BASEBALL! - June's Photo Blogging Challenge

For most of the last 9 years, our family's sports life has been dominated by soccer. So much soccer. In the last couple of years, though, our kids have been branching out. This month has been unusually consumed by baseball. Very fortunate for this blogger, seeing as how P.J.'s theme for this month's challenge is "Baseball".

Pretty sure I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. I am so glad we live so close to the capital of Indiana. We have the opportunity to do so many things we otherwise would not get to do. For example, this month we were able to go cheer on our high school's baseball team as they fought their way to a state win. The game was held in our city's minor league stadium and drew a crowd bigger than most minor league games. Our unranked home team was playing against the #1 ranked team. It took extra innings, but in the end our team, full of talented teens with whom my kids attend school, WON!

As I mentioned in at least one previous post, Turken is our only child playing baseball. His team has done very well this season (#! in the league) and was playing for the championship. This, of course meant a longer season than normal, which meant lots of extra practice time for him and lots of extra time to kill for Cuckoo and me. We played some 1v1 baseball. It's not nearly as fun as it sounds, especially when you play with a tennis ball because we didn't have a baseball in the car. (Tennis balls hit by a 6 year old go faaaaaaar.)

When playing defense, my boy takes "down and ready" seriously.

Never underestimate the power of the fans. For the final championship game, the teens skipped soccer practice to cheer their brother's team on. They even made signs.

But most of the credit has to go to the coaches. The success of a team full of 8 year olds is dependent on the ability of the coaches to teach, encourage, and inspire their athletes. We had the best ones in the league, and their number of wins reflects it.

Throughout this month, my kids were surprised many times with my knowledge and understanding of the game of baseball. I really blew their minds when the pitcher in the high school game balked, and I could explain to them what it means.

Thanks to my dad, I spent many nights at baseball games throughout my childhood. Between watching my brothers play, taking the hour-long drive to Cleveland to watch our hopelessly terrible Indians play, or using his season tickets for the newly opened minor league field in our home town, I got a good education on the ins and outs of baseball. I don't mind at all that I finally have a kid who loves the game.

How about you? Has your month been taken up by any baseball? Do you even go to baseball games throughout the summer? What's your favorite baseball food? (Mine is Cracker Jacks. Love that stuff.)

If you have a hankerin' to join us in the challenge this month or in future months, head over to P.J.'s blog. Next month's theme will be announced on July 1.

Have a lovely day!