Let's Play Ball!

Saturday marked a big milestone in our house - our first Opening Day!  Dave is a baseball freak and has since turned our lovely 5 year old into one as well.  It's a good thing Drew likes baseball otherwise we'd be in trouble.

Dave is the team Manager as well and so they had their first game scheduled for Saturday at 11am.  Before Daddy left to get the field prepped, we took a few candids outside.   

Then Daddy went to the field and we met him about 30 minutes later.  Drew started running on the field to warm up with some of his teammates.

Then they had to line up on the bench to get ready to have their first ever at-bat!  Dave put numbers 1-10 on the bench and the boys were instructed to sit on their number until called up to get their helmet on and grab a bat. (one of the boys is already on the field)

Drew is the second one in, # 65.  Oh and a cute aside story... Dave let Drew pick his first Little League number before he gave the jerseys to the other kids.  While Daddy really wanted Drew to pick his former little league number (#11) Drew was adamant he wanted 65.  When we asked why... "Because it's the age I'm going to be and the age I am now".  Who can argue with that logic.

Back to the game...

Drew was number 3 in the line-up and I was wearing multiple hats, I was instructed by the team manager to take control and get the boys ready with helmets and bats so he could focus on the tee and getting things moving.  The same said manager also instructed me to take lots of pictures of the game and video.... I tried to meet all of the bossy manager's requests ;)

Here was Drew's first ever at bat.  I missed getting the video turned on fast enough.

At this age and in this league, they don't keep track of scores, outs or any thing.  All kids get an at-bat and then the inning is over.  Then they head out to the field to play defense - this happens three times.

Here is their first outfield experience...

Notice Manager Dave is reminding the boys to throw to first - and Drew (front center) and his new teammate are more interested in the batter at home plate.

The boys then have another at-bat and head back to the field.  Second inning Drew was playing 1st base!  There's another Assistant Coach who was helping the boys who played 1st base know where to stand and how to handle the ball.

It was a great first game!  All in all, the team made three legitimate outs by fielding the ball and getting the runner at first base out.  Some of the kids weren't understanding why they got the kids out, yet the kids remained on base.  It was kind of cute.

And as Manager Dave said, the boys were crushing the ball!
 

Drew and the team had a great time and were already talking about the next game.  I think they had a lot of fun - which is always great to see.  And a couple of the boys stopped playing in the dirt long enough to try and go after the ball - a big accomplishment with 5 year olds.

Go Nationals!