Relax. It’s Little League.

Bean’s team had playoffs this weekend.  They played on Saturday and Sunday and won both games, which means they are headed to the championship game this week. I’m so proud of him because he played both games really well.  Base hits, a couple good RBIs, great fielding, and he even made the final out to end the last playoff game.

More than that, I was proud of him for his sportsmanship.

You guys should have seen some of the parents and coaches at these two games.  I was embarrassed for them because there’s nothing more pathetic than a group of parents arguing over a little league baseball game.  And I think we can all agree that there is no place at all in little league for booing.  At all.  Ever.  For any reason.  I hope they went home, showered, and got a little perspective on where in the grand scheme of things this game falls.  Because it’s pretty low on the totem pole of life, friends.

What makes these kinds of issues really sensitive is that this is a community baseball team.  These parents who are yelling and arguing over a SIX YEAR OLD’s pitching record are neighbors and coworkers.  They share pews on Sunday mornings and serve on the PTA together.  And as I sat there watching this ridiculousness play out over and over again throughout the game, I kept thinking, “How awkward is the car line going to be at the elementary school tomorrow?!”

Anyway, as Bean was playing, Gracie was romping around the ball fields with her buddies, as usual.  One of her best friends was there because Bean’s team was playing his brother’s team, so he and Gracie hung out the whole time.  They crack me up.  This is the dude that continuously proposes to Gracie and also threatens things like, “Gracie, do you NOT want to marry me one day?!?!” when she isn’t nice to him.  They are too cute to even describe.

Cuteness aside, though, they make it really difficult to watch a baseball game.  They want to show me a thousand things and talk to me the whole time, which can make it hard to focus on Bean.  About halfway through the baseball season, though, I figured out this awesome way to keep them distracted and buy me a few minutes to watch the games.  I make scavenger hunts for them.  The first time I did it, they just had to go find the things I wrote down.  I’ve also done it where I give them my phone and they take pictures when they find things.  Today, though, Gracie brought her own V-Tech camera to the game, so they took pictures of everything with her camera.

I make sure to make the lists kind of difficult in order to buy me the most time (terrible, but true).  Here was today’s list:

A lizard, an ant, a Pirates baseball player, blue Gatorade, popcorn, a leaf, and the number 10.  I draw little pictures for them because they can’t read. HA!  Don’t judge my artwork.  My lizard needs some work…

(The got into a tiff over who would take the pictures, so I labeled each item with one of their names to keep it fair. Whoever’s name was by the item got to take that picture.)

They amazed me with their creativity. Especially for the food. They found a parent sitting in the bleachers at another field who had a bag of popcorn with him and they asked to take his picture. And when they couldn’t find someone with blue Gatorade, they went to the concession stand’s backdoor and asked the guy working if they could take a picture of a blue Gatorade bottle. I thought they were so resourceful!

(And don’t worry about the stranger-danger thing. I saw them doing all of this. Plus, they know a TON of people up at those fields who keep an eye on them wherever they go. It’s one of my favorite parts about our community.)

As summer draws closer and closer, I get more and more excited about summer coming for a lot of reasons, but not the least of which is a break from our sports and activities. While the scavenger hunt and our awesome community were high points to the weekend, I’ll be honest that after seeing the parents and coaches act like fools today, I’m ready for a break and I think there are a few other adults out there who might need a break, too…