First Game!

Jacob's first official t-ball game was Thursday night.  Ironically, it was a year to the day after our visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  A year later, Jacob was starting his baseball career!  Fortunately the hot and humid weather we've had for a couple weeks had finally broken, so it was a nice, pleasant night in comparison...but still warm!  I rushed out of work, rushed to get Carter, and rushed to the game.  It had already started when I got there, but I think I saw Jacob's first at-bat...

Swing!  Sorry, there were a lot of people in the way!

Safe at first!  Of course, there are no outs...

Waiting on third to run home!

Scoring his first run!

The rules for this level of t-ball are a little crazy--four innings, everyone bats, no outs, only advance one base at a time, no keeping score.  It's all about learning the fundamentals and having fun.  He's got seven other teammates, all cute kids, and it's going to be an interesting season watching them learn.  One kid spends all evening crying, one girl is tougher than the boys, and the coach's son is just as distracted as Jacob can be, without the skills!  For all of his obsession with sports, Jacob can be terribly distracted.  I think at times he forgets that he has a lot to learn, and I think he's got his own agenda sometimes (what else is new?).  We knew that playing with teammates and any sort of structure would be a challenge for him after so many years of doing his own thing.  He liked the game a lot better than practice, though, and he did well.  His team was definitely better than the other team, at least. 

After the game we took a couple pictures...

And here's some video of his second at-bat.  It's hard to follow (sorry, lots of people in the way again and it was hard to see the ball in person because it was so sunny)...


It's going to be a long season since the rules make for a scattered ballgame, but like I said, watching the kids grow and learn will be fun.  The coach's son (who is adopted and has overcome some disabilities) and the kid who cries (we guess that he might have some social anxiety issues--poor kid) got the game balls.  Of course Jacob asked afterward why he didn't get one, but we told him those kids had the best game they could have had and he just needs to keep working hard if he wants to earn one.  That should give him something to work for. 

This could be the first game of many we'll have as sports parents, and I'll blog more about my feelings on that topic soon.  But for one night it was nice to see a "first", and it'll definitely be an adventure!