Blastball - Orange Team - June 2011

Blastball 2011 marks the beginning of an exciting journey into the sports lives of our family. I grew up dancing and my sister rode horses and played softball so I was "familiar" with sports but it wasn't until I met Eric and his sports-obsessed family (and I mean that in the sweetest way possible) that I knew how bonkers this sports thing could get. Kids play sports at WHAT age? Three? Oh, I thought it was just like when they turned 10. You practice every week AND you have at least one game each week? I thought you just practiced a few times and played a few games. After one sport stops, and another starts? Is there an end to this madness? Who thinks this stuff up?

I better get on board, or get out of the way. So...what better way to get on board than coaching? Yep, I said C-O-A-C-H-I-N-G. The girl who grew up dancing (okay, and played MAYBE 2 seasons of softball) is coaching. Let me rephrase that...in the words of the person overseeing all of blastball..."it's herding cats". Truer words were never spoken. Getting four three year-olds to play an organized sport is literally like herding cats....a meltdown here, potty break there, "it's my turn, not yours" over there, and the occasional runaway child (Davis).

The blastball season consisted of 2 practices and 3 games spread out over 5 weeks (1 each week). We were Team Orange and our team members were Davis, Vander, Jeremy and Rich. The game is quite simple and is composed of a tee, ball, and one base (see below for a copy of the email I sent to the families explaining the game). The kids were a joy to coach and we met some great new friends. Vander and Davis have played together several times since the season ended and his parents are great, too!

At the end of the season we hosted a pizza party and the park and gave trophies to our little blastball stars!

Here are some photos from the season:

The closest thing we could get to a team photo.

L-R: David (Jeremy's brother), Me, Davis, Jeremy, Emily (Jeremy's mom), Rich and Vander.

Fielding. Eric and Davis, me with Rich.

Daddy coaching Davis.

Davis at bat during practice.

It was hot so we brought shade for snacks after the games.

Davis and his post-game snack.

You could find us at Jimmy John's after each game.

Vander and I at the pizza party.

Davis and I at the pizza party.

Rich and I at the pizza party.

Sweet Jeremy and I at the pizza party.

Here is the email I sent with the game rules (May 2011):

Good morning Team Orange!

It was so nice to meet all of you and your little ones yesterday. Great practice!

Next Tuesday is our first game. Below you will find information about the location of our game and a quick summary of how the game works.

Game location:
- North field (closest to the school)
- Station #3 (you can find station #3 on the attached Bison Park map - if I am reading it correctly we'll play where we first met yesterday)
- We play team #6 (we are team #5)

How the game works:
- Only 1 base will be used
- Cones will be set up marking foul line. Foul balls get re-teed
- First 10 minutes is for warm-up, practice and organizing players
- Games are 3 innings or 30 minutes (whichever comes first)
- Goal is to keep the game moving with little standing around
- 1 inning = once through the batting order (no outs are kept, no score is kept)
- All players will play in the field (40' from home plate). No catcher.
- All throws on infield hits will go to the Blast Base (no outs are recorded)
- 2-3 parents will be needed in the field to help the players
- Most importantly....HAVE FUN (okay, that's not in the official rules...I added that) =0)

Eric and I will bring orange slices and low-sugar juice for a small post-game snack.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am excited for Tuesday's game and hope your kiddos are too!

Go Orange!
Margaret