Team meeting

We had our first team meeting last weekend to kick off the season.  All the parents and players came by our house to meet each other and make all the important decisions.  What color pants are we going to wear?  Who is going to be able to help at practice?  And of course we got to have the religious debate about snacks after the games.  We settled on white, and having snacks after games.

I took the kids out back and we played find your position with little treasure maps that I made.  The kids seemed to really enjoy this and I think they learned something.  I plan to run this drill until everyone can tell the difference between 1st and 3rd.  Based on my initial findings it could be awhile.

While T-ball is really all about fun and safety I do aspire to teach the kids a few basic things this year.  Namely:

• The names of the defensive positions
• The basics of the game play (inning, runs, outs)
• How to field a ball
• How to hit off the tee

The last two I know we will see a wide variance in abilities and I'm really only aiming for them to have an idea of what to do.  In reality my real challenges are likely to be:

• What hand to wear the glove on
• Trying to keep your hat on for the whole game
• Parents :)

Some observations from the weekend meeting:

T-ball is expensive, especially when you have nothing.  The league gave us some basic, dirty gear.  The only think that's of remote use is the tee and the catchers gear.  With the exception of the balls none of the gear is new or pink as the girls like to point out.  So we had to go buy our own helmet, lots of wiffle balls, gloves (+1 for me since I have never had an adult glove) and bases.

It's important we establish ourselves as in charge with the kids and the parents.  More so with the parents.  So far everyone seems cool but I don't think they really have internalized that I really know nothing about this sport.  But hey, they could have coached if they wanted to so they are stuck with us.  My plan with the more challenging parents is to give them jobs.  I can't deal with complaining.

As I've said before, I really know nothing about baseball.  When I was picking up my gear the coach in front of me was telling me that his kids t-ball coach played college and a little minors blah blah blah.  I know it's just tee ball but it's interesting how caught up in it folks are.

It's going to be a fun season.  Our first practice is Friday.