Tee Ball

The Boy and The Girl are both playing in the Avondale Park (satellite)-Athletic Field Park's Tee Ball league this spring. The Boy is somewhat into t-ball, at least in theory. He can throw a bit, and sort of catch, and he went through a heck of a lot of drills the few times we made it to the serious, no-parents-allowed, learn-to-play-t-ball clinic at Horner Park during the winter session. The Girl, OTOH, is totally confused. She likes the running the bases part, but generally singsongs in the outfield, or plays in the dirt with her friend Peri or Kathy, another little 3-y/o teammate.

The league is incredibly cheap, which means that it's basically run by parent volunteers, with a few pointers from the park district coaches and a bag of loaner equipment from the same. Our team, the Giants, is lucky enough to have several dad-volunteers to run drills and organize practices. They're pretty good at it! I'll admit that except for the availability of the dads, the timing of it all -- 5:15 - 6:15 p.m. -- is pretty crummy for the 3-5-year-old set. We practice on Tuesdays and play games on Thursdays. My two have yet to make a game, either due to rain or laziness on my part.

However, it is rather fun to see all the different teams practicing along the perimeter of the park, figuring out how this baseball thing really works (or just having fun running circles in the dirt). Jessica's son is in the same league, and as I took The Girl to the bathroom, I saw her, standing in the dirt and yelling plays to Lil E and her team. Cool.