Monday, March 23, 2009

Changing Seasons



This is my beautiful, semi-green flower bed. Things are popping up everywhere! :)

Not only are we dealing with the changing from Winter to Spring--which I love!!!!
We are dealing with the changing from Little League baseball to Junior League baseball--which I don't love! :) Well, let me put it this way--I do like it because it means my youngest is growing up and in 2 more seasons will be playing high school baseball. (We miss that a lot this year!) But, it means we must leave a familiar team, familiar coaches, players and parents to a new group. Not that they won't be just as familiar by the end of 2 years, but it's hard all the same.

Saturday--a beautiful Spring day, was the day for Hunter to tryout. Now tryouts for baseball aren't something extremely gruelling or physically hard and everyone makes a team. The boys have to hit 3 balls (1 bunt, 1 hit and one hit & run to 3rd base) and field 3 ground balls from the short stop position. Then, these coaches take notes and go "draft" these boys. Poor coaches really don't get to see a lot of the ability of the players, but just a snapshot. Then, they have to decide who they want as their 1st, 2nd, etc. Well, that is hoping that no one who gets to choose before them chooses their "favorites". :)

It is definitely a mentally tough day, however. As a player you want to do your best and hopefully show only your best skills. As a parent, you want your son to get picked on a great team with a great coach. Not only for the ability to win, because to me that's secondary, but the ability to learn more about the game. Junior League is it----it's right before High School. This is where the buck stops. Once you go to High School a tryout means that some won't make the team.

That will be more difficult waiting on than the phone call we waited on on Saturday afternoon. I was so frustrated because our internet was down--which meant our phone was out--so I couldn't forward our phone calls to my cell phone. It took me forever to remember how to check the voicemail remotely because we use the answering machine for that. So, here I was fretting. We got the phone call on Brian's cell phone while we were at the mall looking at baseball equipment. I should have known they would try the 2nd number, but you know how it is when you're waiting on something. :) Well, he's on the Dodgers. What does that mean? We aren't familiar with the coach (although we've been told he's a great coach), we don't know anyone else on the team (until practice today), there are just a lot of unknowns--except the color is blue (and everyone knows how much I "love" blue-NOT). :) ha ha!

Well, we have our first practice tonight, so I'll let you know how it goes. God has us on this team for a reason. We know it will be a great season and look forward to being able to post about it. I will keep you updated. So today, as I left the garage, I put the folding chairs and my bag with a blanket in it back in the Envoy--Looks like we'll be spending a lot of time at the ballpark. :)

UPDATE: Okay, okay. So we have what seems to be a great team, Hunter made some new friends and reconnected with some old ones, and the coaches were great. Here are a couple pics from tonight's practice. I was a good mom and stayed at the top of the hill and didn't hug the fence to get great shots--but come game time you better believe I will! So, check in often. Hopefully I will have a new camera soon, so maybe great shots even from the hill. :)


2 comments:

patty said...

oh how i miss little league baseball!!! i know it's always changing, but we were on the dodgers, and their color was goldenrod, and oh-how i miss little league!! take lotsa pictures and blog on it, rebecca!! let me live vicariously!! :)

Rebecca said...

Patty,
We moved up to Junior League this year. We are Dodgers blue--woo hoo. :) Actually it was a great night. You know I will take lots of pics. You are more than welcome to live vicariously! Just keep track and hope I have time to update regularly during ball. :) Getting ready to update this post and add a couple pics.