It's the moment we have anxiously waited for since we found out Will was going to join our family. A kiddo that may want to play baseball. Now, there is no saying that Kenzie couldn't, of course... but she has always been more into things like dance and the like so although she has talked about playing softball since Will started t-ball, we know she would rather dance and do Girl Scouts. Also, our rule at this point is two activities that take up time after school for right now. We have to learn how to say no sometimes. All that being said, we finally got to the baseball point in our lives. In Apopka, baseball is sort of king. The team sports Apopka offers are great. We know plenty of people that play a lot of them but there is something about baseball in this area. The Apopka Little League is well known enough that Steven had someone at work mention it when he said something about Will playing t-ball this season. So, that's what we were walking into.
Will officially started practicing a few weeks ago and this weekend was his very first game! Will plays on the Yankees T-Ball team. There are four t-ball teams this year and he was "drafted" (hehe) onto the Yankees. He has been so excited about all things Yankees since officially joining the team. That pains us as Marlins fans... but we will let it slide for now.
We are really impressed with how well he has taken to baseball for never playing any sort of organized sport (or any sport really) before. While we are still debating his handedness, he is throwing and batting right for now and he is really coming into his own. As an aside, we are thinking he is going to go right-handed at this point. He eats left but seems to favor everything else right at this point and his pencil grip is really good right but only so-so on his left. But I digress... He has always had an arm on him, but his release left something to be desired. He tends to let go of the ball a little late and ends up throwing it at the ground. With force. But at the ground. Once we learned the mechanics and he practiced letting go of the ball at the right time, most of his throws have been pretty good. He does really well with the tee and has even hit the coach pitch once before. He is getting closer and closer to hitting that coach pitch more often. I just wish we had gotten that one coach pitch hit on video. Oh well.
T-ball has changed a lot since Steven played some 30 odd years ago. Now, each player is thrown 3 coach pitches and if he/she doesn't hit any, they bat off the tee. Will tries so hard and we are proud of how much effort he is giving it. He loves running the bases and trying to get the ball when it is hit his direction. We have seen him grow already in the short time he has been playing. If he keeps it up, he is going to be a force by the end of the season.
His first game this weekend started at 1pm. And goodness gracious, was it hot! So, so hot. The poor boys were all beet red by the time they finished. But they handled it well. Will's team was the home team so they started on defense. It's so funny to watch them all on the field at the same time. Some are paying so much attention to the game. Others are wandering through the outfield and digging in the dirt. It's great. Will was somewhere in the middle. He never did have a ball come towards him so he didn't get to field any (though he did run after a couple but he wasn't closest so he didn't make it there). He mostly paid attention through the first "inning" though so we are proud of that. Each team bats through the line-up and there are no outs at this point so it takes a while to get through.
When the Yankees moved to offense and were batting, it was done in alphabetical order so Will was at the end of the line-up. He came up to the plate and tried so hard to hit those coach pitches. He didn't get any this time. His first time up to bat, he seemed a bit nervous and it took him a bit to hit his stride and even hit the ball off the tee. He finally got it and actually got a pretty good hit. He was the final batter so he technically ended up with a grand slam. Haha! He brought his teammates home and ran in a home run. He was so happy when he finished and got his coach high five. It was adorable.
We all enjoyed watching his game. Which was good because this technically should have been the end because t-ball games have a one hour time limit... but there was no game going after ours on the field so the coaches of both teams decided to bat through the line up again. Will was a bit less attentive this time in the outfield but all of the boys sort of were. Not surprising since they are 4 and 5. This time when the team batted, I hung out in the dug out. We have a team mom but she had to be on the field for this game because we were down a coach so another mom and I switched off during the time the boys were in the dugout as someone has to be there to keep them contained and monitor who is on deck, etc. I didn't get a video of Will his second time through but the coaches reversed the line-up so he was the lead off batter. He didn't hit the coach pitch again but he knocked it on his first bat once they gave him the tee. He did great! He ran a base at a time per batter and eventually made it home. We were so proud of him. Kenzie watching her bro play baseball was one of my favorite parts. Check out that awesome baseball sis below!
At the end of the game, the boys all lined up to give high fives to the other team and it was as adorable as we all thought it would be. So proud of all these boys. Can't wait to see how they grow over the season.
Now, I'm going to take a minute to brag on Kenzie really quickly. Not only did we have a baseball game today, but we started the day with a race. Kenzie ran the Smile Mile today. This is her second time running it but last time she only ran a half mile. This year was a full mile. Remember mentioning it being hot earlier? Yeah, try running a mile in 80+ degrees and full sun. It was pretty miserable. Kenzie rocked it though! She ran her mile in 11:34. That is almost a full 1.5 minutes faster than most training runs she does. When she came through the finish, she was NOT happy. She pretty much broke down in tears because she felt like she may get sick. But she did it. She never gave up. Later in the day she told us that she felt so much better and she is already planning when she can run with me again to keep up her training and get ready for not only next year's Smile Mile but eventually another 5k and the Iron Girl 5k next year. We are so proud of her. She pushed through a lot of discomfort but she never gave up.
We love days like this. Encouraging out kiddos to be active, participate in events or sports like this, and general remain fit and healthy. So important to us. And to see them smile at the end of the day when we tell them how proud we are of them. Worth being on the go all day and sitting in the hot sun. =)
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