Our Braves took the field first, everyone (ok, some of them) in baseball-ready position. The Red Sox started the line-up with a stocky four-year old who hit one to the second baseman. His impressive hit was trumped by the fact that as our 2nd baseman was fielding the ball, our rightfielder TACKLED him, and held on until both boys were lifted and separated by coaches. The volunteer coach who happens to coach football for a living was quite impressed, though only I recognized it (15 years of marriage will do that for you.) This tackling fiasco happened a couple other times until the coaches did some switcheroos and surreptitiously moved the aggressive right fielder to left field where so far no balls had ventured.
Ours wasn't the only team with entertaining little players. The Red Sox boasted a right fielder (what is it with right field?) who, in the middle of a live ball scenario, would stop. drop. and roll. Apparently his pre-K class had done some fire safety prevention and this was fresh on his mind, because it happened several more times amid teammates bumping into each other and one incident where the entire team cleared the infield and bolted to center to retrieve a hard hit ball.
Of course with both teams there was the usual playing in the dirt, chasing bugs, and our littlest player who kept checking on Tru K. in the stroller (he loves babies, says his Mom). We were also asked several times how much longer do we have to stay here and "do we get a snack?"; all good and typical questions from first year athletes, as this is NOT my first rodeo and Coach Kirk was quick to point out this would NOT be our last.
All in all it was a great day doing something we all love, and I can only imagine how much fun we will have when Tru K. gets his turn at sports. Heck, they may be drinking Muscle Milk and running bleachers by then, but that will only serve to make it that much more fun.
Besides, four years will be here before we know it!
