Tonight, B's baseball team played the Cardinals. This is the third time they've played them this season. The Cards are in 1st place, B's team is in third, and B's team may be the only one that has beaten the Cards this year. At the beginning of the year, I wrote about how frustrating it can be to watch your kid play a sport when he really wants to do well and just ... struggles. Part of it is my fault - I don't have as much time to play, and even when I do have the time, I haven't been great at getting out there with him. Lots of these dads have been grooming their kid since birth in terms of throwing the ball around, batting, etc. We haven't done that, and B pays a bit of a price for that.
B played catcher in the game tonight. Until this season, his position has been firmly rooted in right field. If you are not familiar with youth baseball, right field is typically where your weakest player goes. He started this season in right field, then graduated to left field. There aren't a lot of balls in the outfield at this age in baseball, but even a shift from right to left field was a good thing. Then he started bugging his coaches about wanting to play catcher. He was bored in the outfield, and I can't say I blame him. There was literally nothing going on out there.
So his coaches, to their credit, put him in here and there as catcher. His first several innings were painful to watch - he hardly touched the ball, let alone 'caught'. The balls sailed past him and he just sort of ... watched. It was frustrating, and a bit embarrassing, but he was much happier behind the plate than in the outfield. After awhile, my dad started coaching him a bit, and I started spending the innings he caught standing directly behind him, trying to give direction where I could. His coaches also started giving direction, and he took it.
The last couple of games, he's gotten more time behind the plate, and tonight, he caught the entire game. During one rather excruciatingly long inning (that team had some GOOD batters), he let only three balls get past him. In previous games, it was good when he actually BLOCKED three balls an inning. Somewhere along the way, something clicked and he started playing the position. He's always played smart - he knows the game pretty well, and he doesn't make stupid plays. But tonight, he played his position and he played it well. It was awesome to watch him sink into that role and perform well at it. He persisted at this position, bugged his coaches about it, and in the end, showed he could do it and do it well. No, he's not the best catcher out there - but the improvement he's shown over the season makes me incredibly happy for him.
And incidentally, he's turned into a damn good hitter. He's not the strongest one out there, but he manages to get on base just about every time he's up to bat. He's settled into leadoff hitter, and one of his coaches asked him tonight if he's even struck out this year (yes, he has, twice I think). He loves this sport, he loves to play, he has a terrific attitude, and it's so awesome to watch something good happen to him after several seasons of playing right field and landing at the end of the batting order. This season, he also has a couple of good coaches who have spent some extra time with him, and have worked with him. To his credit, he's taken instruction very well, and everything seems to be coming together really well for him.
He's been bugging me for the last month (maybe longer) to get him some catcher's gear. I told him that I didn't want to get it for him until I saw that he was committed to playing that position and it wasn't just a whim. I do believe his request will be answered in the very near future - he's earned it, and earned it well. I'm just super proud of my little dude.
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