Well...the AMC Pirates had our second game today. This after our first practice last Monday.
One thing I have learned is that games are much much easier than practices.
At the practice the kids could not focus for more than 30 seconds at a time. We set up drills to simply get them to try and stop the ball and turn and throw to first base. This simple task was seemingly too tough for the kids. The fielders wandered all over the place, the first baseman picked his/her nose while watching birds fly around. Some even walked off the field and began playing in the sandbox. My poor assistant and I spent the first half hour corraling kids.
Luckily some of the parents stepped up and after that we managed to break the kids up into smaller groups and add a bit of structure to the practice.
We had one injury. In one drill we got the kids to play "piggy in the middle" with coaches/parents acting as the piggy. The purpose was to try and get them to pick up the ball (which was supposed to be thrown underhand along the ground) and quickly throw it on to their team-mate. One of our girls got a bit excited and instead of throw underhand hurled it right at Dillon, one of the little boys. He took it right on his ear. His dad was there and was helping us out and he did the right thing and after Dillon cried a bit he got him right back "out there" and playing again. It is a sort-of "fall off a horse and get right back on" idea. In batting practice Dillon, who is pretty small for his age, turned out to be an amazing hitter...so I put him in to bat at the clean-up spot in today's game.
Soooo...the game.
First of all...meet the AMC Pirates (although not everyone had shown up at picture taking time before the game):
The two kids not in uniform are mine.
Our team fielding...note the coach (me) yelling "THIRD BASE, THROW IT TO THIRD BASE" on the right side lol:
Another one of us fielding:
Opposing team, lining up to bat:
Not very good pics I'm afraid. My wife was the photographer, but she had two little ones to watch and they wanted to play on the playing ground off to the side of the school.
The Pirates did really really well today though. We had one inning where we got the entire opposing team out with only one hit allowed. When I called our team in from the field the opposing coach came over and gave me heck for not reading the rules. He said that even if there were 3 outs the whole team gets to bat.
Unbeknownsed to him not only did I read the rules, I actually had a copy with me and pointed out that in line one of rule one it clearly stated that "We play outs". The organiser was there so we called for clarification. Turned out that the opposing coach was right and the organiser apologised for the misleading way the rule was written. The "We play outs" simply meant that if a kid was out he/she sat down and didn't stay on the base. All kids in the line-up do indeed get to bat.
It was pretty funny though because the other coach had obviously done coaching before and considered himself the greatest thing since sliced bread. He was pretty shocked that I didn't just agree with him and bow down to his almighty T-Ball knowledge. It was even funnier because our firm's legal council's kid was on the opposing team. I gave him a set of the rules and told him what happened and asked his opinion. After the inning was over he came over to both of us (coaches) and said "I have to agree that the Pirates' coach would have won that case in a court of law", even though his kid was on the other team. Fortunately he didn't bill me.
LOL!
Great fun this T-Ball stuff.
