Sympathy Pain

The tournament has started. 9 year old kid pitch. The Cougars, Jack’s team, are somewhere in the upper/middle part of the bracket.

They had their first game Saturday. My folks came in. It was like 90 degrees at 4:30 when the game was to begin. We showed up and found shade for them to sit in.

The game started. We were home team. The team we were playing against had beaten the undefeated team that skunked us 12-0 a in the last game of the season. After they scored 5 runs on us in the first inning and we answered with 0, I was about ready to throw in the towel. Tony was tired and hot, so Sarah took him home.

Then, we held them in the second inning, but our middle of the rotation was coming up. Not the big hitters, but the pretty steady guys. Jack is one of them. The player before him doubled. Then jack hit one down the 3^rd base line. Now my son is fast…when he wants to be. The ball rolled to the fence. By the time someone got to it, he was rounding 2^nd and the other kid had scored. The ball was cut off at 2^nd base and he was around 3^rd. he crossed home as the ball was almost there, making an inside the park home run. Yeah Baby!

We scored another 2 runs that inning.

We take the outfield and the first batter strikes out. The 2^nd batter hits a fly to right field. Jack is there to make the out. The 3^rd out comes from a great catch at 3^rd base. Jack actually comes to bat again in this inning, with 2 on. He hits a double and gets 2 more rbi’s. He steals 3^rd. unfortunately the 3^rd base coach sends him at the wrong time to try to teal home, and he gets tagged out. Now it was a bad call cause the kid had the ball in his ungloved hand and tagged him with is glove…to the face…but I try not to argue with the ump… ol’ blindy as I like to call him.

We went on to win 10-8. That’s right, without my son’s slugging ability, the game would have been very different. And his defense.

It was a pretty awesome game. And he doesn’t want to play next year. Belch. I am of two minds. One, I don’t want to push him. Two, I do want him to play a sport that he shows aptitude in.

He quit swim team. I am making him pay me back. Next year baseball will be all kid pitch. No mercy rules of 3 walks and the coach pitches. You can lead off to steal. I think he would like it better…so what do I do? His mom wants him to play, especially since this would be his only summer sport.

Maybe it’s time to try theatre…Just saying.