tornado baseball. {reid}

Last week, we completed another season of baseball. Reid started his first wee ball team a couple of months before he turned three, and has loved the game ever since. The past two years, however, Reid has played baseball year 'round - playing fall ball, spring league, and tournaments through the summer - and Jeb and I have started to think this may be too much baseball for his age. Our team this past year has been great for the most part. Jeb helps coach, and Reid has become great friends with all of the boys on his team. He is one of the smaller and younger kids on the team, which means he's not the strongest hitter (although season stats showed that his batting average ranked fifth). And although we love that his coach pitch league is through the NCAA and is competitive, we don't want to do so many extra tournaments and practices that he starts to get burned out. He truly loves baseball, and that passion for the game is exactly what we're trying to preserve. We love that he wants to play lots of sports, and we're glad that he's still at the age where he can play many of them and not have to choose one or two. He did a soccer camp this summer and is completely fired up about soccer season. I think one of the reasons is because he hasn't played this sport in a year, so he's excited for the challenge of something new. I've read multiple articles and tons of research on little league, burn out, and issues with focusing on one sport too early, and Jeb and I decided that we're going to hold off this year on fall ball. He'll still do hitting lessons and play catch with Jeb in the yard, but hopefully a little break will help ignite his fire again when spring league rolls around. 

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Shawnee Tornadoes - love our colors!

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And there's never a shortage of bats!

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Coach Jeb - first base coach and the "positive vibe giver!"

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He's looking so old! 

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Baseball buddies!

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waiting for their trophy at a tournament in Midwest City

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Reid with Coach Chris Bertram

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Praying after the game

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1-2-3- Tornadoes!

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Trophy time!

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little boys love trophies!

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The next few pictures were taken last weekend at the World Series in Muskogee. For the most part, it was a good weekend. The kids had fun playing and swimming together at the hotel, and to top it off, the Tornadoes took 1st place! However, it was extremely difficult chasing Rush around the ball fields all weekend in the heat, and LilliAnn would get tired and cranky from being at the fields all day. I didn't feel well that weekend and there were several things that stressed me out…practice early in the morning at the hotel after we had won all of our games the night before, bad language around the boys,  instructions on what we couldn't feed out children, the intense pressure, poor sportsmanship, lack of positive coaching, and some parents on our team yelling after the game and being involved in a scuffle after the championship game…all things which I think are completely ridiculous for seven year old baseball. Because I wasn't "all about" these things (forgive me for having two other children to take care of during the games), I was apparently being "negative." Our family was also looked down upon for going to the splash pad/water park during the three hour break we had between games. I did not want to chase Rush around the mall for three hours, and LilliAnn had cried to go to the water park every time we drove by it that weekend. Because I had them to think about as well, and not just Reid, we decided to let them cool off in the water for about an hour. Of course Jeb did not let Reid get "worn out," and after two laps on the tube in the lazy river, he sat in the shade and played on my phone while Rush and LilliAnn payed in the kiddie area. We caught a lot of backlash about this decision, and Reid was even confronted in front of all of the other boys on the team about "what he did wrong" in the huddle before the game, which really, really upset me. So, all of this being said, I think that taking off from fall ball this year is necessary so that we can re-evaluate baseball and the type of experience we want Reid to gain from the teams he is on. 

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Such a handsome ball player!

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I love this! He has such a good daddy!

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World Series Champs!

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He has the very best coach in the wold right here…one who loves him unconditionally, never gets tired of working with him, always has his best interest at heart, is encouraging, uplifting, but teaches him the importance of hard work and dedication, all while protecting his love for the game.
Jeb Rollins is a good daddy.