header: First Summer of T-Ball

Gavin played baseball for the first time this summer. It was his first team sport experience. We played with the Y and it was great! Our coaches were great. Everybody just practiced some basic skills like hitting and catching and throwing but there was no crazy competitive coaches or parents. Gavin LOVED every minute of it! After practicing in the EXTREME heat for an hour every thursday afternoon, he would always want to come home and practice some more. Our games were at 8:15 every saturday which I was dreading at first but as the game came to an end and you noticed it was already getting miserably hot, I was thankful that we were on our way out of there!! Here are some pictures from the season

This was our first practice. Quite entertaining watching all these little three year olds running around trying to run the bases in order, etc.

His turn hitting. We have had a tee and balls at home for a long time b/c he loves playing so much so he was one of the few who had actually tried to hit a ball before.

If you know my child at all you know he has a pretty good arm so his coaches jokingly named him third baseman because of his arm. Of course this little no one really played any positions.

Getting ready to leave the house and go to his first game. He was SO excited!!

Getting ready to bat for the first time.

One of the little boys on the other team started running the bases with Gavin. It was very funny!

Crossing home plate for the first time. Even the "games" were a lot more learning than anything else so everybody got to bat and run to each base every time they got up to bat.

Playing first base. First was the only base where you really needed someone to stand all the time. Once the kids in the field caught the ball they were supposed to throw it to first and then the ball was thrown back in and it was the next person's turn to bat. That way no one ever was out and got to run the bases, etc. It was always a toss up whether it was fun to play first or not. It was fun for a little while but it was also fun to be in the field chasing down the balls.

This was after the first game. They would always huddle up and say go texas! Texas Rangers that is. If he had been put on a burnt orange texas team we would have had to ask for a transfer!

There was obviously no pitching going on here but I thought it looked funny.

He was really good at getting to the ball first because he was the only one paying attention a lot of times. But, of course the other kids wanted a chance to catch the ball and throw it to first base so there was a lot of taking turns chasing after the ball that went on. The first game who ever got to the ball was then tackled by their whole team who also wanted the ball. They eventually got the hang of it.

All kids did much better at this age with a coach at every base so Joshua would always be 2nd base coach. He really enjoyed being out there and encouraging all the kids and especially Gavin to run as fast as he could.