Don't Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Sweet little Major. I think he looks absolutely adorable in his little uniform! (Notice his tongue is out in all three pictures. This is his concentrating face.)






Ahhhh. Tee ball season is finally over. I breathe a sigh of relief.

I love watching my son play and be active as much as the next girl, but have been bewildered by the intensity of competition amongst these teams of little children who are barely out of the nursery.

We love Major's coach. He is so sweet and positive with the kids. We were blessed to have such a wonderful Christian man as Major's coach. The other children on the team are adorable. They are all so cute and funny. It is neither the coach, nor the kids that are the problem. Some of the parents in this league are another story.

The season could have been tons of fun, really. It can bring a smile to your face to watch a bunch of clueless 4 and 5 year olds pretend to be big stuff. It is exciting to watch these little guys doing things like running around the bases with big smiles, looking into the stands watching for their parents' thumbs up and cheers of approval. It is so neat to see them learn new things and make funny mistakes because they don't really have a clue about what is going on. I love to hear things like, "Good job, buddy!" and "Good try, big guy!" and "It's alright! Way to hustle!"

Here are the comments that are more likely to be heard resonating from the stands at one of Major's tee ball games.... (names have been changed, obviously...)

1) "GUH-O-O-OW Billy!" Billy's mom belts out his name again and again in an irritated tone that sounds more like yelling. "Biii-lly!" (irritated) "No, Bi-lly!" "STUH-OP! Billy!" Billy's mom stands up from the bleachers and screams at him again and again from the fence while she waves her arms erratically in the air. "UGH... BILLLLLY!!!!!!" I wish the mother of Billy would put her unhelpful remarks to rest and place her Daisy Dukes back on the bleachers.

2) "WA-KE UP Johnny!!!! What is WRONG with you? Open your eyes and start paying attention!!! You need to STOP playing around and start paying attention, ya hear me?????" "GO! GO! Now! NOW!!!!" "This is serious!!! DO IT!!! NOW! What are YOU thinkin'?" Johnny, who moments ago had a smile on his face and was kicking in the dirt, returns to the dugout where he receives a stern lecture on the "importance" of this game and how he'd better start paying attention....or else. The glowing smile that was on his face earlier is gone. He has now been educated on how "serious" this game is, and appears to be on edge throughout the rest of the game. He looks over at his parents for approval throughout the game, but not with a smile and a wave, but with a look of apprehension and anxiety.

3) (Perhaps the most disturbing comment of all...) "Timm-my! If you don't shape up and start paying attention, your bottom is going to be blistered with the belt when we get home!") WHAT?!? So sad. And SOO ridiculous!

4 It actually makes me nervous to sit around with people who are so high strung about a silly tee ball game. (and a game that is played by such little guys, at that!) I found myself hoping that Major would do well just so that he wouldn't be yelled at by a few of these parents. Major didn't seem too affected by all of the yelling, but at the end of some of the games that they lost, lots of the little boys were crying. Maybe they were just tired, or MAYBE they were afraid that they had disappointed their parents (or worse, were getting their "bottoms blistered".) I just found the whole thing very disturbing. Why must something so fun be made to be so unfun at such an early age? It stinks!

5) Josh and I kept shaking our heads over how many people got into yelling matches with refs about minor technicalities/rules. It just seemed silly that the kids barely knew what was going on, yet some of the parents felt like it was important to debate the nit picky rules in the league. The kids weren't learning anything from these tedious and time consuming arguments.

6) Last night, a fiasco happened at the ball field. It all started when something weird happened with the batting order. Our team had their batting order written down on a sheet of paper. According to Josh, (as I usually have no clue what is going on with the rules anyway), our team was following the correct batting order. The opposing team (who were also the record keepers) messed up somehow and had their wires crossed on who was batting when... Whatever. So...The record keepers accused our team of not batting in the correct order, which gave us some sort of a penalty (another out, I think). Mayhem ensued as our coach politely tried to explain how we had been following the rules and, in fact, we were batting in the correct order. The assistant coach politely tried to explain, in so many words, that their record keeper had made a mistake in the matter. The refs came in and started yelling something about the "rule book". Whatever. The record keeper had a sour look on her face and just kept shaking her head, not wanting to admit that she had, indeed, made a mistake. I was very impressed with how our coaches handled the matter, but thought it sad that such a minor detail caused such a stir. Seriously...for AT THE VERY LEAST... ten minutes, a big argument took place between the coaches, refs, and record keeper. (FYI- Josh said that this record keeper was really the one at fault and didn't know exactly what she was doing.) Several of the parents in the stands were also anxious and growing more and more competitive by the moment. Even I was annoyed by the mishap. I like justice. The kids, however, were oblivious to the goings on. They were just waiting to "play" again. Some of them were playing chase. One of them was picking their nose. I even pointed out to Josh that the opposing pitcher was making a sand angel in the dirt. Josh turned to me and said, "You need to blog about this..."

It is very interesting. Bad attitudes concerning sports are taught to the kids. The kids should be having fun, but instead they are having more and more pressure to perform placed on them than anyone needs, much less a four year old. The season could have been great if many of these parents had just calmed down a little bit and thought for a while about how old these kids were and the actual point of having them play tee ball. We thought that letting Major play tee ball would be a way for him to be active and to learn a few things about the game and working with a team. Josh decided that perhaps this sport is a little too intense for our family, for now anyway. Josh didn't start playing baseball until he was seven or so. That is three years from now. I am sad, yet also relieved (considering the circumstances) to announce that Major's tee ball career is officially over. I'm sure that we will let him play another sport at some point. He definitely enjoys it. For the Smith family, though, tee ball is O-U-T!!! :)

(Also....Totally unrelated, but completely important: My father-in-law,Grumpy Smith, will be at the Barnes and Noble at the Stonebriar Mall in Frisco this Saturday from 2-4. He, along with some local authors, will be signing copies of his new book, Everyday Christianity. If you live in the Frisco area, now is your chance to meet our family's newest author. I encourage you to stop by and check it out!)