A "Proud Dad" Update

Thanks to everyone who commented and read the "Thanks Topps" post from Saturday. I thought I would give you a game recap from Game 1 of my son's Little League career.

The game started right at 2:00 PM on a sunny, cloudless Saturday. Thomas was batting 8th and playing in left field. These games have a 90 minute/6 inning limit, whichever comes first. Let me say I'll be SHOCKED if they ever play a full 6 innings. We were the visitors so we batted first. After 6 walks and no hits, our team was up 2-0 with 2 outs. Thomas came to the plate.

First Pitch Ever....Strike 1!

Ball! 1-1

Ball! 2-1

Strike! 2-2

Ball! 3-2

Bases loaded....two outs...full count. Every little boys dream (except it's the top of the 1st, not the bottom of the 9th).

STRIKE THREE!!

His first at bat ended with a called strike three. I loaded all those pictures to illustrate a point. He never moved during his at bat. No practice swings, no stepping out of the batting box, no adjusting his batting gloves for three minutes between pitches ala Nomar Garciaparra. Nothing.

Well, on to the bottom of the 1st. The other team scored 6 runs on 7 or 8 walks and two "triples". Those were hits to right field that barely cleared the first baseman, but somehow evaded the right fielder.

The second inning saw our team put 2 more on the board, including our first ball put into play. It was a fielders choice, but hey, someone put a ball in play so we were excited.

At the end of the 2nd, we were down 9-4 so holding them to only 3 that inning was a good thing. We were also down to about 11 minutes to play. The rule is once an inning is started, you get to finish that inning if time expires.

Thomas was the 5th batter due up in the 3rd inning. The first two batters reached on walks. The next two struck out and with runners at 1st and 3rd, Thomas came up. I'd like to direct you to the above sequence of photos to save time and space. During his at bat, the runner at third scored to make it 9-5. Again, Thomas never swung the bat. He walked on 5 pitches and seemed to float all the way to 1st. He was excited to be on base and high fived the coach. He was ready to run...but it never happened. The next batter struck out and the game ended with our team on the wrong side of a 9-5 score.

I asked him after the game why he never swung the bat and he said, "I was too nervous." I told him that was ok and he would do better next time. I told him I was proud of him for getting on base and he said that was fun, but he wants to get to run next time. His time will come.

All in all, it was a fun time and even though he didn't get a hit and didn't get any plays in the field, he seemed to have a good time. We play again on Thursday so hopefully things will go better for the team.

Don't worry, I'm not going to be doing a play by play of every game...but you might have to read another post or two when he gets his first hit or catches his first pop-up.