Zach plays T-ball and his games are on Saturday. That meant I was going to see him play a game, which was exciting for me, since I don't have any boys. I will probably at some point, sign Sonya up for T-ball or softball, because she is pretty good at throwing, hitting and catching. Her father has taught her well. But let's be honest, she'll never go very far with it, because she's a girl. Well, I mean never as far as I like to daydream about one of my nephews going. (Playing for the Red Sox). Sure she could play softball for a long time, but basically she'll never make money doing it. My nephews are the only ones who have that potential. Plus Kevin was a baseball player for a while when he was younger, so hopefully he passed that gene down.
I've mentioned before that Zach is a little rough and like all kids has some bad days. I guess during one of his practices earlier that week, he had one of those days. Another kid on the team and Zach weren't getting along so well. So much so that the coach had to come over to my sister's house to have a chat about Zach's behavior. He did go to the other kid's house as well. When Saturday came, they weren't sure what kind of game Zach was going to have. They had given him a "talking to" about playing the game correctly with good behavior, but you can never be sure what kids actually listen to and follow, until you're in the situation.
As it turns out, he had taken whatever my sister had said to heart. At least for that game. He hit well, kept his hands to himself, except when he was trying to catch a ball, and ran as hard as he could. That has apparently been a problem. He likes to mosey to first base after his hits, instead of hustling. Perhaps he paid too much attention to Manny Ramirez's base running when he played for the Red Sox. Zach even scored two runs for his team. All in all he was doing great.
There was the time, however, when he was playing first base and one of his teammates threw the ball from second for Zach to catch and get the runner out. Turns out Zach wasn't really looking in the direction the ball had gone, or was being thrown from. Instead it hit him on the shoulder and bounced up on to his cheek. Okay, I admit I laughed, but only because he wasn't really hurt. In fact he could have cared less. This is totally normal of little kids playing T-ball though. There were many kids not paying attention at the right times, so it wasn't a big deal.
At the end of the game the coach gathered the team on the bench to give them their pep talk. I'm not sure who even won or lost. I don't think they really count that at this age. The coach was saying how they did a great job that day and to keep it up. Then he called out Zach. Zach turned and looked at him with a terrified expression that said, "Shit-what did I do now?" Coach called him over to stand in front of him. Then he praised Zach for the great job he did that day and presented him with the game ball for being such a team player. Zach grinned from ear to ear and I started to tear up. He's not even my kid and I wanted to cry! What is with my overemotional mom tears? I guess it's because I've heard my sister talk about how tough it is with him sometimes. I know how awesome it was that he did something so right, he was rewarded with something so special. It's a good thing I was there too, because I had my camera out to capture the moment, since my sister didn't. Nice going, Beth!
It was so much fun to see him play and especially see him get the game ball. I'm just happy I was there for it, so that someday when he IS playing for the Red Sox, I can tell everyone I was there when he had his very first best game ever. Nice going Zachary! I will buy season tickets to whoever you play for. Unless it's the Yankees. Then we may have a problem.
Teared up just a bit...you know I can relate.
ReplyDelete