BASEBALL 2010

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I was so excited for baseball season this year (almost as excited as Jaxson was). Last year was such a good experience that we couldn't wait to be part of Kody and Scott's team again. As tryouts approach, I started having anxiety about Jaxson not getting to play on Kody's team, it even kept me up at night. Sure enough about a week after tryouts Kody gave us a call and all my fears were out to rest. Being on Kody's team meant he would play with several of the players from his last years team including Kaden, Tyler, Jacob and Karter. It is so much fun to watch these boys play; in addition to building the friendships that they do.

One of the things I love about Jaxson is he is always excited to play, it doesn't matter if it is practice or a game, he has a positive attitude and never complains. he looks forward to it all and can't wait until the next baseball event. If there is a day that goes by and there is no baseball, he is actually disappointed.

This year his team was the New York Mets! Jaxson played outfield most of the season; however did get to play 1st or 2nd base as few times, which he really enjoyed. Where Jaxson excels is batting. His coaches tell me he has great hand/eye coordination. He is never afraid to swing and hits the ball the majority of the time. He is not a power house hitter yet, but I know that will come with time. Jaxson was moved up to 2nd position in batting because of his consistency throughout the season when it came time to bat.

Sitting back and watching the games this year was a little difficult for me because of my competitive personality. Last year our team took 1st place and we never lost a game. This year was a different story, we moved up a league to Pee Wee Nationals and it is a whole new ball game. We learned a lot about the rules just watching the game, not only were the boys were allowed to steal bases (which was very exciting) we had to always pay attention and know when the ball was in play. Needless to say our team didn't take first and we lost about half of our games. The boys always had a good time regardless of the win or loss, which is one of the reasons the coaches are so important. I know it was hard for them to lose as well but they always wanted to know if they had fun because that was most important. They taught them several things this year including that if they struck out, they should do it swinging the bat and they would never be mad, not just to let the ball go by.

There were a lot of errors this year (they are young) however there were several outstanding plays as well. It is weird to think that Jaxson still has seven years to play ball before high school ball starts. That is a lot of time to learn and grow. Hopefully I will still enjoy it as much then as I do now.

At the end of the season we had a BBQ with our team and had a parents vs. Mets game at the park. The boys won; however the parents did have to hit the ball with the opposite hand, run backwards and we had to get three outs. It was a great time! The coaches all purchased trophy's for the boys as well to hold their games balls they received during the season. This is one of my favorite things Kody does, at the end of each game he pulls in the team for a pep-talk about their strengths and what they could improve upon. He then takes the opportunity to hand out the game ball to one of the players who impressed him during the game. Jaxson received the first game ball of the season because of his batting! He was so excited about getting the ball.

As the season was coming to a close, I received a phone call from Kody stating that All-Star tryouts were going to be the following Saturday and he thought that Jaxson had a pretty good chance of making the team. He encouraged him to try-out and told me that all stars were coach invitation only.

Jaxson and I headed to the baseball field again for try-outs, along with four others from his Mets team. I felt he did an amazing job at tryouts; he hit the ball well, we made several good catches, etc. At the end of the two hour tryout the all star coaches stated that everyone that tried out would make a team. Now we just hoped our Mets team would stay together, it would be weird to have the boys start playing against each other. To our surprise all five boys from the Mets were put on the same Bingham B team. What we weren't prepared for was the amount of time all stars was going to take. In the past it was one game; however moving up to the National league it was a whole different story. Jaxson had two hour practices pretty much every day, they were signed up for two tournaments, we had to pay an additional $100 and we had to check him out of school several times just to make the games; plus one of the tournaments was in Magna. Again Jaxson loved every minute of it! He especially loved his new Bingham uniform! For the next three weeks baseball ruled our lives - everything revolved around baseball and Jaxson. The first tournament went really well, the boys found their grove and had some stellar wins. One of the games ending score was Bingham 17 - Hunter 4. It was so exciting to watch them really play ball. Most of those runs came in one innings, Jaxson got up to bat twice in the same inning (which never happens). In tournament play there is a time limit, so we were all clenching our teeth because the inning kept going. If we didn't finish the inning the score would go back to the score from the following inner which was 3-3. Bingham prevailed with 14 runs that inning and then got 3 outs very quickly to end the game with 4 minutes to spare.

Jaxson again excelled in batting, during the entire tournament he struck out twice, which was in the last day of all stars. The state tournament was a little harder, we played some fantastic A teams and held our own. Our team even had a few home runs during the tournament, but in the end we lost. During the final day of the tournament Jaxson was up to bat with a very fast and accurate pitcher from the other team. He was hit in the chest by the ball and he immediately collapsed on the ground. We are lucky we was not seriously injured, I think he got the wind knocked out of him for sure. He was so tough and brave! He got up walked to base and scored for the team. What made me the most proud was that he was not afraid to get up and bat again. A lot of kids back away or shy away from the ball after they are hit, not my Jaxson! He didn't back up at all and hit the ball again. I was a very proud mom that day! (He ended up with a bruise on his chest from where he was hit)

All-stars ending was bitter sweet! It was great to be able to extend the season a little longer; however it will give us time to actually do some other things.

Jaxson has started a love of baseball in our entire house, he has everyone playing catch with him including myself and his sister Madi. We have all purchased gloves and have starting playing some fun ball together as a family.