End of the Season

So the end of the spring baseball season has come and gone. Hayden and the Dodgers did a great job. They lost a lot of games, but they won some too. I was so proud of Hayden, when we started the season I was a little (aka a lot) concerned about his baseball abilities and his attention span. There would be times I would look into the field and he would be sitting in the dirt as the other team was getting ready to bat. And in the beginning watching him run to base was painful, it was as if he had all the time in the world to get to the base. By the end of the season, he was actually paying attention to where the ball was when he was on the field (okay he didn't always go and get it when he should, but you could see him tracking it with his eyes, and he was standing up) and he was actually running to the base like something was chasing him. It was incredible to see his growth on the field.

The Dodgers even went out with a huge bang by winning their last game by a land slide.



Today they had the closing ceremonies for the league. I figured we would go get Hayden's trophy and then leave. Boy was I wrong. The league had a whole little carnival going on with face painters, balloon artists and jumping inflatables. They even had hot dogs, chips, drinks and snow cones. Some much for dinner.

Hayden was very proud of his trophy.

Turner even got in on the action.

Okay so now I get to rant. This was our first taste of organized sports and I must say the coach was great and Hayden really did enjoy himself, but . . .I was so disappointed in the other parents. Sometimes I just had to shake my head when the other teams would get so upset about some of the littlest things. I mean really these are five years old for heaven sakes, isn't the point that they be having fun and learning about team work. The league made me mad because there were no set guidelines and every team we played had a different set of rules on when you could run, how many base you could run, when you could tag a player out and on and on and on. Our boys would get so confused and then not know what to do when they finally did get the ball or had to run. And lastly I was so deeply disappointed in the parents from our own team. Going into this I knew we would have to make sacrifices to make sure Hayden was not only at the games, but at the practices also. And like I said I thought Coach Mike did an awesome job and I must give him kudos for continuing on with little to no support. Especially because he didn't have kid on the team, it was his little brother. He would hold practices and only three or four kids (including his brother) would show up. We had concession stand duty twice which is supposed to be covered by the parents. Coach Mike worked the concession stand both times because none of the other parents would volunteer. We ended up working the concession stand on Dave's birthday because no one else would. Then Coach Mike would send out text messages about practice or games and ask people to respond if they weren't going to be there, and people would not respond and not show up. And then these same parents would complain when we lost, because the boys didn't know how to play together, and their son(s) were usually the worst players. I was just so discussed with the whole thing. I know we will continue to participate as long as the boys want to, but I was really discussded with these parents.

Okay rant over.