Baseball Season

As I've mentioned before, Roman is playing baseball for Reams this spring. They have yet to win a game, and while I have strong opinions on why and how to resolve the problem, I will keep all that to myself so as not to stir the pot!

Most games Roman walks away with his head down in complete frustration. It is hard to watch. He is a competitive spirit and all this losing is wearing him down. Last week James took him to the batting cages and we bought a pitching practice net that is not only helping his accuracy, but also his catching as the ball returns as hard as is thrown! Basically we decided we'd take it upon ourselves to truly teach him a game I have always loved.

The result.... at last week's game he hit his first ball. Truly hit it, hard enough to safely make it to base. Of course he had to slide into 1st, but not from pressure, all for show! LOL He's been dying to do that! After a few more plays he found himself on 3rd base. For a team that had to date only scored maybe 5 runs all season and faced such ending scores as 1-20 more than once this season, scoring was HUGE! So, as Roman's awaiting his first score of the year, the ball is hit. He's running.... the ball is being thrown home.... the catcher is standing ON the base awaiting the catch and blocking home plate. What does Roman do?? He never slows, he puts his chin to his chest, with batting helmet on, he plows over the catcher, who is half his size, and sends him flying backwards. Coach West (his football coach) begins jumping up and down cheering him on beside James. "THAT's my lineman!!" "No fear!" "Can't wait till football season!" "Did you see? That kids' built like a brick house!" began ringing all around us. Later I asked Roman what on earth he was thinking..... he says, "Mom, that was Providence.... PROVIDENCE!" (the ONLY team to beat them in football last season) "All I saw was that kid that knocked me down at football and he wasn't gonna stop me this time!" LOL I told him it was NOT the same kid, he swore it didn't matter, they may have lost the baseball game to Providence in the end, but Providence did not take Roman this time around!

James jokes that they're on track for a perfect season.... of loses! It really is a bit pathetic, but we are slowly seeing a little bit of improvement in the team with each game. And I am getting a lot of compliments from the other parents on how great Roman looks at the plate. His batting stance has been perfected and he is good for one big hit almost every game now! Who knows, maybe they will pull off a win before the season's over!