First Touchdown!

Last weekend the inclement weather caused my daughter’s softball evaluations to be postponed until today. This brought a “double booking” for the morning as my son also had evaluations along with a flag football game. I promised my daughter I would volunteer with her softball team just as I volunteered with my son’s baseball team in the fall. I do have a sense of commitment to my son’s baseball so I did my best to be in both places. Fortunately there was a time gap between the two evaluations and thankfully my son’s evaluations didn’t take much time at all.

My son will be playing in the “kid” pitch baseball league as opposed to the “machine” pitch baseball league he played in the fall. My son wanted to play in the “kid” pitch and campaigned hard to get his way. I was on the fence but until I spoke with my brother in law I was swayed to go with my son’s wishes. I was thinking my son may take a few steps back in the “kid” pitch league because I could see the kids pitching being a bit erratic whereas the “machine” is much more consistent. However; as my brother in law pointed out there is much more to baseball than just hitting and the fact that my son is a very good athlete being in the “kid” pitch league would be to his benefit. I should be a very interesting season and I look forward to a very fun season.

His evaluations went very well and I am always happy to see him doing well. Actually it doesn’t matter to me whether he does well or not the bottom line to me is the fact that he is having fun. He had fun this morning as he promptly lined the first two pitches of the three pitches he received during the evaluations. He may have swung and missed the final pitch but he hussled his way around the bases and did very well fielding the ground balls along with making very good throws to first base. He had some difficulty with the pop flies but that will come with more practice. All in all he did very well and had a very good timing doing it.

My son’s evaluation was over in time for us to meet my wife and daughter at the softball field. This evaluation was a contrast to my son’s baseball evaluation because it took a very long time. There were over 100 girls being evaluated and the system of evaluation being employed was much lengthier than my son’s evaluation. My son’s evaluation was all inclusive while my daughter’s evaluation was performed in three separate segments. This took all morning long and into the afternoon. First she was evaluated in the field with ground balls and pop flies. My daughter handled the ground balls very well and made good throws. The pop flies were much like how my son handled his pop flies and it is just a practice thing since my daughter is also a good athlete. This is interesting because my daughter is one of the smaller girls for her age but she does have “skills” and she certainly has determination.

The second segment of my daughter’s evaluation was hitting and my daughter did well hitting all five pitches. She didn’t hit the balls the authority she normally hits the balls but did hit them nonetheless. As I mentioned my daughter is very determined and with this she becomes her own worst critic. She wasn’t very happy with her hitting performance and I did my best to put things into perspective as we waited for the third and final phase of the softball evaluation. The third phase was to evaluate her pitching and once again she did well but in her eye’s she didn’t do well enough. I did cheer her up and after three plus hours in the hot sun (yes, even though it is the last day of January the temperature reached 85 degrees) the evaluation was over. In the next few days she will be assigned a team and the spring softball season will commence. This will be a very long season since it doesn’t end until June! I do hope my daughter has fun and it appears as long as she does well she will have fun.

While I was at my daughter’s evaluation my wife was at my son’s flag football game. As fate would have it my son scored his first touchdown of the season and had a very good all around game. I certainly would have loved to see his first touchdown but I was very happy to be with my daughter and the fact that I am here makes all the difference in the world. We made our way home and when we got home I got the rundown on the football game from my son and I had to make good on my promise to get him Pokémon cards when he scores a touchdown. This was his reward for scoring a touchdown and I was more than happy to oblige. We made our way to two stores to find the cards and my son was very enthused to receive the cards. This was indeed a wonderful way to spend a Saturday and the fun continues each and every day.