Play Ball!

Baseball season has begun! This year I just couldn't commit to driving all the way into Bel Air in rush hour traffic so our compromise was to join the Hickory/Fountain Green league which is proving to be a whole new adventure. Our opening day games scheduled for Saturday were rained out so Monday Ben and Philip had their first game of the season. Those player picture packages are a bit pricey so we made up our own version. Here's Ben's 2006 Player Pose:

And here's Philip. They are playing in the 7/8 league and their team is the Cubs (thus the Cubs uniforms). They sure do look spiffy, don't they?!
AND...this year they even got their names on the backs of their shirts. Since we have two Klopcic's on the team, Ben and Philip even got their first initial - big stuff, folks!
They had a great first game, from their perspective anyway. They even played their good friend Gabriel's team which may prove to be a tender spot in their friendship in days to come. The Cubs looked great on the field - they were batting well and fielding well but poor Gabe's team was....well...not doing so well. It was the sort of game where round about the 3rd inning, both sides of the stands are rooting for the same team - just to give them a morale boost. Needless to say, the Cubs walked off with a grand victory - 15 - 0. The highlight of the game for Philip was getting whacked in the back by a ball thrown by a wild pitch. In this league, they actually let the kids pitch and that turned out to be a bit dangerous.
I'm not sure how these two got in here but they wanted their picture taken too. They start gymnastics next week so I guess I'll have to highlight them in their gymnastics leotards later...

On Tuesday, JT had his first game. He's playing for the Ironbirds in the 9/10 league and boy was he unprepared for the changes! This is the big leagues, folks, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Both teams had a couple of pitchers with some impressive arms but still a bit wild and unpredictable. It doesn't help that they seem to hire 13 year old boys with relatively untrained eyes to serve as umpires.... JT was the first to bat for his team in the top of the very first inning of the very first game. He didn't know what was about to hit him! It didn't take long before he struck out and wandered, perplexed, back to the bench. He was feeling pretty discouraged until he watched his next two teammates meet the same fate.
Then it was to the outfield for him. His coach has him playing way out in the outfiled, hoping to use his speed to the team's best advantage - it doesn't take JT long to reach a long hit to left field. He was ready but the other team didn't do a whole lot better that first inning than the Ironbirds did. This was some small comfort to both teams I think. The game became a pitcher's game for the first few innings and then the boys finally managed to marry bat with ball and make a few runs. No one scored more than a double but JT did get walked a base and then batted in for a score. The game was close but the final score was Ironbirds - 3, A's - 4. Not bad for their first time out in a brand new league!
And, well, Davey just wanted to try on the hat! He has a few years to go...