Take me out to the ball game ...

(Baseball photo by Unsplash / FreeRangeStock.com)

My daughter played T-ball last spring. Her team was full of 3- and 4-year-olds, each with an attention span so short that each child had at least one parent on the field with him/her to let them know when a batter was about to hit. I enjoyed watching my daughter play, though most days, she bellyached when it was time to leave for a game (once the game began, she was always fine.). I enjoyed meeting other parents. But I did not enjoy getting her around to practice, standing on the field in the hot sun, and having to get her to stop crying when she got tagged out.

This year, she is playing one bracket up, though it's still T-ball. Because of the change in class, she has more games and more practices and her season lasts a month longer than it did last year.

But this year, I'm having a lot more fun, and so does she. This year, she knows what she's doing, and so do her teammates. She's not the fastest. She can't catch. Only about 1 in 5 of her throws gets anywhere near her intended target, but she's not putting up a fight when it's time to go to a game, and I don't have to go out on the field with her. Instead, I can sit up in the stands and cheer her and her teammates on. Even though we're only three weeks into the season, I can see improvement in all them, though some more than others.

What a difference a year can make.


Does your child play baseball? Let me know in the comments field below.