This spring, the CA Macs had our first taste of t-ball. It was pretty exciting! Andrew had weekly practices and one game/week. I was truly shocked at the improvement that can happen. In the end, he earned the "most improved" award. He enjoyed it, but got a little burned out towards the end.
His coach was PHENOMENAL!!! We LOVED him! Our team was the NY Yankees.
The one thing that blindsided me was the cost. I think it was $130 for the 3 month "season". We opted out of working in the snack shop after learning that most parents do. I think it would have been fun to take our turn, but I was also overwhelmed with moving and received a lot of kind advice from moms that "everyone" opts out and just pays the extra $20 to opt out. We also had to buy the pants, belt, cleats and under shirt. I kind of swallowed hard, paid for everything and prayed that we could handle the extra "load" (time) and that this would be a good investment.
I was NOT prepared for the weekly request for extra items. California takes its t-ball/baseball VERY seriously! Each week for about 6 weeks, we had another request for $20. I think we had some sort of raffle, an "action shots photographer", a 2nd "team DVD action photographer" opportunity, a "shooting stars photo" (the normal "school type" pictures), a hitting/batting cage opportunity, a "night under the lights", along with the chance to purchase a Corporate A's suite in a paid raffle", and some sort of raffle baskets (this was mandatory)of some sort. Each "opportunity" cost another $20. Each week for about SIX weeks, I got another invitation for a $20 item. I held firm and said, "no" (except for the shooting stars photo). I was so overwhelmed. None of the other parents seemed to think this was crazy. Not one blinked an eye. I was completely relieved to hear from a friend in Austin that this did seem like overkill.
The one thing that we did 'splash out' on was a trip to the Oakland As where we got to watch the game and then Andrew got to run the professional bases afterwards. We had our choice of the SF Giants or the Oakland As. Since we are on the East side of the Bay, Oakland is closer to us, so we chose it. (More decisions)
There are SO many decisions to make when one has moved to a new city. My head hurts now just thinking of those hectic 6 months! It's one of those things where there probably isn't a "right" or "wrong" choice, just a personal preference.....but we didn't have a personal preference, so we just randomly chose so many things. We even had to decide WHERE to play baseball - the Granada little league or the indoor sports center. There were huge fans of both, and we knew nothing about either.
God ALWAYS provided in neat ways, ,though. I would run across a mom who had 4 older boys who knew a lot about one league, or Kathryn's new friend's mom ran a league at the indoor place. From very knowledgable comments from people, I could figure out which sounded more like "us".
4 months after we moved, 1 month after t-ball started, it was game day. We rode the BART to Oakland, a mere 20 minutes and watched the Oakland As play the Philadelphia Phillys. This is at the BART station near our house.
We walked straight from the BART station across this bridge to the stadium.
Then we walked down this ramp to our seats.
Our seats were AWESOME, but sadly ONE row lower than the shade! It was a hot day. By mid game though, the shade hit 1/2 our family. Whew!
We had this view.
It was an awesome game - Oakland won easily. The kids did far better than we expected.
By the end of the 7th inning, however, we felt the kids were beginning to lose interest. Paul threw out the suggestion that we leave early. I adamently vetoed it. We paid for this game so that Andrew could run the bases! Andrew was really excited about it! (He really was, or I would have given it up). Paul asked him if he wanted to stay and run the bases or leave now, and he firmly said he wanted to stay.
The As were way ahead. It looked like the Phillys had given up. The last 2 innings went very quickly. Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3, 1st guy was out. Even if a Philly got a hit, he would be out before he got to 1st base. I think the 1st 3 guys were out in a row. Then the As were back up to bat.
The game ended and the stadium emptied. We looked at each other. WHEN WERE THE KIDS GOING TO RUN THE BASES???? There were just so MANY things we didn't know as new people.
Paul had spotted another kid dressed in his uniform. I went over to talk to them. They knew all about it. The people in the know (pretty much everyone except us) had left in the 8th inning to line up. The family pointed to the opposite end of the stadium from where we were. That's where we were supposed to line up. We hurried towards the appropriate gate and saw the beginning of kids already streaming out onto the field to run around the bases. Our adrenoline flowed. We raced. We were at THE END of the line. The line WRAPPED AROUND THE STADIUM. This is us, at the end of the line.
Again, Paul suggested aborting. Again we polled Andrew, and he firmly wanted to do it. I suggested the line would move quickly.
There were beautiful spring flowers to see while we waited. They are different from the TX bluebonnets (see my continuous struggle?), but they are beautiful all the same. How nice for God to put them there!
Thankfully, the line did move quickly. In 20 min, we were at the front of the line, and discovered that all 4 of our kids were able to run the bases! They had this thing streamlined. They directed the kids down the steps, and had Paul and I get out of the line and directed us to home base. Wait! What about John! He's only 4! There are probably 10,000 kids all hurrying down the steps towards home plate! We yelled to Megan to STAY WITH JOHN, and bless her little heart, she was wonderful. She held John's hand and kept track of him all the way around the bases, running at his speed. We are trying to remember that at Kathryn's age, Megan was so responsible. We're working on Kathryn but she's not the eldest and maybe she doesn't feel that ownership. She is better....but in a crisis (like the man pushing our children away from us further along the fast moving line and us out of the line), we tend to shout "Megan" to give her our desparate instructions....and she's so good and always comes through in a pinch. There she is, running with John.
Andrew is between 1st and 2nd, in a blue and white shirt. He's ahead of the kid in the yellow shirt.
They emerged at home plate, where Paul and I were standing, as directed. It was SO NEAT! They were all thrilled!
It was a fun day, another unexpected opportunity.
My next entry is from the heart, and talks about these opportunities we've been given.
So much fun!
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