The Joy of T-Ball
By Dean Cheeseman
I’m a grandpa. I’m an extremely good looking, vibrant, athletic, youthful grandpa. I have a 4 year old grandson
who played T-Ball for the first time this past summer. My daughter thought it would be a great idea to sign him
up. Little did she know that her husband would end up as the Coach and she would do all the administrative
stuff. Big stuff like preparing snacks, pictures and trophies.
After the first practice all the players received their uniforms numbered 1-9, which was also the batting order.
The Coach is a pretty sharp dude. I already knew that … he married my daughter. That following Saturday was
the opening game. The team name was the Dodgers, which also describes what they did to any ball hit their
way. After dodging, they all followed the ball no matter where it went.
When it was the Dodgers turn to bat, once in awhile they hit the ball off the tee and ran the bases sometimes in
the right order. Once on a base, each kid seemed to search for dinosaur bones. It must be a new rule in tee
ball. BTW, there is no break in the action. Whenever a kid needs to go potty he just ups and leaves the field or
dugout and runs to the potty room.
This pretty much continued all summer. Most of the time the coaches at practice were; Dad, Mom, and
Grandpa.They improved greatly as the summer wore on (the kids not the coaches). They learned the
fundamentals and were great kids.
After the last game, trophies were handed out. My grandson was so proud of his trophy (that didn’t have any
name on it) and talked about it for a week. “I got a trophy.” He and I were so proud. He was my MVP, Most
Valuable Participant. He was picked for the All-Star game. I assume because he dug up the most Dinosaur
bones. I’m sure that his dad being the coach had nothing to do with it. The All-Star game had everything
including an announcer, flags, the Star Spangled banner, hot dogs, medals and ESPN. Ok, maybe not ESPN,
but to the kids it was just like real baseball.
Overall it was great. The kids had fun. They learned about camaraderie, teamwork and saw that parents (and
grandparents) can be kids too. I was reminded that I’m still a kid as well.
Which is kinda cool for an older dude like me.
OUR VALLEY SANTA CLARITA
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