Little League
Little League this year has been a very different experience from last year. Over the past few weeks it has fairly well consumed our life, for better or worse....
The main reason for the difference is that Isaac moved up a level, from what they call Farm League to what they call the Minors. This move actually represented a fair amount of drama; the GREATLY shortened version is that someone had put incorrect information on the league website, making it look as though Isaac (and at least one of his classmates/friends) was old enough to move up, when in fact he wasn't. But when the error was discovered, the league officials let us sign up for the Minors anyway, and let me reiterate that this is the very much condensed version of that story. ;)
Anyway, so Isaac ended up the youngest one on his team and probably the least skilled as well -- some of the other boys are in their second or even third year of the Minors -- but he isn't all that far behind some of them (and he isn't even the smallest one physically). Several of his teammates go to his school, though they're a grade ahead of him.
Last year, in the farm league, we had a coach who, well, let's say he did the whole thing half-heartedly. He had been "conscripted," rather than volunteering, and it showed. Also, several of the kids on the team were not interested in baseball, and/or were too young to have the concentration that the game requires, or whatever -- memorably there were a few games where there were kids literally sitting down and playing in the dirt of the infield while they were supposed to be fielding! I personally found this frustrating and I think Isaac did too, since he was/is SO into baseball and knows the game so well and was so excited to finally be on a team.
So overall it was a kind of "meh" experience. But this year all of that has changed. Our coach is great -- clearly loves the game, loves coaching, and is really committed to the league's philosophy of making it fun, not letting competitiveness get ugly, staying positive, etc. He has three sons who all play Little League -- the middle one is on our team -- but unlike the horror stories you hear, he doesn't show favoritism to his own kid. Also, at this level there isn't the same issue of kids who aren't interested in the game -- they just wouldn't be able to make it at this point if they weren't into it. Of course, they are still kids, so there's a certain amount of daydreaming/navel-gazing that happens, especially with the outfielders...but they're all into the game and they're all there because they want to be, not because their parents decided they should do Little League or whatever.
The atmosphere among the "audience" at games is nicer too. At the practices we had in the first week or two of the season, a lot of parents seemed to drop their kids off and leave; but for the actual games, pretty much every kid has at least one parent present. The parents, grandparents, etc., all bring their folding chairs and make themselves comfortable* and hang out, chatting and so forth, while the younger siblings run around playing together. (We've been very lucky this year that several of Isaac's teammates have younger siblings for Ruthie to play with, which has made things much easier.) I've gotten quite friendly with several of the parents and it's nice to just chill in our folding chairs, watching the game and shooting the shit. I really like the whole atmosphere -- it has a timeless sort of quality to it, like I'm sharing an almost identical experience (minus a few details) with Little League parents from fifty years ago.
* (although making selves comfortable has been more or less possible at some games vs. others -- we've had a few games where it was REALLY cold and all the parents were shivering under blankets. And a few games where we were dripping with sweat. It has been quite a variable spring, weather-wise! Memorably, at one game, it rained very briefly and then there was a huge rainbow, a full arc stretching across the sky over the field, absolutely gorgeous -- more for us parents to enjoy than the kids, who were too absorbed in the game to barely notice!)
And Isaac's team has had a great year. In the regular season, which encompassed basically the month of May and a bit of June, we played 12 games and won 11. Then we went on to the playoffs, which is played in best-of-three series. We won our first two playoff rounds. The final round of playoffs, another best-of-3, begins tomorrow night. We're playing against the team of Isaac's good friend and teammate, so I hope that won't be too awkward. Their team hasn't done nearly as well as ours, but you never know what can happen. So it should be an exciting few days.
The logistics of Little League have been pretty crazy to juggle. We've had three games a week most weeks, on Tues-Thurs-Sat -- another big change from last year, when we typically had one game per week! Our weekday games are at 5:30, and the coach wants us there at 5:00 to warm up, and we've also had some practices on other weeknights at 5:00. Now, on a typical workday/school day, I get to kid-pickup right around 5:25, closing time being 5:30 (and if I have bad luck with public transportation, sometimes I'm late and have to pay late fees of $1/minute!). So obviously I wasn't going to be able to get to Isaac, bring him his baseball equipment (uniform: pants, shirt, socks, hat; and his cleats and glove), get him changed, and get him to the field by 5:00 -- at least, not if I left work at my usual time.
For the first few games/practices, I seriously stressed out about this. We were deliberately late for a couple of practices, on one occasion I gratefully got one of the other moms to pick Isaac up and bring him there, and on one memorable occasion, when the game was at the field right near his afterschool, Isaac walked over there himself. This is a whole nother post, perhaps, following up on my other recent posts about Isaac's slowly gaining independence -- but aside from that, we only had that one game at that field and then the rest of them were at a different field much too far away for any walking, so that was moot.
So, after a couple of those nerve-wracking evenings, I hit on the idea of asking my boss if I could leave work one hour early, on eight occasions, and count that as one vacation day. He was fine with that, so that's what I ended up doing and it was SUCH a stress-reliever. It worked out really well. Leaving an hour early gave me just enough time to go home, change out of my work clothes, put together snacks for the game, gather up Isaac's stuff, and get the kids picked up on time to get to the game on time. I put Isaac's uniform pants in his backpack, and just before I left home to go pick him up I would call afterschool and have them tell him to put the pants on, and then he could do the socks, shoes, and shirt in the car.
Of course, then we had a bunch of rain-outs, and also my mom has been a big help with picking the kids up and getting them to the games, since she isn't working any more; so it took longer to use up my eight hours, but still it worked out pretty much perfectly.
And, of course, I've had to learn to pack multitudes of snacks, primarily for me and Ruthie. It turns out that Isaac never wants to eat before a game, even though I know he must be hungry -- on non-game days he needs a snack in the car on the way home; he can't even wait the five minutes it takes to drive home from afterschool. But for whatever reason, he just refuses to eat anything before a game. So I bring a sandwich anyway and he'll inhale it in the car after the game. But I also have to bring a wide variety of snacks for Ruthie, and don't even get me started on the menace that is the concession stand at the field. *Eyeroll*
So, all in all, it has been quite an experience. The logistics part, I feel like I've gotten better at over time, and next year (ack! who can think about that??) I'll hopefully not take as long to get into the swing. Although next year Ruthie might want to play too, OY, that'll be a whole other ball of wax. One of the other families on Isaac's team this year also has an older son in the Majors, and they've had to do incredible feats of logistics-scheduling so that each parent can get to at least some of each kid's games. It makes my head spin just thinking about it.
And Isaac has, overall, had a really good experience this year. There has been some "interesting" interpersonal stuff going on with him and some teammates, and he had a bit of a "slump" wherein he refused to swing the bat for a while -- but overall it has gone well. He's gotten a lot better at fielding, throwing, and batting. He's made a few good plays in the infield and outfield, gotten some good hits, and even tried his hand at pitching (another difference between this level and where we were last year -- the coaches pitched in the lower levels, but at this level the kids pitch). I think he has mostly enjoyed it and had a good time and been able to stretch his skills, so it's good. :)
Whew, that got LONG!! But the basic nutshell version is that we have had a good Little League experience this year, overall, and are looking forward to our last few games this week.
The main reason for the difference is that Isaac moved up a level, from what they call Farm League to what they call the Minors. This move actually represented a fair amount of drama; the GREATLY shortened version is that someone had put incorrect information on the league website, making it look as though Isaac (and at least one of his classmates/friends) was old enough to move up, when in fact he wasn't. But when the error was discovered, the league officials let us sign up for the Minors anyway, and let me reiterate that this is the very much condensed version of that story. ;)
Anyway, so Isaac ended up the youngest one on his team and probably the least skilled as well -- some of the other boys are in their second or even third year of the Minors -- but he isn't all that far behind some of them (and he isn't even the smallest one physically). Several of his teammates go to his school, though they're a grade ahead of him.
Last year, in the farm league, we had a coach who, well, let's say he did the whole thing half-heartedly. He had been "conscripted," rather than volunteering, and it showed. Also, several of the kids on the team were not interested in baseball, and/or were too young to have the concentration that the game requires, or whatever -- memorably there were a few games where there were kids literally sitting down and playing in the dirt of the infield while they were supposed to be fielding! I personally found this frustrating and I think Isaac did too, since he was/is SO into baseball and knows the game so well and was so excited to finally be on a team.
So overall it was a kind of "meh" experience. But this year all of that has changed. Our coach is great -- clearly loves the game, loves coaching, and is really committed to the league's philosophy of making it fun, not letting competitiveness get ugly, staying positive, etc. He has three sons who all play Little League -- the middle one is on our team -- but unlike the horror stories you hear, he doesn't show favoritism to his own kid. Also, at this level there isn't the same issue of kids who aren't interested in the game -- they just wouldn't be able to make it at this point if they weren't into it. Of course, they are still kids, so there's a certain amount of daydreaming/navel-gazing that happens, especially with the outfielders...but they're all into the game and they're all there because they want to be, not because their parents decided they should do Little League or whatever.
The atmosphere among the "audience" at games is nicer too. At the practices we had in the first week or two of the season, a lot of parents seemed to drop their kids off and leave; but for the actual games, pretty much every kid has at least one parent present. The parents, grandparents, etc., all bring their folding chairs and make themselves comfortable* and hang out, chatting and so forth, while the younger siblings run around playing together. (We've been very lucky this year that several of Isaac's teammates have younger siblings for Ruthie to play with, which has made things much easier.) I've gotten quite friendly with several of the parents and it's nice to just chill in our folding chairs, watching the game and shooting the shit. I really like the whole atmosphere -- it has a timeless sort of quality to it, like I'm sharing an almost identical experience (minus a few details) with Little League parents from fifty years ago.
* (although making selves comfortable has been more or less possible at some games vs. others -- we've had a few games where it was REALLY cold and all the parents were shivering under blankets. And a few games where we were dripping with sweat. It has been quite a variable spring, weather-wise! Memorably, at one game, it rained very briefly and then there was a huge rainbow, a full arc stretching across the sky over the field, absolutely gorgeous -- more for us parents to enjoy than the kids, who were too absorbed in the game to barely notice!)
And Isaac's team has had a great year. In the regular season, which encompassed basically the month of May and a bit of June, we played 12 games and won 11. Then we went on to the playoffs, which is played in best-of-three series. We won our first two playoff rounds. The final round of playoffs, another best-of-3, begins tomorrow night. We're playing against the team of Isaac's good friend and teammate, so I hope that won't be too awkward. Their team hasn't done nearly as well as ours, but you never know what can happen. So it should be an exciting few days.
The logistics of Little League have been pretty crazy to juggle. We've had three games a week most weeks, on Tues-Thurs-Sat -- another big change from last year, when we typically had one game per week! Our weekday games are at 5:30, and the coach wants us there at 5:00 to warm up, and we've also had some practices on other weeknights at 5:00. Now, on a typical workday/school day, I get to kid-pickup right around 5:25, closing time being 5:30 (and if I have bad luck with public transportation, sometimes I'm late and have to pay late fees of $1/minute!). So obviously I wasn't going to be able to get to Isaac, bring him his baseball equipment (uniform: pants, shirt, socks, hat; and his cleats and glove), get him changed, and get him to the field by 5:00 -- at least, not if I left work at my usual time.
For the first few games/practices, I seriously stressed out about this. We were deliberately late for a couple of practices, on one occasion I gratefully got one of the other moms to pick Isaac up and bring him there, and on one memorable occasion, when the game was at the field right near his afterschool, Isaac walked over there himself. This is a whole nother post, perhaps, following up on my other recent posts about Isaac's slowly gaining independence -- but aside from that, we only had that one game at that field and then the rest of them were at a different field much too far away for any walking, so that was moot.
So, after a couple of those nerve-wracking evenings, I hit on the idea of asking my boss if I could leave work one hour early, on eight occasions, and count that as one vacation day. He was fine with that, so that's what I ended up doing and it was SUCH a stress-reliever. It worked out really well. Leaving an hour early gave me just enough time to go home, change out of my work clothes, put together snacks for the game, gather up Isaac's stuff, and get the kids picked up on time to get to the game on time. I put Isaac's uniform pants in his backpack, and just before I left home to go pick him up I would call afterschool and have them tell him to put the pants on, and then he could do the socks, shoes, and shirt in the car.
Of course, then we had a bunch of rain-outs, and also my mom has been a big help with picking the kids up and getting them to the games, since she isn't working any more; so it took longer to use up my eight hours, but still it worked out pretty much perfectly.
And, of course, I've had to learn to pack multitudes of snacks, primarily for me and Ruthie. It turns out that Isaac never wants to eat before a game, even though I know he must be hungry -- on non-game days he needs a snack in the car on the way home; he can't even wait the five minutes it takes to drive home from afterschool. But for whatever reason, he just refuses to eat anything before a game. So I bring a sandwich anyway and he'll inhale it in the car after the game. But I also have to bring a wide variety of snacks for Ruthie, and don't even get me started on the menace that is the concession stand at the field. *Eyeroll*
So, all in all, it has been quite an experience. The logistics part, I feel like I've gotten better at over time, and next year (ack! who can think about that??) I'll hopefully not take as long to get into the swing. Although next year Ruthie might want to play too, OY, that'll be a whole other ball of wax. One of the other families on Isaac's team this year also has an older son in the Majors, and they've had to do incredible feats of logistics-scheduling so that each parent can get to at least some of each kid's games. It makes my head spin just thinking about it.
And Isaac has, overall, had a really good experience this year. There has been some "interesting" interpersonal stuff going on with him and some teammates, and he had a bit of a "slump" wherein he refused to swing the bat for a while -- but overall it has gone well. He's gotten a lot better at fielding, throwing, and batting. He's made a few good plays in the infield and outfield, gotten some good hits, and even tried his hand at pitching (another difference between this level and where we were last year -- the coaches pitched in the lower levels, but at this level the kids pitch). I think he has mostly enjoyed it and had a good time and been able to stretch his skills, so it's good. :)
Whew, that got LONG!! But the basic nutshell version is that we have had a good Little League experience this year, overall, and are looking forward to our last few games this week.