A Season Of Baseball

My youngest son has been playing baseball since he was just a wee little boy. He played with all of his little friends from school. Aside from one year, when we lived in Virginia, baseball has been a big love for our spring.

He's definitely improved year after year. This year has been a really good growth year for him even though his team hasn't won a single game. lol So, in this county they mix ages. My son is finishing 8th grade and he's playing with kids who are two years younger than him. There's even one boy on the team who's in 9th grade, but turned 15 after the age cutoff.

Unfortunately, he's on the B team this year. That's because of two things: there aren't any tryouts and the coach who's doing both A & B teams doesn't know my son's abilities. Thankfully he was able to see my son's skill with the game and has brought him up to the A (Gold) team several times the past few weeks. My boy seems to be the first kid he asks now. Gotta love that as a mom!

This post is basically a brag about my kid. lol I don't have crazy aspirations of him becoming a pro baseball player. I just like him keeping active outside. He's willing to play, so Fred & I are will to drive him to practices and games! Besides, I love cheering my kid on.

He's only got one game left for this season and then he's on to high school ball next year. That means things are going to get dicier. There's going to be real competition for positions and being off the bench. Up till now every player got equal time on the field and at bat. Not sure what next year will look like.

For the first time, this year he's gotten to play first base every single game. He wasn't looking to play that position, but they realized he's very reliable there. The other position he played was center outfield, which is what he's played for the last few years. He's got a strong arm and can throw far.

What he needs to work on is hitting. It's probably his biggest weakness. This weekend's game he kept connecting with the ball and it was amazing! Actually, the past couple weeks he's increased his contact with the ball.

Once he gets on base though, it's no holds bar. That boy can steal a base! It's one of the things I tried teaching him at an early age even though he wasn't able to do it until he was in middle school. HA! It's come in handy the past few years though, and he's just gotten better at it. He knows how to watch the pitcher. Now, that being said, several games ago he was getting pretty cocky, and almost ended up being called out trying to steal home.

When he got back to the bench, he looked at me and knew. lol We have this great connection when he's playing the game. If he gets a good hit, makes a good steal, has a good play out in the field, he automatically looks at me and we either pump fists, give a thumbs up, or something that says we know what just happened with the play. It's really something I cherish. Well, when he got back after this at bat, we talked about his cockiness and that it wouldn't serve him well every time. I don't ever want him getting too big for his britches and he really saw how badly that could go even though he made it home to get the run. Don't get me wrong. I love him challenging the pitcher to try and make a steal, but how he did it this one time nearly cost him an out.

I'm sad that the season is almost over since I love watching him play, but I'm looking forward to what's to come with his enjoyment of the game!