Go BlueJays!

After last week's torture session at T-ball, I knew we needed a strategy. A plan. It would need to be multifaceted. I would need to consult experts.

I started with propaganda. Not too much. Not enough so that some day he'll make a Mommy Dearest-like film about me. I was subtle. Well, okay, subtle if you're three. T-ball rocks. Mommy can't think of anything more fun. I live to play catch (actually, this is true).

Then, we worked on skill-building. We focused on catching, the thing that tripped him up last week. I spent the whole week working on getting him to stop holding his glove right in front of his face so that any ball that bounces out of it hits him right in the face. I didn't have a lot of success with this, but I figure about another thousand times of saying "hold your glove lower" ought to do it.

Finally, the piece de resistance...I took him to Charlie's baseball game. Charlie, my friend Christina's son, has two step-brothers who spend pretty much all their waking hours out of school playing baseball. We watched baseball for a while, and then went to the back of the field with our gloves to play catch. Luke immediately started whining, hanging from my back pocket, and trying to crawl back into the womb. I told him I was playing catch and if he didn't want to play with me he could sit and watch but he couldn't hang on me. He cried and looked as if I'd just told him I was dropping him off at social services on the way home. Then he got a bloody nose (his fourth in two days) and gushed blood all over the place. Now he really looked pathetic. After he bled about a pint of blood onto his clothes, his glove, my clothes, the grass, and every tissue I had, he finally stopped bleeding and Mark, Christina's husband, was able to get him to play catch with him. Then he played with Mark's oldest boy, Michael, for a long time, and they rough-housed and did boy things together. He had a blast. I played catch with the boys and Mark and we all had a good time.

Finally, we all went to Friendly's. This is also part of my strategy. Baseball is followed by fast food and/or ice cream. I figure the exercise the kid gets on the field will balance off the extra calories.

This morning I made sure we were at the field early. Before we got out of the car, Luke started trying to negotiate with me. "How 'bout if I do everything except the catching part?" He seemed mostly relaxed though. We were the first BlueJays there. Shortly, though, the rest of the team showed up, including coach Joe, who was apparently at a birthday party in NJ last week. Coach Joe has a bit of a paunch and a daughter who spent most of the game doing things like lying in the outfield and taking her shoes off. Coach Joe actually introduced himself to me and had some social skills. He's my kind of coach. The kids started with batting practice, which is Luke's favorite part. Luke batted southpaw, although he usually bats righty, but he got a great hit so Coach Joe said maybe he's a switch hitter. I figure that makes sense because the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.

The rest of the practice and game went great. They played two innings this time. Luke stayed with his team and there was no crying at all. He is a hell of a hitter, better than many, but definitely needs to work on the catching and throwing. In the beginning I got right up in there and worked with the coaches, helping show the kids what they were supposed to be doing and compensating for the dads' poor communication skills. When the game started, though, I sat down on the sidelines and cheered like crazy for all those little BlueJays. Luke's T-ball game was actually a lot more fun than watching the big kids last night. It's much more entertaining watching the kids do things like hit the ball off the T, then run after it and field it themselves. There was a kid on the opposing team today, Parker, who was born to be an outfielder. He went and got the ball after he hit it, and then after they eventually managed to get him to first base, he ran and fielded the ball hit by his next teammate at bat. It was a riot.

Anyway, we went to Mickey D's after practice, and I turned on the propaganda for a little while in the car. This week we'll work on running the bases, which turned out to be a new concept for Luke and one he hasn't quite mastered. We might even watch a pro game on TV if I can stand it. Next week is team picture day. Pray for sun.