No Strikes, No Outs and only 1 inning... - Posted by Rob
Yes folks, that's what 5 and 6 year olds call baseball, also known as T-Ball!
Andrew's very excited to start his first sport. Saturday morning was opening day. The day began with all the little leaguers (and T-Ballers) gathered at the middle school for a parade. The parade was lead by the middle school band, which did a darn fine job for 40 someodd 12-14 year olds.
The Village of Essex Junction is pretty small (but is considered a city), and we only have one park with enough space for Baseball fields. However, there are five baseball fields packed into the park, so it's very convenient. The middle school and the park are about 2/10 of a mile apart.
We started at 9:30 with the parade, followed by introducing all the teams and coaches. Then opening pitch. Then... well... then the waiting began. T-Ballers traditionally don't play on opening day. But this year the league decided to play two T-Ball games per team on opening day! Our first game wasn't until 12:00! So we were all expected to hang around for two hours to even play. At least the snack bar was open for a Hot dog, soda and chips "Brunch".
Thankfully, the T-Ball coaches got together and were able to move the schedule up to play much earlier in the day. Each game was one inning long, now this may be an opening day "special" for the T-Ballers, but i won't know until our next game on Tuesday.
The one inning went like this:
- Each team's entire line up got to bat.
- There's no strikes, no balls, and no outs.
- Each player would get an automatic single, except the final person in the line up who would get an automatic grand slam (since the bases are loaded by attrition).
- Each player gets to score.
It seemed silly to me at first, but I realized that this is a great way to teach the kids how to play baseball. Each time there's a hit, the fielding team is being coached to throw to first automatically, even though it doesn't really matter if they get the ball there or not. Also, each runner is being coached to make sure they actually run to each base (and not off into the field which happened a few times) *and* touch the bases.
Andrew's team is The Athletics. There's only five T-Ball teams, the Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Giants, and the Athletics. Andrew wanted to be a Red Sock (sorry Pop--Grandpa Trudo won that battle).
Go A's go!
Andrew's very excited to start his first sport. Saturday morning was opening day. The day began with all the little leaguers (and T-Ballers) gathered at the middle school for a parade. The parade was lead by the middle school band, which did a darn fine job for 40 someodd 12-14 year olds.
The Village of Essex Junction is pretty small (but is considered a city), and we only have one park with enough space for Baseball fields. However, there are five baseball fields packed into the park, so it's very convenient. The middle school and the park are about 2/10 of a mile apart.
We started at 9:30 with the parade, followed by introducing all the teams and coaches. Then opening pitch. Then... well... then the waiting began. T-Ballers traditionally don't play on opening day. But this year the league decided to play two T-Ball games per team on opening day! Our first game wasn't until 12:00! So we were all expected to hang around for two hours to even play. At least the snack bar was open for a Hot dog, soda and chips "Brunch".
Thankfully, the T-Ball coaches got together and were able to move the schedule up to play much earlier in the day. Each game was one inning long, now this may be an opening day "special" for the T-Ballers, but i won't know until our next game on Tuesday.
The one inning went like this:
- Each team's entire line up got to bat.
- There's no strikes, no balls, and no outs.
- Each player would get an automatic single, except the final person in the line up who would get an automatic grand slam (since the bases are loaded by attrition).
- Each player gets to score.
It seemed silly to me at first, but I realized that this is a great way to teach the kids how to play baseball. Each time there's a hit, the fielding team is being coached to throw to first automatically, even though it doesn't really matter if they get the ball there or not. Also, each runner is being coached to make sure they actually run to each base (and not off into the field which happened a few times) *and* touch the bases.
Andrew's team is The Athletics. There's only five T-Ball teams, the Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Giants, and the Athletics. Andrew wanted to be a Red Sock (sorry Pop--Grandpa Trudo won that battle).
Go A's go!
posted by Rob at
9:00 PM
4 Comments:
man, that sounds great ... i miss being able to play baseball sooo much. So many people who dont play never develop an appreciation for the sport, so keep him at it, he will get a lifetime of enjoyment from it.
-mike
By
Michael, at 10:05 AM
Have a great Season Andrew! Go Athletics Go!!!!
Those Were the Days.....
Marilyn
By
Marilyn or Rick, at 2:58 PM
Danny and Joey both play for the Colchester "Purple" Lakers. All the teams are the Lakers, and they are separated by hat and jersey color :)
We have the same exact format here in town, but they play three innings. Two off the tee and then one where the coach pitches to their own team.
The boys loved their first 0-0 game :)
-James
By
James Mount, at 5:58 PM
Brittany played softball one season, but found she did not really like it. Until just the other day, the boys had never expressed any interest in baseball, but out of the blue, they both said they want to play next season. They're fickle, so we'll see.
By
Steve Mount, at 12:08 PM
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