May Baseball

Yup, looks like Spring is finally peeping its head out of its hid-y hole! And that means baseball season! This is the first year Sean and Ashton have played baseball, and they are doing fantastic! I've been to 2 games so far, and there has been much improvement in between. Those boys have quite the throwing arm on them, plus they aren't afraid of the ball- they get right underneath and catch it coming, even long high ones. :) The past year and a half of batting and playing catch with Daddy has really paid off! This is a previous post I wrote in Nov 2008 of them just getting their barrings. Their team is the Yankees, and they look pretty dang good sporting the royal blue colors! Since this is a beginning team for first time players, they have some easy rules for the kids. First, everyone gets to bat every inning and they don't keep track of the outs. Although if the other team catches your ball or tags you out, then you don't get to run the bases. Second, they are coach-pitched the ball as many times as needed to hit a good ball (the fouls don't count) and a chance to run to first. Third, they only take one base at a time to make it fair because they are still at the stage that if they do catch the ball, most of the time they have no idea what to do with it despite all the coaches telling them where to throw it, and then by the time they do throw it to the (maybe) right place, the player seldom actually catches it. Which would mean that every runner would run all the bases and the game would take forever. And lastly, they don't keep score, which wouldn't make sense with these rules anyway. I completely support that. :) And did I mention how CUTE they are? I love the little ones playing with all they've got, but with still that clueless look on their faces~

So down to the pictures. This first one is of the the other team at bat- Ashton is playing first base, and Sean is playing second:

Got Ashton to turn around for a quick picture:

Then it was their team's turn to bat! Here is Sean at the plate:


Ashton's turn! Here he is at the plate (notice he has the red undershirt, while Sean's is blue):

Here he is batting in a different inning- caught him hitting the ball (you can just see that little white ball flying back toward the pitcher, low):

A second photo of him coming in for a run!


Next, I want to share with you how happy I am that they can share a love of a sport with their dad! They practice together, watch baseball on TV, and Kevin is one of the coaches for their team. Last week we were able to go to Kevin's first softball game together. It was a beautiful evening, and I managed to get Kevin making a run of his own! Here is the sequence of his run:

Can you see the yellow softball in the air just above the fence?




We also found this cute little baseball diamond for the kids to play in, and of course Sean and Ashton brought their own mitts and a ball (passed down from Scotty and me :)

And taking turns...Can you see the ball in the air?

Finally, I left work early on Friday to see a second game and managed to get them to hold still long enough to get in a couple cute poses:

(Ashton's the one with the bat in these last two.)