Keep Your Eyes on the Mariners

The Mariners were the team to watch on Saturday. I know, you think they're season is over. Don't be mistaken. I'm not harkening back to the MLB team looking for a new general manager to bring them a winning season in 2009. I'm referring to the Mariners vs. the Pirates on Field 2 of the Round Rock YMCA T-Ball Fields.

This was Abigail's first t-ball game, and she was an all-star! Our Mariners took the field first, with Abigail at short stop. She was all hustle as she fought her way to get every ground ball on the left side of the field. Anything left of the pitcher was all her's no matter what the pitcher and third baseman did. The funniest times were when she had to wrestle with players from the Pirates who left the base path to mistakenly field the ball instead of continuing to run to third base.

Her first at-bat was a stellar performance with a quick single to second base. She was so proud to stand atop first base for the first time!





It sounds simple, but it wasn't every player who made it to first base alone. Many had parents running alongside them to direct their paths. The funniest site was one of the Pirates who felt very strongly about his desire to not be on the field. His mom held his hands onto the bat and hit the ball for him, and then drug him through the entire basepath. As a sidenote, I don't see a manly future in this young man's path. Not only was this scene hilarious, but due to the unusually large size of the shirt on his small body, his well-meaning (yet, very wrong) mother gathered his shirt into a ponytail at the small of his back and bound it with a hair scrunchy. He looked like he had a tail! I felt sorry for the boy, but it was good entertainment for us. Back to the game...

Abigail made it around the base path, never straying to field balls, as many players did, and was ecstatic to score her first run ever.

In the second (and last) inning, Abigail was at third base. We instructed her to stay back, near the base, so that the other kids could have a chance to field the ball. We didn't want her to be as much of a ball hog as she was in the first inning. The best highlight of the inning for us was watching her wrestle to catch the ball when it was thrown to her in an attempt to throw the runner out coming to third base. However, the wrestling was only because the runner was trying to catch the ball! (I'm telling you, this is great entertainment if you're looking for something to do on a Saturday!) I was on the first base path, so I didn't get a great shot of the struggle, but you can get an idea.




In her last at-bat, Coach Joe worked on her swing, and she took a few cuts before making contact, but it was a hard hit.

She rounded the bases nicely, until having some problems when she reached third base. I was readying the after-game snacks nearby so I didn't have my camera in hand, but I was just a few feet from the fracas. She was head (his) to shoulders (her's) with butt ponytail boy who was standing with his mom on third base. His mom didn't seem to understand that just because he was supposed to be on third base, didn't mean that his actual location was to be atop third base. The Pirates' young fielder and my daughter nudged each other off and on the base a few times until Abigail grabbed him by the shoulders and gently placed him where he should be standing near the base to field the balls. It was a great moment! She was nice about it, but strongly assured him that she was supposed to be standing on the base and couldn't because he was in the wrong place. I definitely needed the video camera for this moment in time.

In the end, the teams shook hands and got more excited about snacks than anything.

However, Abigail asked many times throughout the rest of the day about who won the game. I tried to explain to her that they don't keep score, no one wins, and no one loses. Daniel has repeated this to me every time I ask. He says we're just out there to learn the game and have fun, so I relayed this speech to her. She wasn't pleased with that idea (I'm on her side with this one), and insisted that she wanted to win. I'm with her! Don't kids need to learn how to win, and lose, as much as they need to learn the fundamentals of the game? Eh... I haven't shared this with Abigail, but there's no need because she came up with the same ideas on her own. She's such a smart girl.