(Better Days Column) Tee Ball: The Better Days of Sports

  • By Teri Stein
  • June 2, 2011
  • 312
                        
Summary: With no high dollar salaries, Tee Ball athletes are the best ones to watch. What happens when you put a bunch of small children on a baseball field full of dirt and expect them to play? The dirt wins. Are you disgusted with the recent events going on in the world of sports from the Ohio State mess to the pro-football lockout? Where can one go to see a sporting event in its purest form? One where there’s practically no money involved and everyone is simply playing for the love of the game? Tee Ball is my new sport of choice. Tee ball is baseball for really little kids with really little strike zones. When they stand at the plate, no one could pitch to them, and they’re so wiggly, who would want to. The ball is placed on a large tee set up over home plate and they hit it with a baseball bat from the tee. The game takes children, mostly five and six year olds, and turns them into – well, have you ever tried to get a child that young to pay attention to anything you tell them? At a recent game, my favorite tee ball team takes the field. Everyone gets into position but then the whole team gets distracted by, oh no, dirt! And everyone in the tee ball set knows dirt is more interesting than baseball. The catcher bends over and using his fingers begins to draw lines and circles in the dirt. It hasn’t rained in a few days and the dirt is powder dry. He grabs a handful and tosses it in the air. A gray cloud forms, suspended briefly over his head until a breeze takes it and deposits it onto some fans sitting nearby. Talk about suffering for your team! A batter approaches home plate, swings, and it’s a hit! The fans applaud. The batter stands there a moment stunned; the coach tells her to go. She finally takes off for first base and all the other runners on base take off as fast as their short little legs can carry them for the next base. The catcher is now filling his glove with dirt. You can see by the look on his face he’s thinking, ‘Wow, you can get a lot of dirt in this glove.’ Meanwhile the player stationed on the pitcher’s mound has actually picked up the ball that was hit (after it first rolled through his legs) and is making a throw to home plate. Thankfully no-one is hurt. The throw goes wide and lands harmlessly about ten feet from the catcher, who is still unaware that a game is in progress and that the ball has been thrown to him. This prompts a cry, in unison, of “GET THE BALL” from his coaches, his mother, all the fans, and the coaches from the opposing team. The other players don’t notice; there’s too much dirt around. Our catcher is still looking at the nice big pile of dirt in his glove. Finally, a coach from the opposing team taps our catcher on the shoulder, tells him to drop the dirt, and points to the ball. Our catcher empties his glove and picks up the ball. You can tell he’s less than thrilled because his dirt play session has been interrupted and now he’s got this ball and he has to do something with it. Dirt is just better; it’s a no brainer. As more and more players went for the dirt even the outfielders were moving to the infield to play with the dusty stuff. Though their coaches tried, there was no stopping them. This was the way it went for the entire one and a half hour game. Yes, an hour and a half – that’s a long time for anybody to pay attention, but especially five and six year olds and especially when there’s dirt!


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