If You Think My Hands Are Full: baseball season

Well-- baseball season is in full swing. Good? Bad? Ugly? Yes, yes, and yes.

Over the winter Brady decided he did not want to play baseball this year. A Smallie boy that chooses to quit baseball? Unheard of. But I was more than a little excited at the idea of having a lot more free time. Brady's team was hard-core...I'm talking their schedule from mid-March through August only has TWO weekends without tournaments, and that's not including league games, or practices. It's a six-days-a-week commitment and although it was hard to give up Brady's starting 2nd base position on a nationally ranked team, we aren't the kind of parents to force our kids to play a sport that don't love so Scott made the call to the coach and that was that.

Bennett is playing for 12U Team Illini....this is his 4th season (or 5th?) with this team. Great kids, great parents, great fun! Looking forward to a fantastic season!

Carter is playing JV and Varsity baseball this year. He wasn't sure he wanted to play, but after the first day, he got back in the swing of things and is loving it.

And finally, Scott is coaching the JV team this year. Meaning, he is Carter's coach. It sounds great, right? Yeah, it's really not. Carter is a really good ball player and has had a great season so far, but the discipline issue is, well...an issue. For example, at Tuesdays game, Carter struck out, slammed his bat on the ground and yelled a bad word. THE bad word. Scott immediately ripped him out of the game, reamed him in front of everyone, and benched him. Are we having fun yet? Although Scott was right, it didn't make for a stress-free home the next few days. Scott has a hard job of being the coach and a players father...all of these kids are Carters friends, which makes disciplining the players even more complicated. Come on June! (However, I do find all of the "dude, you're sleeping with a players mom" jokes the other coaches tell to be very funny)

Cate and Coach Smallie starting the season off with a big win!

Ben and Brady love cheering on the Warriors

Even though Brady is not playing baseball this year, he has been heavily recruited by four other teams and is going to guest play a few tournaments with the E'ville Tigers. Several of his soccer teammates play for the Tigers and he enjoys playing with them. He added a 2nd place medal to his collection in the first tournament of the year.

Bennett's team played their first tournament last weekend. The sun was shining and it finally felt like baseball season had arrived!

Kerrigan, Lauren and Cate back together again. It was a long winter!

Uncle Josh came in for the weekend and spent an entire 12 hours with us on Saturday. Poor guy

Trevor LOVES watching the games. I can't wait til he is out there playing!

Perfecting his "mean face". The scars and bruises on his face really help sell the look

On Monday, both JV and Varsity played at Grizzlie's stadium. It's turf, which means the day-long heavy downpour did not cancel the games. It's fun watching baseball in the cold rain. Not.

Isn't that a strange coaches box? Coaching from the stands? Actually, Scott was serving a one-game suspension for getting thrown out of a previous game. I told you this season is fun!!

This drives me crazy. If Carter sees me taking pictures...even if there is a batter at the plate...he takes time to look over, wink, smile, and tip his hat. Focus!!! Scott will kill both of us if you miss an infield play because I'm taking your picture!!!