Big Night in Baseball. . .

In the Minors (boys 9-10yrs old) the team Big T plays for won the regular season 14-1.  So proud of these boys.  Now comes the tournament, it is double elimination.  The one team that beat us is stacked which means they took the best kids out of their league and put them on one team.  We don't have but one team.   I am against the "stacking" of teams.  It is not fair to the kids.  You have one team that dominates and then one team that is ok and one team that may not win a game.  What is that teaching your kids?  We have one team and a couple of our kids have not played ball since t-ball.  All of our kids play and have equal time in the field.   Our coaches are very good with our kids too.  They don't yell and act ugly, they don't fuss and berate the kids.  They do coach and fuss if they are not paying attention but they also encourage and love these kids.  There are only 3 or 4 kids that would make the "stacked" team in this league and Big T is not one of them.  The thing is, our kids work together and encourage each other, they hug each other when they make a big play or big hit.  It is really funny to watch.

So on to our Big night of baseball.  Our tournament was double elimination and the "stacked" team beat us so we had to play them two more times.  We won the first game after they tried to take our kids out at the plate and at second base by playing dirty at their coaches direction.  I am all for trying hard to win but I don't like playing dirty.  Trying to knock kids down and hitting them in the face.  This coach is not a good sport at all and he is teaching his players this too.  That is so sad.  We had to play them again the next night for the championship.  They come out right off the bat and say that we are going to play a 2 1/2 hour time limit.  Our  regular time is 1 1/2 hour.  Our kids will not go to 2 1/2 hours till they move to Jr. on the big field.   This coach is trying everything possible to beat us.  We have seen him tell his kids to step in so they get hit by the pitch just to get on base.  He had his kids chanting at our pitcher that he could not pitch and chanting ugly things at out kids.  Well, we won!!!!  Their kids were very ugly going through the line to shake our kids hands and some did not even shake hands.  That is a t-ball kids response to losing.  I am sorry I am big on sportsmanship and this guys and his kids have been everything but sportsman like.  Our kids have always behaved with class and win or lose they always go through and say good game and they mean it.  We beat this team 3 times in the regular season and the first time we beat them the one kid went through the line and said, "you suck" to each one of our kids.  That is a poor sport!  Last night when we won he did not even shake our kids hand or clap for our kids when they got their pin for winning.  If our kids would have lost, it would have been sad but I don' t think our kids would have acted that way.  I know if mine had I would have snatched him up.

I have used this as a teaching moment for my kids.  I have talked to them about sportsmanship and how it is easy to win but it is hard to be a "good" winner.  We have talked about being a gracious person and a gracious winner.  I hope and pray that my kids will not ever behave the way these kids have.  I don't think they will because dear hubby and I try to set good examples but, so much of how our kids act is what they see other kids doing.  

Baseball, baseball, baseball. . .

I do like watching my kids play baseball.  I like watching them play all sports, who am I kidding.  I do get excited and if you know me personally  you know what I mean.  I yell and holler and jump up and down.  I yell for every kid on our team.  That is what I like about our club.  Every parent is yelling for every child.  How cool is that, that each child has twenty people yelling their name and cheering them on.   When you come to our games you can never tell which parent belongs to which child because we are all yelling.
 Every child deserves the right to play whatever sport  they desire regardless of their talent level.  Imagine going to sign your child up to play baseball and the person signing them up said, "has your child ever played baseball before?"  If you answer, no.  That person might say oh, well your child will be on the "B" team.  That is what some idiot that has recently joined our booster club is trying to do.  We barely have enough kids to have a team much less an A or B team.   I do not like this A or B team mess.  Each team should be set up equally, so that each team has it's own chance to win or lose.  We have played other clubs before and you could tell that they had A and B teams.  One team rarely if ever won a game and one of the teams was undefeated.
We have a wide range of talent on our team.  We have kids that have been playing ball since t-ball and kids that have never played before.  All of our kids get equal time on the field and one of our parents has a problem with this.  By the way, we are 5-0, and this guy is not happy because we have a kid that has never played ball before and has not learned the finer points of the game.  This child is learning every game and practice and he is so positive and excited about playing.  He has improved every game.  All of the parents except one yells for him and gives him encouragement every time he gets up to the plate.  All of the kids on the team yell and encourage this child because they want him to do well and not to feel bad about himself.  Why is it that this guy is so pig headed and mean?  Yes, he is my cloven hoofed friend from my previous post.  Our club is set up to teach and encourage not to diminish someone else because they have never had the opportunity to try.

Kids talking smack. . .

Jack had a basketball game today, we won.  It got intense and the other team started talking smack to our kids.  The kids on our team are a lot like Jack, similar family backgrounds.  They are not used to kids talking the way these kids were.  One of their kids was being rather aggressive in guarding one of our kids and he did not even have the ball.  So our kid, being the outgoing and full of life kid that he is, started dancing around and bouncing all over the place till the kid that was guarding him was laughing so hard he could not do anything.  We were all laughing!  Our kids take things in stride and I am so glad for that, because as a parent I get so worked up over these games.  I love the way our kids handle themselves under pressure.
We have talked to Jack about being a good sport and not using bad language and how it is a reflection on him when he does that.   I have tried to teach him things to say when people talk that way and I hope it will sink in.  It is so sad to see and hear kids his age and even younger using such bad words.  The boys endured all of the smack talk and they came out ahead.

Wrestling tournament

The boys competed in their first official tournament on Saturday.  It was interesting, I had only been to see one last year but it is different when you are competing.  Jack won two out of  the three of his matches and he was not that interested in going.  Thomas was ready to go but did not have success.  He lost all three of his matches but, he wrestled hard and did well.  I was terribly proud of both of my boys.  Thomas lost two matches by a pin and one in points.  The one in points he only lost by two.  He was so close.  They both had fun even Thomas.  I think they each learned something new.   Jack and Thomas were wrestling kids 8-10 lbs. heavier than them so that was a little harder.  Jack took the Silver in his weight class.  He was so excited about that and he didn't really want to compete.  They have a Takedown tournament this weekend that they are looking forward to.  
I was not really ready to be a "mat" mom but I guess I am.  There are a lot of life lesson that the kids can pick up with this sport and any sport really.  The one big lesson Jack learned was that it didn't matter how much bigger your opponent was you could still win.   He also learned not to give up and to keep trying and fighting to the end.   Thomas had a few hard lessons to learn.  His lesson was to keep trying and fighting till the whistle blows.
I am very proud of both boys, they held their heads high even when they lost and they kept their good sportsmanship attitude.  Thomas was disappointed but I think he will work harder next time.   It is easy to win and be a good sport, anyone can do that.  It takes character to loose and be a good sport.