Baseball Season's End

This week marks the close of baseball/t-ball season for the Orem Rec League and, although we've had a lot of fun, I'll admit that I'm ready to have my Saturday mornings back. A 6-week season is about all I can handle (all of you parents of high school athletes are just chuckling and shaking your heads at me, I know).

Here are a few highlights from the second-to-last game:
Ben masterfully whacks his ball off the tee while Coach Steve looks on. I think Steve has really enjoyed coaching t-ball - we all know he's a wonderful teacher, and 6 weeks of coaching fifteen 4-6 year olds is probably enough to satiate his elementary school teacher instincts for a while.

I love this photo because Ben is simultaneously running madly to first base and shrieking to Steve, "Dad, see that guy over there? That's Sam, he's one of my summer camp group leaders!" Clearly such important news couldn't wait until after he had arrived at first base.

The Skeletons cheer on the Orange Crush after the game. Steve says that the kids originally wanted to be the Skulls but that he vetoed that idea and finally acquiesced to the Skeletons. He nudges them towards baseball-like actions with the cheer, "move those skeletons" and I guess the kids really latched on to the motto!

Sam truly excels at his "ready position" in the field. Since this is still pre-little league, there aren't a ton of balls that make it out to the field, but he's ready for them when they do!

Sam's hitting has really improved throughout the season and he now hits the ball pretty reliably every at-bat. We still have some work to do before he's ready for the majors, but we consider this a foundation-building year :)

Golden locks a-flowing, Sam runs home. If a haircut isn't in his future, maybe we'll just work on getting Sam to wear a hat for ballgames. I still ask him every few weeks if he wants me to trim the hair out of his eyes, but he likes the California surfer look he has going on.

This may be my favorite Sam and Ben shot ever. Ben got Oreo sticks as an after-game treat and there was no way the boys were going to let a golden mock- smoking opportunity pass them by! Sam is pretending to be the Pink Panther and Ben is Hannibal from The A-Team declaring, "I love it when a plan comes together."

I have never been so proud.

Baseball Game 2

The second week of baseball was even more successful than the first: temps were cool and comfortable, Sam hit the ball in two of his three at-bats, Ben ran the bases like a champ, and Sasha continued to look adorable cheering her brothers on.
Sam after one of his successful hits:
Ben is like a blur running those bases:
Lovely Sasha cheers Sam on from the stands. Well, in this photo she's signing "dog" because somebody brought a dog to the game, but she was cheering on her brother in her heart

Baseball Season

You know that we Morningstars have a passion, nay - an obsession, with organized sports. Any given Sunday or other day of the week when sporting events are televised we're glued to the sportsy station, cheering on our team(s) and eating appropriately themed snack foods... ok... I can carry the charade no further. So we're not really sports people, but for the last few years we've roused ourselves from our sports-phobia and enjoyed six magical weeks of t-ball. This year we took it up a notch.

As you can see from the clipboard and pensive pose, Steve is no longer merely Dad - he is now Coach Steve. Heh heh heh, I giggle a little on the inside just writing that. He's actually really great at it and the kids love him, and t-ball is right up his alley since there are really no rules or points involved and you've achieved stellar coaching success if your first baseman can throw the ball halfway to home. Unsurprisingly, he's the only coach I saw today wearing Birkenstocks.

Despite having a raging case of strep throat, Ben had a pretty good time at his first t-ball game of 2009 (we Morningstars won't let a little infectious disease keep us from the sport we love! Ok, that's not true, we didn't know he had strep till we finally went to instacare this evening and Ben and I got antibiotics. Groan. I'm so sick of being sick!). He whacked the ball with gusto and kept the grass firmly attached to the field by sitting on it during all of his time in the outfield. We are also proud to note that unlike his teammates who were chasing after the ball in large clumps of be-sneakered feet and tiny baseball mitts, Ben never once fought his teammates for control of the ball or even rose to attempt to retrieve it when it rolled near him. Way to share the spotlight, buddy.

Sam's first coach-pitch game came right after Ben's t-ball game. It's kind of a pain that they're not on the same team, but Sam is really enjoying the heated competition of coach-pitch. My heart swelled with pride today when, after warm-up time, Sam's coach called, "Ok, kids, over to the dugout!" and I heard my son's voice above the crowd asking, "What's a dugout?" We should probably get Sam some sort of "Kid's Guide to Baseball" book so he can brush up on his vocabulary... I'm not sure that Calvin and Hobbes is providing enough educational value on the baseball front. That's ok, I had an equally embarrassing moment when I asked another parent if it mattered which side of the bleachers we sat on. Apparently one's simply supposed to know these things.

T-ball Season Endeth

It is with mixed feelings that I announce that t-ball season is over. I'll admit that it will be good to have our Saturdays back (not that a 45 minute game can really be credited with dominating a Saturday...) but we really did have a great season and I'm sorry that it's over.

One of the dads on the team got trophies engraved with the kids names (so cool!) which have, of course, quickly been elevated to the status of "treasured possession". They have cause some confusion, however - last night we had some friends over for dinner and when Ben proudly showed off his engraved, holographic trophy our friends naturally asked if it was because his team won. This got a puzzled look from Ben, who replied, "Well, I think in t-ball, everybody wins."

I'm just glad our boys still enjoy games where everybody's a winner!

T-ball Game 1

T-ball season has arrived here in Orem and Sam and Ben are all caught up in t-ball fever (or at least as much fever as you could expect from any Morningstar about a sports season that doesn't involve strapping planks to our feet)! We are very fortunate that Sam and Ben are close enough in age to be on the same team this year, which is convenient for all. They've had a couple of practices and yesterday was the first of the season's five games.

It was a crazy day - we had a yard sale in the morning with our Small Group from church to raise money to buy property for a church in Uganda, so it was a very early morning but well worth it - just our four families raised almost $500! Small groups all over Christ Evangelical are following Jesus' instructions to sell our possessions and give to the poor and it has been so exciting to help another church raise a building before we break ground on our own new facility. I was so proud of the boys for picking out ten video games to sell, especially to see their excitement when those games alone raised $100. And despite the hectic day and busy morning, Sam and Ben had great attitudes and really enjoyed the game. I only caught them sitting in the grass pulling clover instead of attempting to retrieve the ball once!

Ben had his classic first game experience of hitting the ball and then standing at the tee in total confusion until his coach convinced him to drop the bat and run to first base, which he did eventually locate. Yeah, it was as cute as it sounds. But by the end he was rounding the bases with the best of them. Answering questions about which team won was a bit tricky, since there are no outs, each kid gets to hit in every inning, and every hit is a single, but Ben figured that his team, the Goldens (the kids named it themselves), must have won because they had more kids than the other team. Works for me!