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| Opening Day - Raptors and Blue Jays |
For the last 5 years, Preston has been playing baseball. However this year, Preston AND Walker are playing ball. Walker is playing his first season of tee-ball on the Raptors (the same team Preston played for years ago). While Walker is learning the ropes for his first time, Preston has moved into kid pitch and is excited about some of the changes, like stealing bases during pass balls. Slowly, but surely, the boys are moving towards the real rules of baseball.
The season opener was the first weekend of March. Walker plays once a week, with a practice for about 20 minutes, and then a quick, informal game for the remaining 40 minutes. It is a hilarious sight, because every child's father is in the field with them, instructing them what to do. Sometimes there is even a sibling or two, and everyone stays in the infield because rarely does a ball make it past the dirt. All of the kids chase the same ball, and then don't know what to do once they get it.
When they are up to bat, the kids are just learning to hit the ball and run the bases...in the correct order. The first game that Walker played, he hit the ball, but instead of running to first base, he ran right out over the pitcher's mound, over second base and out to the fence. Sadly I think he thought he hit a homerun. We can only guess that because his coach made all of the kids run to the fence and back to burn energy during the practice, rather than running the bases, Walker thought that was where he was supposed to go. It was pretty cute though, and we chalked it up as a learning experience.
Since Walker had never played baseball before, we assumed he would play right-handed, but for our initial picture, he held the bat left-handed. We asked around and found a left-handed glove before his first game, and after practicing both ways, he did seem to gravitate towards being a right-handed player (thank goodness).
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| very serious |
Walker ended up liking baseball, but I do think he LOVED the gear! From the cleats to the eye black-out, he never was upset about getting dressed each week. Of course the snack after each game was the icing on the cake. Here are some of our favorite pictures from his short season.
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| Daddy giving Walker some wise advice |
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| Not sure where Walker is headed, but see the other 4 kids going for the ball? |
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| He missed the ball, but that tongue.... |
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| Giving the 1st base coach "five" |
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| The Raptors |
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| Walker and his buddy, Stan Evans |
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| Walker's fan club |
Preston, on the other hand, had a weekly practice and two games each week. His little team was
pretty good, but they ended up finishing in 3rd place out of the six teams in their age group. However, the all stars season began in April, so for a month Preston played on Blue Jays, in addition to practicing with his all stars team (Homewood White). The all star season is still going on until mid June, but it was fun watching Preston learn to pitch the ball and continue to play middle field during the spring. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first few months of his baseball season.
