It wasn’t this hard growing up; signing up a kid to play baseball that is. Yet, going back all the way to when my son first started playing, it has been a challenge. It’s way harder than it should be…
Of course, I wanted him to start playing baseball as soon as possible. For me, that was playing catch in the backyard with my mom and dad; we executed that same strategy for him. I think he was 3, maybe 4 years old when we signed him up for something; OK, I looked it up, and yes, 3 years old, he was signed up for this all sports type thing close to the house, which was his first “organized” baseball. At 4 years old, he started Lil’ Sluggers, which was an instructional thing that lasted for a few weeks in the summer. Good timing to start up his baseball “career”, coinciding with the Cubs’ rise to the top. He was on his way!
At the age of 5, I wanted to sign him up to actually play in a league, which I did. Unfortunately, the parks closest to our house didn’t offer baseball, so I had to pick a place about 15-20 minutes away; it ended up being a good choice. Still, growing up, all we had to do was walk 1 block to the Boys Club for practice, and 1 block the other direction to Harrison Park for the games; easy peasy. Still, the drive to and from the park was no biggie; he played at this park for the next 3 years. His first year was fun; his second year his team dominated the 6 and under league. His third year, first year in the 7-9 year old league we went winless. Going from being the oldest kids in the league to the youngest wasn’t easy, especially when the other teams had established older kids. Still, learning experience; he began to pitch, which was very exciting; he was good at it too! Surely, when we come back the following summer when he’s 8, we’ll be much better. Then COVID hit…
That next year never came… nothing for the 8 year old summer, nothing for the 9 year old summer in the baseball arena. Finally, last year he got into a Fall League; it was really fun. It wasn’t as polished/organized as I would have liked, but he was playing baseball again, which was the key. This year, tried to get a jump on things, but was waitlisted, so signed back up to play summer ball where he played the fall league. As I got the call from the waitlist, I decided to stick with where we had already signed up… only to see that league officially get cancelled today; wtf!?!? There is summer registration coming up at the park district, but nowadays, it doesn’t seem to work like that; it’s all about private leagues that use the park facilities, and travel teams which play a ton of ball. I do have an option to get him in a travel league until a fall league opens up at one of the leagues I wanted to get him in. It’s a mess…
But… he will be at baseball practice on Tuesday, to give the travel team a look. If that works out, great; if not, may have to wait until the fall again. The other day he picked up a bat and started swinging it, seemingly getting that baseball itch… Hope to see him back on the field soon. More to come…
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