T-Ball Trials and Tribulations

Oooooklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the...T-Ball field.

Last night the twins played another t-ball game in 30 mph winds. Not fun. I felt like I ate half the dust in the state. But the wind is good for farmers. It's drying out the wheat, and they will be harvesting soon.

Last week one of the boys was playing second base and when the ball was hit, it took a bad hop and planted right in my son's mouth. I am happy to report no loose teeth, no broken nose, just a little bruising and swelling of the lip.

Our game yesterday did not go so well, either. We got started thirty minutes late, and we were the team playing the late game anyway. 4 year olds used to going to bed at 8:00pm or 8:30pm don't do well in a game that doesn't start until 7:15pm anyway, and this game didn't get started until 7:45pm.

And the biggest bone of contention I have is that the reason our game started late is because the teams playing ahead of us couldn't decide who the winner was. The first place team and the second place team in the league were playing each other, and of the three different people keeping score, no one had the same number of runs.

The rules for t-ball in our league say when an hour is up, you call the game. You can finish the inning, but that's it. Whoever is ahead is the winner. In their case, with another team waiting to play, IMHO the proper thing to do would have been to call the game a tie, (since there seemed to be a mix-up with the scorekeeping) and get off the field.

But nooooooo...we had to wait for them to play two more innings to determine a winner. And those parents and coaches WERE NOT leaving until there was a winner.

And the funniest thing was, the kids didn't really seem to care. Some of them were on the field playing in the dirt, examining their gloves, or dancing around. But the more excited the adults got, the more the kids cared what happened, not because they knew they were winning, but because of the cheers and praise from the adults.

The kids were playing. The adults were competing.

I guess I just realize more and more as a parent, kids are watching what adults do, and I have to wonder what kind of message we are sending to kids, especially over a t-ball game.