t-ball (AKA world's hardest to photograph sport): week #1
shortstack is #8. click on the picture to see the entire series from the beginning.
does it get any more adorable than this? yes, soccer was pretty darn cute, and very entertaining. but let’s face it, baseball is the national sport. not to mention all of the team bonding experiences happening while sitting on the bench waiting to bat—as opposed to soccer, where the kids sitting out ditch their own parents to chill with their twin teammates’ mom & dad. both sports are equally difficult to photograph—pictures from every game look the same, and you can never get close enough. both sports require uniforms, of course—thank goodness the same cleats are good for both at this point. those little baseball pants are just too much. but add in those shin guards with the LOOOOONG soccer socks, and i think the uniform category is a tossup. even though both sports are played for fun without really keeping score or following the rules of the more grown-up versions, the differences in the games themselves are amazing. keep in mind that the kids have to be three to play soccer here, and four for t-ball.
with soccer, the kids can fake it by just running around. they can do an even better job of faking if they apply shortstack’s proven method of choosing a teammate to chase after the entire game. it’s a great strategy, provided that the chosen teammate isn’t on the sideline collapsing in a tantrum because he doesn’t want to play or in the backfield canoodling with the coach’s daughter (do i really have to tell you which one of those two was shortstack?) IF the team is lucky enough to have an awesome, patient, and attentive coach, he is definitely going to guide the team members along a little bit--especially the one in the backfield canoodling with his daughter. unfortunately, not all the teams were as lucky as the tigers last fall. almost any doofus can run around in the grass corralling kids. it’s sad that i have to qualify that statement with an ‘almost,’ but one less than qualified coach couldn’t even do that—his wife was yelling at him about where the kids were and what was going on from the sidelines. that’s a topic for another discussion…
so let’s think about t-ball. is the difference here because the kids have to be a year older to play? or is it the nature of the game itself? either way, i am endlessly fascinated. there’s nowhere for the kids to hide, and no way to make it look like they were doing what they should’ve been doing when they weren’t. sure, they can stand out second base and build lovely sand castles and just generally goof around and not pay attention. but you can rest assured coach al is going to call them on it. not just any clueless parent can be a t-ball coach, either. without a truckload of patience and a well developed sense of humor, one may as well not even bother. coach al manages to throw out some painless but great zingers that manage to get the kids on task and help them do what it is they need to be doing and still make most of the parents (at least the ones without corncobs up their asses…) crack up. the kids learn what they need to be doing, but they are also picking up on the fact that not everything has to be so freaking serious all the time and that you can really have fun while staying engaged and paying attention. another interesting point is that there is only one coach for both teams playing in the ‘game,’ and he’s the same coach coaching the other two teams in the league THAT SAME MORNING! there is absolutely no way any sane person could handle it if the kids weren’t such great listeners with amazing self control and interest in what they are there for (for the most part…). i think this is where the age difference between beginning soccer nuts and t-ballers really comes into play.
more cuteness to come next week...
does it get any more adorable than this? yes, soccer was pretty darn cute, and very entertaining. but let’s face it, baseball is the national sport. not to mention all of the team bonding experiences happening while sitting on the bench waiting to bat—as opposed to soccer, where the kids sitting out ditch their own parents to chill with their twin teammates’ mom & dad. both sports are equally difficult to photograph—pictures from every game look the same, and you can never get close enough. both sports require uniforms, of course—thank goodness the same cleats are good for both at this point. those little baseball pants are just too much. but add in those shin guards with the LOOOOONG soccer socks, and i think the uniform category is a tossup. even though both sports are played for fun without really keeping score or following the rules of the more grown-up versions, the differences in the games themselves are amazing. keep in mind that the kids have to be three to play soccer here, and four for t-ball.
with soccer, the kids can fake it by just running around. they can do an even better job of faking if they apply shortstack’s proven method of choosing a teammate to chase after the entire game. it’s a great strategy, provided that the chosen teammate isn’t on the sideline collapsing in a tantrum because he doesn’t want to play or in the backfield canoodling with the coach’s daughter (do i really have to tell you which one of those two was shortstack?) IF the team is lucky enough to have an awesome, patient, and attentive coach, he is definitely going to guide the team members along a little bit--especially the one in the backfield canoodling with his daughter. unfortunately, not all the teams were as lucky as the tigers last fall. almost any doofus can run around in the grass corralling kids. it’s sad that i have to qualify that statement with an ‘almost,’ but one less than qualified coach couldn’t even do that—his wife was yelling at him about where the kids were and what was going on from the sidelines. that’s a topic for another discussion…
so let’s think about t-ball. is the difference here because the kids have to be a year older to play? or is it the nature of the game itself? either way, i am endlessly fascinated. there’s nowhere for the kids to hide, and no way to make it look like they were doing what they should’ve been doing when they weren’t. sure, they can stand out second base and build lovely sand castles and just generally goof around and not pay attention. but you can rest assured coach al is going to call them on it. not just any clueless parent can be a t-ball coach, either. without a truckload of patience and a well developed sense of humor, one may as well not even bother. coach al manages to throw out some painless but great zingers that manage to get the kids on task and help them do what it is they need to be doing and still make most of the parents (at least the ones without corncobs up their asses…) crack up. the kids learn what they need to be doing, but they are also picking up on the fact that not everything has to be so freaking serious all the time and that you can really have fun while staying engaged and paying attention. another interesting point is that there is only one coach for both teams playing in the ‘game,’ and he’s the same coach coaching the other two teams in the league THAT SAME MORNING! there is absolutely no way any sane person could handle it if the kids weren’t such great listeners with amazing self control and interest in what they are there for (for the most part…). i think this is where the age difference between beginning soccer nuts and t-ballers really comes into play.
more cuteness to come next week...
posted by LBM at 10:00 AM
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