TBT: Little League is not for Everyone

I’m grateful that I had 2 daughters.  And, Rob loves his girls more than anything in the world. But, I distinctly remember how he tried to get Nicole and Jaclyn to love his favorite sport – baseball.  We decided that because it was America’s favorite pastime, we would be doing them a cultural disservice if they didn’t play baseball at some point in their childhood. So, we convinced them that they would love their dad’s favorite game and signed them up to play in the Capitola/Soquel Little League. What happened next was, well, sad.

Nicole was a watcher. She sat on the bench and watched how the boys pitched, batted, and ran. There were 2 other girls on her team, but there were mostly boys. Rob played catch with her and taught her how to hit the ball.  Her good buddies Brian, Kyle, and Ryan also gave her tips during recess at Merit. So during the games, when she stood at the plate choking up on the bat just the way her father coached her to do from the sidelines, she took her time.  I never played baseball myself, and I never really understood the rules but her league allowed the batter to wait for the perfect pitch and didn’t penalize them for missing good opportunities to hit the ball. Well, Nicole took advantage of that.  She waited and waited for the perfect pitch. It got to be so ridiculous that her team told her to swing at ANYTHING! I think her record was 5 minutes at bat. Oh, dear.

Then, 4 years later we signed Jaclyn up for an all-boys baseball team.  Well, that was our first mistake. Jaclyn liked playing on the Marlins team because she loved the teal and orange uniforms. She also liked pulling her long braid through her cute baseball cap – kinda making a fashion statement on the field. Naturally, she played right field. While she spent most of her time far from the action, she found it quaint that the field was filled with tiny little dandelion flowers.  So, Jaclyn picked herself a bouquet of flowers and was a happy camper until – Yup! – the ball was hit to right field. Her teammates, coach, father, and everyone hollered at her to get the ball but Jaclyn had no idea where the ball had landed and continued picking dandelions.  Oh my! I still laugh when I remember how she kept her flowers as she finally grabbed the ball, and rather than throw it to the second baseman, she ran it into home plate.

Fortunately, they both loved to dance, and they danced for years at Dancenter and then with the No Limits competition teams in high school.  That’s where they belonged and that’s where they completely embraced dance.  Both of them ended up dancing at sporting events in college!  Nicole was a Dollie at Stanford and performed at football and basketball games. Jaclyn founded the 5C Dance Company at Claremont McKenna College where they danced at football, basketball, and baseball games. I guess their baseball experience did come in handy, after all.