Tournament Time

Joel is at an interesting place in the world of baseball.....first year with boys pitching. Most of the regular season games also had coaches pitch after giving the boys several tries with each batter. By the end of the season though, it was just the boys pitching. Painful is the word that probably describes it best. Our team actually has some good pitchers (for 3rd graders-to-be), but it is still hard to get it across the plate consistently. Let's be honest, as a batter that makes it pretty tough to do your best when the pitches are pretty much "all over the place". The tournament is getting the boys ready for next year when it is all kid pitch. I remember when Matthew was this age and they used really good pitching machines.....really good idea!!! The game had more hitting and fielding! By the summer before 4th grade, somehow the boys were able to pitch (maybe it was 4th and 5th graders). So I am hopeful that next year will have more than just pitch, pitch, pitch. Anyway, I think Joel typically did hit when the coach pitched this season, but this game he walked each time (as did the majority of boys). So the game is 90% about the pitching at this stage and probably not too exciting for fielding. I tried to get an action shot, but I will be honest when I say that there wasn't much action. The game was still pretty fun to watch, cheering the pitcher on when he threw a strike or when someone finally hit the ball (or walked)! Ken called 5 times for updates, because he was able to attend most of this season's games, but this week is gone for the tournament games. I hope the boys win tomorrow night so Ken can see the next game. I teased him that if I was in labor he would have called less. Although he pointed out that he was present when I was in labor, I still think I spoke the truth. It was fun for Joel to give him the play-by-play on the phone after the game. I think Joel likes baseball, so there will be exciting games in the future, where fielding and hitting play a bigger role!