3 posts tagged “tball”

We finished up the Tball season today w/ trophy day. All the participants received a trophy. It was nice to be able to say goodbye to the kids since I had to miss the last game of the season.  I'm sure Eli will be teammates with some of them next year when he moves up to coach pitch.  We finised the season strong with beating the best team in the league last week. Eli made great improvements with his swing and should be ready for coach pitch with a bit more work. We will really have to work on his fielding. During the trophy celebration, Eli got to pie his head coach due to selling the most pizzas for their fund raising. They had a cookout and we grabbed Eli a plate and ran.  I think they were going to have a coaches softball game but w/ the warm temps we really didn't want to stick around.

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Eli sliding for no particular reason

I'm on the far upper left--Eli right below me

Eli with his trophy

Eli began Tball last yr at the age of five.  We had a great coaching staff who didn't yell at the kids for being kids. It is generally their first exposure to team sports and you want them to have fun at that age. I did spend a good deal of time telling Eli to pay attention (usually to no avail). We enjoyed visiting with the other parents and just watching the game. I helped out a couple of games being a dugout Dad. The little girls were just the cutest and I had fun cheering up the team. That was last year.

This year I signed up Eli and I asked if they had enough coaches. They said they hadn't decided who was going to be coach yet but really didn't give me much of a chance to talk with them about it. I decided I would just help out where I could. We met his coaching staff at the first practice. It was a father of around 48, his two twenty something sons and a 14 year old son. It was quickly obviously that they didn't have a great deal of experience dealing with 5-6 year olds and nor did they know much about the rules of Tball. The practices were a bit sloppy with really no coaching going on. I've always loved baseball and was willing to show the kids how to get in front of the ball and keep their gloves down. I attempted to give a few pointers to the head coach about Tball rules but he wasn't really interested.  It was obvious that this team was not going to be overly talented but that wasn't going to stop us from having fun right..? 

The yelling at the kids started about the 3rd practice. The father of the bunch of coaches was suspended after the 1st game of the season, so the 26 yo son and his wife became the head coaches. They were attempting to have two games a week w/ 2-3 practices thrown in. Last yr, after the season began, practices were over. I finally had to explain that Eli couldn't make that many practices as it was counterproductive for him to stand in the outfield w/o any balls being hit to him....I didn't add that yelling at kids for playing in the dirt after not have any balls him to them for an 1 1/2 wasn't helpful.

It finally came to a head this weekend. They played and lost Saturday. Eli had an excellent game and I was proud of him. As soon as the game was over, the head coached yelled at the team to do pushup and then run laps for not paying attention.  I was steaming but didn't want to cause a scene. On Sunday, we had a make up game. We were short handed and it was obvious that some of the team didn't want to be there. We lost again and the coaches were yelling and started the pushups again. I angerly pulled Eli off the field and left with a few choice words. The head coaches wife called and wanted to make sure I wasn't mad. I calmly explained that 5-6 years olds will tend to play in the dirt and that all the yelling that they've done all season hasn't worked. I explained that some kids are just hyper and some kids are there for their parents. I asked if they had ever thought about be positive and lifting the kids up. She said that she wasn't going to reward the kids for bad behavior. I countered w/ the fact that they were on the kids before the games even started. I finally asked if they even liked kids as their behavior doesn't reflect that they do. Yeah, I crossed the line but........

Tuesday night. We were into the game. The kids looked happy. No yelling. We lost but we gave it our best. We felt like a team. It was the first time all season that I've enjoyed a game. My wife said that it felt in the stands like the first game w/o tension in the air.

On a related note, Eli has greatly improved this season. He doesn't always pay close attention but has stayed out of the dirt. We used our time not at the team practice but in my backyard working on his swing. He has improved to being one of the better hitters on the team. I have enjoyed being the dugout coach and working with kids as much as I could. Hopefully, we will end this season on a positive note.

He was a wisp of a boy. His grandfather had asked him if he wanted to play Tball and he readily agreed as was his compliant and agreeable nature. This was despite the fact he'd never practiced Tball nor played any organized sports.  His grandfather had spoken to the coach and although the Tball season had already started, the boy was allowed to play. Being a rural area, rules were lightly enforced. The extent of his baseball experience at this point was limited to using a plastic whiffle ball bat and hitting a plastic ball in the front yard with his grandfather. He felt strangly out of place as they arrived at the ballfield. The boy looked around the field not knowing where to go nor what exactly he was to do. He did not know any of the other players. He was sent to the outfield where luckily he would not have to move for the remainder of the game. The boy did have to bat once during the game. He'd never hit off a tee before or had even probably held a real bat. He promptly stuck out and walked with his head lowered to the bench. This is the extent of his memories of that day. This would be his one and only Tball game of his career. This is his first memory of failure.