Thursday, June 18, 2015

Baseball 2015

This is Booker's first year of kid pitch baseball.  Last fall, he decided he wanted to be a pitcher.  Dusty and I were both a bit nervous for him to take on this position just because he can get so down on himself and let his mood ruin a game.  But, he truly showed interest, so we signed him up for some lessons with our good friend, Marc.  Marc has been so wonderful with him, and started him off with the best mechanics to build on.  So far, Booker has done very well on the pitcher's mound and it's so exciting to watch!  At bat, Booker started off at practice hitting quite a few balls.  Then, in the games he went into a slump.  He didn't hit a ball for 5 or 6 games in a row!  Then we just drilled it into him that we would never be mad at him for striking out, and he's striking out anyways just standing there, so SWING!  And since then, he's 9 for 9 at bat, only getting out once with a pop fly.  And he's had 2 infield home runs!  It's a lot of fun to watch and I love to see him get better with each game.

Bodey is in his 3rd year of machine pitch.  I really hope we can keep this little team of Cubs together because they are just so darn cute.  Not only that, but they are really starting to click and play some baseball!  They have matured so much in the last year.  Coach John was shocked at the first practice and said, "Holy cow, my team can catch and hit!"  Night and day from last year.  The last two years combined, Bodey probably only had 5 hits.  This year he is averaging 1 to 2 hits a game!  He has also pleasantly surprised us with a few fielding plays, getting kids out at 2nd, 3rd, and home!  I love watching this little team grow together.