TBall Spring 2013

Timmy and Tim just wrapped up another season of Tball this weekend.  Caleb and Carter were on the team again, as well as Ethan, a friend from preschool.  It was a good group of kids and they really learned a lot this season.

Suzanne and I felt a little more prepared from the start of the season, since we at least managed to have a banner for the kick off parade!

There were a total of 12 kids on the team this year, Tim handled the mayhem really well and you could see improvement in each kid, from throwing better, to understanding running the bases, and where to throw the ball once fielded.  This was the first season that we got to play on real fields, with a real dug out.  Us spectators also got bleachers, which helped keep poor Tyler off the field.

Our first game of the year we had every player, I'm not sure that happened again at a game!

This adorable sight could be seen every week at practice.  Poor Tyler can hit as well as some of the kids on the team, but he will have to wait two more full years to play for real!  Thank goodness for Stella and the playground to help keep Tyler off the field!

We had a young team, one of the early games the other coach asked Tim to send over a player who could read to take the Tball pledge (yes, seriously)  Tim's response was simply, "I don't have a player who can read..."  Considering that the other teams had much older players, and kids who had played before, our team  of almost all first time players did really well.  We were at least through half of the games before we ever got an out, but they saved it for our big night game, which made it even cooler.  Timmy fielded the ball at pitcher and had a great throw to Oliver at first base who caught it on one hop, directly in front of the runner for a tag.  The next play Oliver actually made an unassisted out, so once they got the hang of outs, things really picked up!  Timmy is a solid hitter, here's one from the night game.

The kids were asked to sell coupon books door-to-door as a fundraiser for the league.  Each child is asked to try to sell 10, with earning a shirt at 15 and a bat at 20 coupons sold.  Timmy and I went around with him in his uniform for three evenings in a row and sold 20.  He was one of only two tballers to sell that many!  We are looking forward to getting his bat!

This season also brought us to our first end of year picnic which includes the All-Star Game (and this seasons learning curve for Suzanne and I, we have a whole list of things to do for next years picnic!)  The last few practices Tim ran drills to see who could throw the furthest and who could run the fastest to see who would compete in those competitions, and he also got to select two players for the game.  Timmy and Caleb were the choice for the game, and the players who won our teams competitions weren't able to come, so Caleb got to represent the Ironbirds for the fastest runner, and Timmy did the farthest throw.

Timmy's first At Bat as an All Star was a great one.

(All-Star team picture coming as soon as it is emailed to us!)

Tyler enjoyed spending the afternoon with Stella.  He ate the entire bag of chips this way

And the last thing we did on the way out was let Timmy try the dunk tank.  His final throw did hit the target straight on, but apparently not hard enough to drop the bench!  The coach in the tank was so nice that he jumped off the platform and dunked himself for Timmy!