"There's no crying in baseball"

Tom Hanks may have made this phrase iconic but I beg to differ after the events that unfolded today. First and foremost I must start off at the beginning. Tom's grandma was hospitalized and Tom needed to see her up in New York. This left me home with three boys. Two of the three had their first baseball practices today for the season and the third with plans to go to his girlfriends for the day. So up early we were and preparing ourselves for the first ball practice. This 10am show stopper was for Andrew. Today was a monumental day as this not only was the first day of practice , but however the first day of being on any organized team. The pressure was on. Andrew was primed and ready....complete with glove and baseball cap on. The coach cued the parents to start playing a little warm-up catch with the kids. Off we go into a piece of the field all our own. Mom makes the first pitch (an under-handed throw) and manages to clobber Andrew right on the left cheek. This starts the tears flowing. The glove is then pitched to the ground and I'm already pinning on my "Bad Mother of the Year Award". When I finally get him calmed down I realize that he was less concerned with the hitting of the cheek incident as he was upset that he didn't catch the ball. I attempt to make my little leaguer feel better only to deal with an hour long practice of mostly tears and frustrations. So yes there is crying in baseball.

However the second ball practice wasn't as bad. Joshua seems to be a real pro at the sport this year. He loves to practice and seems to have a real good arm. He was practicing on first base tonight and was all grins. Then came his shot at hitting. Batter up! He cranked that ball right past shortstop and turned to see if I had seen his hit. In fact he would not stop looking at me until I verbally acknowledged it. In which I had to do so each and every time he hit the ball. He was so proud of himself. With all of the weeks of practice and games ahead I should be a baseball pro myself by the end of the season or at least a fan.