Monday, March 23, 2009

Bat Girl

There I would sit, an invisible rubber band keeping my mouth shut, as I watched my 5 year old son pick worms out of the fresh mud which seemed to make up more of the baseball field than grass in the spring of his first season.

A faint buzzing sound would be coming from the way up high clouds and each little boys head would quickly turn up, up, up to see where it was coming from.

Was it a jet?

Was it a bird?

Coaches would coax the boys to "watch the ball," to "keep their eyes on the ball," and to "be baseball ready." A harsh audience of lollygaggers upon which to fling such words. Mud would fly, giggles would be heard, and a runner would try to locate first base.

It didn't matter, they were having fun. And if I learned one thing during my oldest son's first experience in an organized sport, T ball, it was to keep my mouth shut and let him have that experience...despite all the worms who surrendered their lives to his grubby, dimpled little boy hands on that muddy field.

Katie could not wait to sign up for "baseball." Calling it T ball (which it really is), to her, is like giving her a brussel sprout and calling it birthday cake, telling her it is delicious and sweet only to find that the exact opposite is true.

[OK, I may be projecting my dislike of brussel sprouts onto the situation a bit here.]

To her, it is baseball. And baseball only.

Since I've been down this road a few times, watching her practice is entirely new to me. You see, she is nothing, nothing, nothing like her brothers were. Nothing. The coach whistles, she jumps. A team mate throws a ball at her, she jumps. Time to be on deck for batting? She grabs that hilarious pink bat and runs to the plate.

She is baseball ready.

She makes fake hand signals and wipes dirt on the tiniest pair of baseball pants that I've ever seen.

She refuses to take her red batting helmet off.

She is baseball ready.

Worms? What are those? Although she can be found after any major rain collecting snails and putting them in buckets (snail families, she calls them), she ignores every last little worm wiggling out of the mud on the baseball field.

She is baseball ready.


She's my Bat Girl.

10 comments:

Ashley said...

I love it!!!!

I hope my girl is the opposite of my boys when it comes to sports. My 5 year old son refused to play soccer at game time even though he was the one who wanted to sign up.

Anonymous said...

Yea! Shall I get HER a copy of "Grand Salami", too?

xxxooomom

Blossom said...

baseball and worms.what a weekend!!!!

Kerrie said...

That's so awesome. Go Katie!!!

Valarie Lea said...

Ok I want tickets, when she is playing Fastpitch in college. :)

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

Your little one reminds me of my little one in so many ways--and I love a girl that rocks the athleticism.

Little Miss Sunshine State said...

Welcome to "the difference between boys and girls".
They're focused, they're intense, they have a longer attention span.

That's how it was with my kids.

Her glove is awesome!

flutter said...

she is so cute, it hurts!

Anonymous said...

Heeeee! You've increased my squeal-factor over the fact that Rosebud will be playing soccer in May. Can't WAIT to watch my girl go out and play, too!

Joanna Jenkins said...

WOW! What a cool kid :-)