Baseball and Derby Day

To continue my theme of my last entry baseball is in full swing both Little and Major Leagues. Noah's team has played two games for a record of 1-1. This is his first year playing organized baseball and he is having fun playing. I was able to get to his second game and took a few photos.

It is interesting to see how the Little League has changed over the years since I played back in the late 1960's.

Most of the runs that were scored in Noah's game came as a result of a wild pitch or passed ball. I dug out my old newspaper clippings to read about home runs, doubles and the like. Today's kids have so many other things to grab their attention, back in the day we played ball all the time. Even if no one was around to play with I remember throwing the ball at the front stoop of the house as a backstop and practicing that way. I also remember getting yelled at when the ball hit the metal screen door.

Noah's team pushed 7 runs across in one inning and that ended the inning. Can not let any one team beat the other team to badly now. Back in the day there was no mercy. You played to three outs. I don't like that rule. If you get whooped on the diamond you need to practice harder to improve your team. But we can not hurt anyone's feelings these days.

Sports can be a wonderful tool to teach kids life lessons. There is no shame in losing if you try your best.

Theodore Roosevelt put it like this, ""The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name." "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

One change that is positive is that ever kid get to hit even those not playing in the field. Also every kid get to play in the field for part of the game.

Little League baseball is a great thing for kids to be involved in.

On to Kentucky. The Derby was run yesterday and the second longest shot in the history of the race won and no I did not have him. There's always next year.