little league Yankees and Marlins

Saturday's baseball practices were a mixed bag due to some very cold weather in the morning and gusty winds. Sunday, however, was a mild, sunny and calm day when the boys and I went over to the academy fields to practice a little ball. We started catching. Then Ry put on the catcher's gear while I guessed a distance between the home plate and the pitcher's rubber. Jackson pitched to Rylee, again throwing a lot right over the plate. As I think I mentioned, Jack's coach really has plans to play Jack at pitcher. (It wouldn't hurt to get a real pitching lesson; there are a couple of places in town young ball players go for private lessons: one would be helpful.) Whenever the coach puts his team on the field at practice, Jackson is at the pitcher's mound. After some pitching, I tried tossing some balls for batting practice, and then I hit some pop flies to them. A good practice for us.

But the best part came afterwards as I lay down on the field and the boys batted some balls to each other. This was great fun for them, and something they'd never done before. It went on a long time. I thought they were probably getting more out of that than anything else. Jack would ask later if we were done, and I'd say whenever you are. Then he'd hit some more, and it was good to see how much fun he was having. Finally, he was tired. We had a bit of a dog pile on the grass and then gathered up all of our gear.

Ry's Monday practice had good weather, too. I enjoyed helping out on the field. When the coach put his team on the field for practice, Rylee played first base and pretty much stayed there the rest of the practice until the coach reluctantly gave him a turn at batting practice before the end. Ry is actually using a first baseman's glove which he uses for catching behind the plate. While some players on his team are improving, Ry still is the most dependable at catching the ball and now he even stretches from first base to make both the catch and the out. He was hitting pretty good, too; a little late, but solid hits.They're going to scrimmage another team this Saturday.

Ry is very happy these days. He's learning a lot; he asks good questions, including the meaning of new words; he makes up games and puzzles and songs and rhymes. He draws. He has this fun way of laughing whenever someone makes a pun or makes up a joke, like he's getting pleasure from getting it. "Oh, ho, ho, good one!" He went with Cyndi to the public library for almost two hours over the weekend and checked out several new books and a couple of comic books. He'll spend hours fishing in his bins and drawers for Lego pieces to build something new. He voluntarily runs laps. He has a little "cubby" in the walk-in closet he likes to retreat to with his tablet. He watches mostly Arthur (a PBS cartoon show with a lesson). He's been very excited about his class field trip this morning to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. He talks about it all the time. When we were there last, they were remodeling the history exhibit, so we visited the art gallery, where he found a favorite painting. He says the class is going to see the history exhibit but may have a short time afterward to visit the gallery so he can find his favorite painting.When he returned, he told me he liked the conquistador armor you could touch and he did find his favorite painting (Peter Hurd's A Shower in a Dry Year).

Jack's Tuesday practice also had great weather until the last half hour when the cold wind picked up as the sun went down. Once again, when the coach fielded his team, Jackson was on the mound. The boys are getting very sophisticated. Not only batting and base running signals, but defensive signals, too, with pick offs and checks. The whole field comes alive on every play now. Rylee helped some during the practice, with lots of base running and even warmed up with them, playing four corners. He definitely held his own. It's hard (more a hesitation than a reluctance) sometimes for Jack to leave his computer after school to go to practice but I know he's loving it. The level of play (and overall talent) is exciting to watch. The coaches have a great attitude about the game and also work on character and team pride. When the boys run their laps at the start of practice, they are expected to have their shirts tucked in, belts on, team cap on, carry their glove, shout "attack" on every corner of the field, and stay together as one pack. His team, the Yankees, also has a scrimmage with another team on Saturday, at the same time Ry's team, the Marlins, has a scrimmage. I guess I'll run between the two. I'd really like to catch the debuts of Ry on first and Jackson on the mound. And I'd like to see them get some good hits. I think they will.

Jackson has really sprouted up. He's getting tall and lanky. It's good to see him play outside. He's good at it and he enjoys it. I recall how well his soccer season went last fall. At home, I see that he's constantly running through code as he plays his computer game with some online friends, and I think it's an  okay thing to do for a boy in 5th grade who is so interested in the technical aspects of computers. He really enjoys talking about it and explaining things. I do look forward to a time when he grows tired of this particular "game" and moves onto something else. He does have his eyes set on a more powerful computer and lately he's been back on his old ipod.

They are great boys.