It wouldn’t be May if I didn’t find a fresh reason to boast about my kids.
It’s baseball season now—and once again I find myself wearing a coaches hat.
My son Jackson—whose best sport is football—was facing the rival Cubs last night.
Jackson is the leadoff hitter—mainly because of his speed. He is not a big kid but he does have a nice swing.
On his first at-bat, he struck out—but the catcher dropped the third strike and Jackson beat the throw to first. He eventually stole his way around and scored—which is what a good leadoff hitter does.
Last year, I mentioned that Jackson actually had two home runs on dropped third strikes—aided by a plethora of throwing errors.
Home runs in Little League are usually the garden variety “inside-the-park” kind—usually aided by a throwing error or two.
The fences in our ballparks are 200 ft. so it takes a formidable shot for 9-12 year olds to hit one out. There has not been a true homerun hit yet this season though a few of the bigger boys have hit it to the fence.
So…Jackson comes up for his second at-bat with two men on. I am standing in the first base coaches box.
Jackson swings at the first pitch and misses.
He fouls the second pitch hard down the third base line.
He was bummed. He had his pitch…pulled it…but it was foul.
I shouted to him “It’s OK, Buddy, now you’re ready”.
Next pitch, Jackson swings and cranks a fly ball to left.
I was surprised as the ball had a very high arc. I could tell that the left fielder would not be able to make a play so I signaled Jack to round toward second.
I looked back at the ball again—expecting to see it drop deep in left field.
To my amazement, the ball bounced directly on the top of the fence and over into the parking lot.
I looked at the ump—who was circling his finger round and round.
That’s right…Jackson—who is not a big kid—hit a dinger!
Every time I try to take pics or vids of my kids in sports action—its pretty uneventful.
But this one will be etched in my mind permanently.
Jackson is the first person in my entire family to ever actually hit one out.
Thus I gush.
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