Batter up!

The baseball season has come to an end. Hayden has always liked baseball. He could hit a tossed (plastic) ball at 2. He cried at the end of his YMCA t-ball league last year. This year was a bit more realistic, at least as far as t-ball goes.

Hayden played in the Hamel baseball league. Hamel is basically a farm town in the suburbs, and the baseball league has a bit of a small town feel since it's surrounded by corn fields. It was a long season--from mid-May to mid-July. He even had a real team name (the Tigers), a jersey (a Tigers t-shirt with his name on the back), and a hat.

It was substantially more impressive than his hockey season. And cheaper too. Thanks to his cousins, we got free baseball pants and socks, a mitt, and a gift of real baseball batting gloves. And baseball warranted at least something of an attention span. At least while batting. Fielding...a different story. Hayden was usually the one kid not in "ready-position." He liked to spin around and twirl in the outfield. When playing a base position, he was mostly interested in reading the names off the opponents' jerseys. But he loved it. He loved going, he loved playing, he loved the after-game snack. And I preferred watching baseball over watching hockey. This may be insulting to native Minnesotans, but watching kids stuffed in equipment inside a cold ice rink has nothing on baseball on a sunny summer day.

After the last real game of the season, the kids got medals. GOLD medals. This last bit is important, as gold is MUCH better than any other color to a 5 year old. There's no doubt he'll be signing up for baseball again. The next experiment is soccer.... we'll keep you posted.