Fall ball

A quick update on the baseball life. It has sort of come to rule our existence again. Fall ball is a bit less of a time commitment, in theory, but because Connor has started, we seem to be at the fields about as much as we were in the spring. Jamie has been doing great. It's really fun to see how far he has come and he can definitely hold his own out there. He's been in a bit of a slump lately because he's finally gotten to the point where he really swings the bat hard and he has had to get used to timing his swing better because it's moving through the zone so much faster. He's had a number of hits this year, but Wednesday was the first time with the new swing that he really connected and he drilled the ball between the line and the third baseman. By far the hardest hit he's had. What's fun is that he is very self-motivated and really loves playing. Last night while I was helping to coach Connor's game Jamie found a couple of boys and they went off a played a game on their own, which I love. I think that too much is made sometimes of the imposition of organized sports over spontaneous "sandlot" playing, as if they were exclusive. I'm sure Jamie never would have felt confident enough to do this without playing Little League.

Now, Connor. Well, he has his moments, but it's a bit of a battle. I think the main issue for him is not so much coordination as attention. Which is to say he doesn't pay any. Something about getting on the baseball field seems to spur the silly mode in Connor (not that it takes much) and he goes into a total wiggle, spinning around, rolling on the ground, doing everything but looking at the baseball. But he has fun sometimes and he is certainly not the only one of those kids to be distracted. Basically if you put a bunch of 5-year-olds around a big expanse of dirt, there's only one real outcome, it's just a question of how long it takes.