Li'l Slugger

One of the throwing aids my dad has given him to practice with.

E's baseball bag

His cleats

Notice the name?  Compliments of Pops.

His mitt

Another throwing aid-the whiffle ball

Ethan is playing baseball. He has been playing soccer for the last year and a half. Matt was helping to coach the team. He liked it a little bit, and Matt liked it alot. So this summer while watching the Little League World Series, Ethan told Matt that he wanted to play baseball. This got me a little excited/nervous because his pops LOVES baseball, plays, sleeps and eats baseball. Nervous because all of my horrible/embarassing nightmares memories of playing softball came rushing back to me at full speed. But he should try all kinds of things, including baseball. So we signed him up (at the last minute), and he tried out. The organizer of the league told Matt that it was fine that he didn't have any experience. Oh, by the way, he wouldn't be on a tee ball team. He would be on a coach pitch team. Yikes! (More softball memories...) Any who, we found out that he would be on the Bull Dawgs team and that he would be practicing 5 nights a week. Yep. That's 5. F.I.V.E. and sometimes until 8:30. What did we get ourselves into??

Ethan loves it! And so far, he's come a long way. His coach has the patience of a saint. I like her because she wants them to have fun, but she also wants to teach them all the skills they need. If they interrupt her, then they pay for it by running the field. I heart the discipline!

So all of that background leads us to the following story:

Ethan's team had a scrimmage against another, slightly older team yesterday. Matt went with him, and my dad joined him after the game had started. When it was Ethan's turn to go up to bat for the third time he went to the plate donning his batting gloves and giant batting helmet, and he hit the ball! It took him a second, and then he started running to first base with the prompting of the coaches and everyone in the stands. The infielder threw it to the first baseman, and the ball went over his head. So more yelling ensued to run, and he ran to second. More crazy throwing and he ran to third and then home. Everyone was cheering for him, and as he walked into the dugout, he told the coaches and his teammates, "I believe in myself!" True Ethan style.