The Batmen

After nearly five years of waiting, his dream has finally been realized...  Riley is on a "real" baseball team.  As if the excitement of playing on a real team wasn't enough, I wish you could've seen the look on his face when he found out he was on "The Batmen".  I mean, really, is there anything better than combining baseball with his favorite superhero?!  (As an aside, how do boys who do not watch anything on TV except baseball and the morning news even know that Batman exists?)

After three fairly comical practices (comical in the sense that none of the kids -- well, except for Riley -- really know how to throw, catch, hit, run the bases or follow simple instructions), last night was The Batmen's first spring training game (or, as any other child would call it, scrimmage).  Riley was the lead off batter for The Batmen and crushed the ball into the outfield for a stand-up triple.  By "crushed", I really mean that he hit the ball generally well (although not nearly as good as I know he can -- he's still getting used to hitting off the tee instead of the overhead fast balls that Casey has been launching at him since he was 3-1/2) and that it bounced past the open gloves and outstretched arms of what felt like at least 10 kids who then proceeded to all chase after the ball and tackle each other so as to be the one who picked it up and (sort of) threw it back to the infield.  Frankly, it would've been a home run and should've been a home run had it not been for the fact that almost all of the opposing players stood (unknowingly) directly in the baseline and interfered.  But I digress.  Riley was undeterred and stood proudly on third base clapping his hands in a very nonchalant, self-congratulatory way.  On the next play, not surprisingly, a very wobbly "hit" that landed no farther than 10 inches in front of home plate sent Riley sprinting home for his very first "real" run.  To say he was excited doesn't really do it justice, although to his credit, he just passed home plate and casually jogged off the field towards his teammates.  I only know with certainty that he was excited because he glanced my way out of the corner of his eye all the way up at the top of the hill where I was watching (read: chasing after) Chase, and gave me an ever so slight grin and head nod.  I swear he is already 15 instead of just shy of 5 years old.

More hilarity ensued for the next sixty minutes it took to get through each team's batting order twice (seriously?!).  Most kids didn't know how to swing a bat.  Many would swing so hard that they would completely miss the ball (on a inanimate tee, no less) at least 10 times before finally making accidental contact.  Some kids would run straight to second base, skipping first base entirely.  The funniest part about this is that they would still have plenty of time to run back to first base with ease and not be thrown or tagged out since barely any of the kids can field, throw or catch the ball to make a play.  It was basically the batter versus whatever kid picked up the ball racing each other to first base to determine if the batter was safe or out.  And there was a lot of sliding, mostly without justification.  Is this a boy thing?  I don't get it.  Sliding seems painful to me.  I'm not sure why, if I were a 4-6 year old boy, I'd choose to slide into (near) the base when the ball was at best 10 feet away, but it happened with enough frequency that I concluded it was intentional.

Riley finished the night with a triple, a base hit, a few fielding errors, a few throwing errors (although in his defense, the throws were spot on, it's just that the kid at first base liked to catch them with his face/head instead of his glove because he was almost always looking in the entirely wrong direction), an enormous grin, and a whole lot of enthusiasm for this great American pastime we call baseball.