Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

As my devoted readers will remember, last month Abra got to try her hand (her foot?) at soccer. Well, now it's Thalia's turn to enter the word of organized sports -- in this case playing peewee T-ball! (Is there any other kind of T-ball?)

It was a long painful story of organizational disorganization at first, but a few well-placed calls to the boss of the league finally got Thalia onto her team -- the Cardinals. And she had her first practice last Tuesday.

The first time her coach (Coach Christy) asked her to throw the ball, Thalia two-handed the throw, kind of pushing the ball awkwardly. Uh-oh, I thought, that was bad. So the Coach said "use just your bare hand, Thalia", and on the next throw, she whipped it in to Coach Christy pretty confidently. OK, that's my girl!

Here's her first T-ball hit in practice (it was on an 0-1 count, since she, uh, wiffed on her first swing...), and looking at the trajectory of the ball, it kind of makes me wonder if the boys should be wearing cups.

So after a bit of playing around a bit in practice (T-ball practice for four year olds is a sight to behold), the Cardinals were ready for their first game, played this morning against the Diamondbacks. Here's Thalia walking to the field in uniform, with her game face on.

(She is wearing pants, in case you're wondering...)

Thalia is number 5, the same as Joe DiMaggio. I guess we can start calling her "The Yorkshire Clipper".

So the Cardinals were up first. The batting order was in uniform number order, which meant she bats fifth (protecting the clean-up hitter as it were...). It also meant she had to wait her turn in line:


But finally it was her turn to bat. Coach Christy got her lined up and ready to hit (she's a lefty, remember). Hey batta batta, suh-WING batta!

And off she goes with her first official T-ball hit!

OK, you can tell she kind of topped the ball, driving it into the ground about a foot in front of home plate -- the classic T-ball hit. She then stood there for a minute -- I wasn't sure if she was admiring the hit and showing up the, uh, tee, or had just forgotten to run. Turns out she had just forgotten to run -- the coach reminded her and off she went to first base.

You gotta love the first base coach helpfully and VERY CLEARLY pointing out where first base is. Run, DiMaggio, run!

OK, so maybe you're wondering if she was safe or out at first. This is probably a good time to remind you that THIS IS PEEWEE T-BALL. There is no "safe" or "out", there are no runs scored, you swing until you hit the ball, then you run to a base. You are safe regardless of what happens to the ball. (This is a good thing, since often it takes several minutes for the kids to remember to run the bases or field the ball). So the kids simply bat in order, moving up a base each time, until they've batted around, and then they switch.

When Thalia got to second, she kind of spaced for a minute and stayed on second base when the ball was subsequently hit, creating a traffic jam of Cardinals on second base for a moment.

But then the coach reminded her to run again, and she made it to third base.


Now honestly that picture kind of chokes me up a little bit. She's clearly being a trouper there, a little bewildered and uncertain and trying to do the right thing even though she's not sure of the rules. She's the smallest kid on the field BY FAR, and there's a lot of yelling going on (not yelling at the kids, mind you, but simply yelling to be heard by the kids) and its confusing and I think she's feeling a bit scared and overwhelmed there. But she then ran home and got a high five from Coach Christy, so she seemed ok.

Then it was their turn in the outfield. That was kind of a zoo, as you might expect. At first, whenever the ball was hit, a large group of boys would run at the ball and dogpile on it, like this:


Thalia didn't really know what to do (and maybe figured since the boys were gonna get it, she didn't need to run after it) so she simply stood in place behind the basepath. After watching this happen a few times, I figured it was time for some personal coaching. So Coach Dad ran out on the field.


I told her when the ball was hit, she should run to it, even if the boys beat her to it. I figured just getting her reacting to a batted ball was a good start. She did, although she was usually the last one to get to the ball and just watched the boys pounce on it.

Then it was the Cardinals' turn to bat again. At that point, Thalia started asking to go to the playground, or go home, and so first Dad then Mom had a pep talk with her to get her spirits up. And it was a good thing, because then she suddenly started having a good time. When it was her turn to bat, she walloped the ball but good:


And she had no problem running the bases, and here she is standing at third base again.


Contrast that picture to the first time she's on third, and it's a world of difference. She knows what to do this time, she knows what's coming next. She's much happier. A little experience and confidence does great things for one's mood!

So when we went back out on the field, I went with her again, and she was much more ready for playing the field:






I love the picture on the left -- look how scrunched up her hat is; we had trouble trying to tighten it enough to get it to stay on her head!

So then she ran after the ball with the boys, still not quite getting to it, but giving it a game and spirited try.

But then the coach switched things around so that instead of the kids dogpiling after the ball, they took turns fielding it. I think that worked better, and Thalia had a chance to field the ball by herself and made a pretty good throw to first.

Anyway, after a little bit of this, she turned to me and said "I don't need you out here anymore, Dad, you can go sit with Mommy." ATTA GIRL!

And then when the game was over, it was time for the postgame high-five handshake with the Diamondbacks.


Dang, but she's cute.

I asked her afterwards if she liked it, and she said yes, and was looking forward to having practice later in the week. So I think much of the tentativeness was just due to unfamiliarity, and the fact that many of the other kids were a) mostly strangers, b) mostly aggressive, c) mostly boys (there's only one other girl on the team), and d) mostly knew what to do.

But in the end she did fine. She's a little jock, I think she will find her niche in sports pretty soon. If it's not T-ball, it'll be something else. For now, though, the peewee league better be ready for the Yorkshire Clipper....

ps: (No Country for Old Men Update: #116)