Go Team!

Oh, tee ball. I love you. And I am happy to spend an hour or so in the springtime sun to watch preschoolers and kindergartners scurry around a field with enthusiasm, intensity, and practically no sense of direction. Here are some highlights from Marley's first game.

1. Here's Rudy, doing her best to get in on the tee ball action. She's wearing her sporty best: a Celtics t-shirt and her latest tutu, pale purple. At one point, she wandered over to third base while Marley was there, presumably just to say hello and to wish her the best on her way to home plate.

2. Marley got to be the catcher during the second inning, and I missed most of it because it was my turn to work in the concession stand. She may be catcher again, but only after all of her other teammates get a chance. Because tee ball is about sharing and taking turns. Every inning, each player gets a turn at bat and makes it to first base. Everyone gets to run home, and if you're the last player to swing, it's an automatic homer! Even I could have success with rules like that.

I played softball in eighth grade, and I was terrible. Terrible. I have no business playing any sport in which small, hard balls fly around in the air, which is why it's sort of hilarious that I am a lacrosse coach.

3. Marley went for it when she was running the bases. And to her credit, she understands when it's time to run and where to go. The best thing about tee ball, aside from cheering on Bean-Bean-Beanie, is watching the kids who need to be prompted to first, and then all the way home. And then the kids who just lie down in the infield, or crouch and rake their fingers in the dirt. And then, picking dandelions, watching birds fly overhead, and stomping in dugout puddles. The tee ball field is such a happy place.

4. For Marley's first game, Emma and her family came to root for the home team. And appropriately, Emma and Marley exchanged a congratulatory fist bump before Beanie grabbed her (pink) glove and headed out to the infield.