Ball Practice

Since work has been so busy over the last few weeks our blog has really suffered! Several blogs have been started in my head, but haven’t made it onto the world wide web. I’ve been needing to write about Cade’s baseball experience for a few days…..

We’ve signed Cade up for coach’s pitch baseball/softball. I’m not sure what to call it because it’s a mixed team and I think they’re using softballs, but softball always says “girl” to me….so from hereon it will be referred to as just ball.

Our first practice was last week. I knew that was what would happen - practice would be scheduled during the time that Jay was gone and I was right. Thursday night Cade and I headed to the school to try and hunt down where we were supposed to be. As a side note – I don’t like new situations, not knowing what I’m doing, not knowing any other parents, etc so it was a little stressful for me. We get to the school and there were kids everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I had no idea where we were supposed to be. Finally I met another mother and we got the kids delivered to the right spot on the field only about 10 minutes late. We seemed to be in good shape until the coach asked Cade to play catch with another boy to warm up….that’s when it when downhill…..

You know how in every group, from walking age up to old age, there is one person that annoys the entire group? I’m afraid that person on our team’s name is Cade. At least we recognize that our child isn’t perfect rather than just smiling at our little angel thinking he’s the cutest and annoying all the other parents. When the coach told Cade to to play catch, Cade said “No, I don’t want to”. At that point I had to have had steam coming from my ears, he had done some other bratty things earlier so this just added to my growing irritation. While playing catch he would not pay attention. I don’t know how many times he almost got hit or almost hit his partner because he’d throw it without looking. At one point I grabbed his shoulder to turn him around and he did the “stop it your hurting me” scream. It was embarrassing.(At least then the parents understood why he was annoying, it’s because his parents abuse him) Once the organized practice started things got a little better until the kids batted. Cade ended up being the last person to bat so every time they rotated he would say at least 5 times – I want to bat, when do I get to bat, I’ll never get to bat, etc. At that point he was too far away for me to yell at, I just cringed on the inside every time he said anything. Finally he got up to bat and like any child who knows how to work their parents, did something that melted my heart and made me feel bad for being annoyed. The first time he hit the ball he turned around to face me, looking for my approval with a huge grin on his face. Of course I wasn’t as irritated for about 10 minutes….until we stopped at Casey’s so he could get a drink on the way home and he was in La La Land, but that’s a whole other story

Last night we had his 2nd practice and things did go better – Jay was there which made a lot of difference. Also all of the kids were a little more hyper so Cade either blended in better or I sat farther away and couldn’t hear/see as much. What ever the reason it was a much better evening. Cade definitely got the “best’ of mine and Jay’s athletic ability. I don’t think we’ll be winning the Cy Young Awards or breaking Babe Ruth’s record, but I do think this will be a great learning experience for all three of us.