter who gets the ball, just that someone does. Teamwork.

Ray and I handed out, after each game, gold stars for hitting excellence, silver stars for defensive displays, and blue stars for various creative contributions -- getting dirty (always a sign of dedication to the craft), taking a ball off the shoulder, willing to bat while still wearing the glove. By the end of our short season, every player had earned at least one gold and one silver, and most had a blue as well -- but no mistake, every one was earned.

Ray said that coaching the Red Rockets was ten times more fun than he expected it would have been, and I completely agree with that.

We adjourned, after the final game, to our local GattiTown for pizza, trophies, and games. Every player gets a league trophy, and I gave each player two packs of Topps baseball cards as well. The parents showered Ray and me -- custom tee shirts with handprints from each player, trophies of our own, and gift cards to a local restaurant. Quite a treat (and thank you very much!) for us.

Watching these youngest rookies improve from the first practice to the last game was sheer delight, as was simply introducing them to the greatest game on Earth, baseball. To me, they were all champions.

The 2008 Red Rockets: my own Carson, Christopher, David, Ian, Jaidyn, Jalen, John-Michael, Liam, Logan, Matthew, and Mikah. You guys, and your families, were great. It was my honor to be your coach.