Plays of the year - the last and the first

Dylan really enjoyed playing tee ball. By the end of the spring season, he developed into one of the few players that chased down batted balls when playing defense. They put him at pitcher in the final game and since batted balls went around ten feet on averaged he chased down nearly every ball. So towards the end of that inning, which was the very last inning of the season, they changed Dylan out with another, younger player. When the very final batter stepped to the plate, the last batter of the season, Dylan was ready. The batter drove the ball hardly towards the pitcher. Dylan was running to back him up. The ball glanced hard off his leg, which hurt the pitcher. We winced from the sidelines as the boy seemed upset and in pain. Dylan never stopped playing. He hustled to get the ball as it bounced away. Dylan scooped it up, but instead of throwing it to a base or trying to tag out a runner, he ran towards the boy who was pitcher. By this point the coaches were telling the boy to walk it off. Dylan ran into their circle and put the ball into the boy's glove. This created a natural next step of the coaches encouraging the boy to run to home, where he was able to tag out the runner. It felt like a real sentimental moment at the time. I'm not sure I can accurately depict how nice it was to see Dylan make that play. After the game one of the coaches came up to tell me that was his favorite play of the year. What a great way to end the spring season!

We did not know what to expect for the summer season, but Dylan was definitely interested. During the first game he again emerged as the best defensive player. He made all three outs one inning, including forcing out runners at second base and home plate. For his second at bat, he led off the inning. Despite there being literally six second basemen, he batted a sharp ground ball through all of them and into the outfield. He took off running for first and never even considered stopping. He rounded first base like he's been playing for years and galloped to second base. The ball was still in the outfield so he rounded second and ran towards third. The third base coach was kind enough to wave him to run home, but I wonder if he even considered stopping, because he rounded third base and easily made his way for a "home run" - from the moment he hit the ball to the moment he crossed the plate he never once broke his stride. It was a really amazing thing to see. One of the parents came up to us and remarked that our son really knows how to play the game. What a great way to start the summer season!