I hate tee ball

As it turned out, none of my kids was into sports. Oldest daughter, now 20, played one season each of soccer and basketball. I never thought you could tell the difference between a good 7-year-old soccer player and a bad 7-year-old soccer player until I saw my daughter play. (She was most assuredly the latter.) Youngest daughter, 14, did one season of basketball and one season of lacrosse. Son, 16, played flag football when he was 5 and one season of basketball when he was 11. None of them ever caught the bug to continue, and I saw no need to push.

 

My five-year-old plays. I just look at it as an excuse for her to run around for an hour and I get to sit down while she does it.

 

At tonight's tee ball game, it started pouring after one batter in the top of the first. After 20 minutes, we told the umps (14-year-olds) to call it. The other team's coach wanted to wait it out. Fine. Whatever.

Then there was a lightning flash. Bright enough the street lights with sensors on them turned off. We told the kids to pack up and told the refs we were done due to lightning. A league official saw us, came over and said the league rule is to keep playing until the lightning is within eight miles and that we'd get a forfeit for leaving the dugout.

 

(furious jack-off gesture)

 

That's crazy. Our league won't even consider playing if they even see lightning. I've seen games practically stalled until the sun comes back out. And for tee ball? A forfeit? There's a lot of things I don't like about our league, but some of these stories are making me think we have it OK.

 

Exactly how was he going to determine how close the lightning was? Let's see, kids, metal bats and a chain-link fence all out in the open; what could go wrong?

What a dick.

 

Forfeit? So if you don't put kids lives in jeopardy you, what, might miss out on tee ball playoffs? Give me a fucking break. League official better be happy answering questions about why he refused to end the game due to lightning once kids get struck and are killed.

 

Some things are controllable.
Just because a kid loves softball doesn't mean you should let her or make her play it year round. Or make softball the focus for the entire family.

I saw it when I was right out of college stringing for a small-town paper.
I see with kids among my family and friends.

It's crazy, and it's to no avail.
And the scholarship storyline is a crock of sh#t being propagated by people who make their living selling that idea to parents.
The cost of these children's youth sports "careers" in pursuit of college scholarships outweighs the value of the scholarships in the majority of the cases.

 

That was my reference to the furious jack-off gesture. In every league around here, if there's lightning visible, at all, everyone goes inside or to their cars.

Sit around on metal bleachers with chain link fences during a lightning storm? Bullshit on that.

 

The other day, Mrs. Whitman started telling me about some conversation she was having with another mom on the team. She was trying to describe her. And I said, "Kind of not bad-looking, right?"

She didn't like that, but it was true.

 

"You mean the one with a perfect rack? Yeah, I didn't notice her."

 

He claimed they have a lightning sensor that alerts them when it's close. I halfway think he was BSing and somebody has an app.