- May 25, 2010
- 1,070
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A year ago, I made the mistake of making my DD do a 3rd year of T-ball, even though she was more than skilled enough to play in 8u. She was the oldest 6-year-old on her team and because the hitting coach was obsessed with ruining her swing (among other things), she absolutely hated the whole experience. She always played hard, but started talking about quitting about midway through the season. One of the assistants spoke to me privately one day and implored me not to let her quit. He and his wife had both played collegiate ball on scholarship and had been around the game all their lives and they agreed that she was one of those 'once every few years' kind of athletes (they'd also seen her play soccer).
She didn't do a single off-season workout and elected not to start pitching lessons. She told us she would not be playing this season, but her mother wasn't having it. So, she attended the pre-draft tryout and despite not being a pitcher, she ended up being the 4th player chosen.
The team she was on wasn't very good and this didn't make the wife happy. Yet, the kid was on point every play, never made a negative comment about the poor play of her teammates, and was never a glory hound - on more than one occasion, she threw to 1st from the pitcher's circle only to see the ball dropped and the runner called safe on plays when she could've beaten the runner to 1st on her own. She wanted to give her teammates opportunities to make plays, too.
Around mid-season, she asked to start pitching lessons and soon, she was asking to practice virtually every day. She now wants a batting cage and is excited to be moving up to 10u a year early.
I was ready to let her quit if she wanted, but she's so happy that she made the decision to come back for one more go-round....with a little prodding from mom.
