Game Day

Miles woke up very excited about game day.  We had to leave the house at 10:15am and that still wasn't early enough for his liking.  I completely underestimated the amount of time it takes to put this amount of gear on a 6 year old.

Despite the beautiful sunshine, it was a windy, chilly day.  This is one of my new favorite pictures. 

Miles has his game face nailed.

This is one of Miles favorite friends from school, Tyler.  They are in the same class at school. His teacher said they are usually playing a sport together in the gym or outside at recess. 

His dad is the coach, and we are really looking forward to getting to know their family throughout the season. 

Today was picture day before the game, which caused some downtime, which caused some rowdiness. All smiles for picture day.

I can almost hear the background music as they strut across the park to their field.

Pregame prayer...thank you Coach Steve for that.

Miles was so excited to play third base.  He's been practicing there for a couple weeks.  He played two innings at third and then went to the outfield for a couple innings.  

Warming up...

During the game, he kept looking towards Darrin's dad and me. I don't know if he was looking to see if I was watching or if he wanted confirmation or encouragement.  He never did that in soccer.  Baseball seems to challenge him a little more, which pushes him a little outside his comfort zone. Because he's like me in that regard, I think he was looking for some affirmation.  He pushed through the game like a big boy, but I think he was pretty nervous every step of the way.

Even between swings he would look over at us.  He fouled a few balls and then finally made contact. He grounded towards first and the first baseman got him out.  I was honestly just relieved that he made contact b/c I think that's just the confidence he needed for the next two at bats.

The next two at bats he made contact with the first swing and made it to first once and to second once due to an overthrow.  

I was very happy with his attention span during the game. The coaches do an amazing job of continually reminding them where the play is and what their specific job is.  They also encouraged them all game long but not in a babying kind of way.  Miles didn't see much action at third, but his coach bragged on him for covering his base at least 4 times during the game. I think that is so smart to help remind them that they have a job to do with every batter, even if the ball doesn't come to them.

His first time to run home!

Today was just a "fun" day for the entire city league, but they won the game and more importantly they got the jitters out.  I was amazed at how far they have come since the first practice.  

Proud to have his Pa...

...and Granny at the game...

Darrin was out of town for the day with his team. We woke up to a voice text from Darrin giving Miles a pregame pep talk.  All three of us hate for him to miss stuff like this, but it's our normal and Darrin does a great job of staying involved even when he's away.  He called right after the game to see how it went. 

During the game, I found myself thinking that I could really get into baseball.  It doesn't seem to come as natural to him as football or even golf, when he started swinging a club years ago.  But, I can almost see his mind spinning with excitement and the challenge of it.  I'd say he had a very successful first game.