Family Man

Last night was my son's first T-ball Practice. Although I'm not a sports dad, this was a very exciting thing for me. He got his glove and was gleeful about the prospect of "playing ball." Now, he's three years old, and his team was the 3-4 range, so my expectation of anything remotely resembling a real baseball game was low, but as long as he had fun, it didn't matter to me.

The coach was fine, the coach's daughter who is also playing was pretty bratty, but whatever. Randy hit a couple of balls off the tee, then went out to the field to catch balls the other kids hit. That went about as expected, with 7 kids all huddled as close to the batter as the coach would let them running after every ball that was hit because somehow they would all miss it. My son actually caught two balls, and his throwing is pretty good when it goes off. Sometimes he just plain releases too early and the ball goes straight up.

I was surprised by the fact that the 3-4 range had somehow become the 3-5 range when I wasn't looking, and it turns out my son was the only 3 year old, the rest of the kids being four and five. But he didn't seem to be intimidated at all, so good for him, although his three year old lack of attention span did make for the funny event of the evening. The coach was teaching the kids how to run the bases which he described as a drill beneficial to "both the kids and the parents." The parents were extremely amused at the fact that he showed the kids all of the bases, and their names, and what order to run them in, but the kids just did not get it. He would say 'Ok now, what base do we run to FIRST?" and we'd hear kids yelling "Second! No wait Home Plate!"

Eventually they all got it and they did the first run to first plate. Then they had to run to first AND then second. The first kid decided to run the whole bases. The second did it right, then came my son who ran to first and rounded it like a champ... And then just kind of ran off aimlessly, settling on the pitcher's mound where he proceeded to spin in circles because he thought it was funny.

I was torn between cracking up with the rest of the parents, and silently taking note to check my child for brain damage. Just kidding, I cheered him on and told him good job and got him back into line for another go. He was having so much fun.

Since he was so good listening to his coach and I was so proud of him, I decided to give him a super special treat. Since we were literally less than a half mile from home, off all major roads, I asked him if he wanted to sit in the front seat instead of his booster chair in the back. I figured for such a short drive at 25 miles per hour in the complex he would be safe, and I'd buckle him in tight of course. I told him he wasn't allowed to tell mommy though, because she would be mad. (Mommy was off with my daughter at her swim class. We have a busy Thursday night.)

He was grinning like mad all the way home, and we got home and I cooked up a quick dinner. Shortly later my wife came home with my daughter and I started talking to my daughter about her swim class when I hear this exchange:

"Did you have fun at baseball practice?"
"I got to ride in the front seat!"

DOH! Pwned and double pwned!

Yeah, I didn't get any last night.

(For those of you that only listen to me for the poker updates, here's a quick one. Knocked out early of an MTT when my big blind 36 ran into 3Q on a board of 733. Who woulda thunk? Then I played a ring game and won about 5bb/100 in a short session. It felt good playing in a ring game of limit hold'em. Its where I feel most comfortable right now.)