It’s been 3 years… since my son took the baseball field. Sure, he did play in a Fall League last year, but not since 2019, pre-COVID, has he played summer baseball. For a while, it looked like it might not even happen this year, but… we’re locked and loaded now. We jumped from a cancelled house league to an 11U travel team, where my 10 year old son is playing a year ahead. The guy running the thing thought he could do it, based on what he saw in the Fall League; he also needed some more players… But, I did agree with him; my son knows what he is doing. He doesn’t have the size and strength yet… some older 11 year olds may give him some trouble, but… he’ll hold his own. That’s exactly what he did in his first game back on the diamond on Saturday afternoon.
He was frustrated with how he hit earlier in the week in the make-shift batting cage they have for this league. This is the one area he needs the most work in, the one area where his time away from baseball has put him behind. We’ve kept on playing catch though. Sure, I’ve pitched to him too, but playing catch… a lot more. He knows how to handle the glove; he has a good arm too. But at the plate… yeah, well, time to get some ABs against real live pitching. Before the game, as the opposing pitcher warmed up, I told him to watch; he told me he thought he could hit him. I said good. I had told him not to get too frustrated with it being his first game and all. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about that.
As he stood in the batter’s box on his first AB, he looked confident; it felt great to see, let me tell you. He swung and missed at one, but ended up drawing a walk; he seems to have a pretty good command of the strike zone, not swinging at any junk. The next batter up hit a hard smash past the second baseman that rolled into the gap, so I got to see my son speed around the bases, scoring his first run of the season. His 2nd at bat came later that same inning. With the bases loaded and 2 outs, he was already in a big spot. He made contact, hit a slow roller towards third; kid had no chance to get him, but threw down there anyways. The kid that was on second base never stopped running, so the way I see it, a 2 RBI single for the boy; not bad! His 3rd AB included a foul ball, a taken strike, but at the end of the day, another walk, which was followed by his first stolen base of the season. My son asked me how many fantasy points he would have had… All in all, not a bad debut. His team won 11-10 too. It was their 3rd game of the year; it was our first. It was the first win of the year for the team too. Such a great way to return to the field…
Sorry, but there will be more of these types of blogs coming; I’m so hyped to see him playing baseball again. As if that wasn’t enough, later this week, his 2 games… will be on the field where I played all my baseball growing up… my brother and sister too… couple blocks from where my parents still live. Yeah… may have to bring some tissues for that one… It’s going to be a busy 2 months…
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