The Right Stuff

While the warm weather signifies the beginning of golf for many, it also signifies the start of baseball season for parents. 

The local community church built three baseball and a softball field around a small, rectangular two-story building, from where, on the second floor, a young staff member plays the Star Spangled Banner at the start of each game, announces the batting lineup, and monitors the cameras mounted high on each field backstop. 

The first floor is taken up by an extensive food stand, all items sold at very reasonable prices (it is a community church, after all) and the bathrooms. 

We have had little experience with local baseball except for attending games of the local Class A affiliates of the Atlanta Braves, the Pelicans.  But this was a whole new scene. 

My daughter enrolled Anthony in Tee Ball-1, the starting level for child baseball.  She also bought him his uniform white pants, cleats, baseball glove, helmet, bat, batting gloves and a sports bag to keep it all in.  The team supplied a team T-shirt and a cap. 

Practices were every Monday afternoon for seven weeks, and games were on Saturdays at various times according to the schedule.  Since everyone else worked full-time, my job was to bring Anthony to practice after meeting the school bus. 

Coach Mark was a local third-grade schoolteacher, who I will say, impressed me from the start and throughout the short season with his caring attitude for the children, as well as his ability to teach them the skills of baseball. 

The team consisted of eight players so everyone played all the time and batted each inning.  There were six boys and two girls.  I was happy to see the game open to both genders.  The youngest (and cutest) team member was Carly, just over four years old. 

The first thing coach Mark taught his young team was to run the bases.  Everyone gets up to bat and everyone hits the ball, no matter how many tries.  Every batter hits a base hit except the last batter who hits a home run and clears the bases. 

The young team had a great time running around the bases.  Carly saw no reason to waste time with second base, so she would always try to run directly from first base to third. 

The next thing coach Mark taught his young team was to hit the ball.  It was obvious that coach Mark had an extensive history playing baseball, as he taught the proper stance and how to line up the ball on the tee as the target.  Most times the bat would swing harmlessly through the air or whack the base of the tee, but coach Mark would always encourage them to try again.  Several times, after practice was over, coach Mark would take his team to the unused soccer field and teach batting as long as they could stay. 

As the batting got better and balls were actually sent into the field, coach Mark taught his team fielding; standing low, feet wide apart, and putting the glove behind the ball.  Not everyone got this concept, and there were many balls that rolled between legs. 

Extra equipment was supplied in equipment bags by the church, for those who forgot their helmets or didn’t have a personal bat.  The baseballs supplied and always used were soft baseballs, with a thin layer of padding under the skin. 

The one thing that coach Mark taught his team was to be positive, be courteous and to have fun!  He was adamant on this, and occasionally sat players down in a five-minute timeout when they forgot their good behavior. 

At last the day of the first game arrived.  When we arrived at the fields, I was amazed at the organization and the extent of the participation.  At any given time, there had to be hundreds of people in the field stands.  

The Tee Ball games were allotted one hour to complete their three innings.  Older players had more time and more innings , but with a full schedule, of some 20 games per day, the schedule was closely adhered to.  If a team ran over by a few minutes, no one got upset. 

At the start of each game, the teams were lined up on their baselines, caps in hand, facing the American flag nearest them (there was one on each side of the central building) and the Star-Spangled Banner was played for those two teams.  It was an experience hearing our national anthem a half-dozen times.    

At the end of each game, the teams were lined up again, and shook hands as they walked past each other.  Then came the refreshments, brought each week by a different parent, which I’m sure was one of the best parts of the game for the young players. 

The sale of DVD recordings of each game, captured by the cameras on each backstop helped raise funds for the weekly event.

I do know that Anthony loved playing Tee Ball and is looking forward to it next year.  I don’t know if his white pants will survive next year, since like all boys, he loved sliding into home plate through that red mixture of sand and clay.

This is a great sport to teach youngsters the workings of the game, team spirit and respect for others and the American flag.   And everyone received an award at the end-season event. 

Everyone wins and everyone had fun!