Take me out to the ballgame...

This is my 11 y/o son Jay. Jay loves baseball. Because Jay has some mild disabilities, we've not signed him up to play baseball the past few years. This year Jay is on a team with a few of his classmates. This is a dream come true for him! Jay loves playing on this team, even if they do look like "The Bad News Bears" out on the field. Jay has played second base the last two games. As second baseman, he makes a point of giving a high five to each player from the opposing team who makes it to second base. The coach tells him he is showing good sportsmanship.

So last night was a very exciting game. The first two innings (which I think took about and hour to play) weren't looking good for our team. I think the other team was up 5-0 at one point and one inning the 10 y/o pitcher (who is ready to sign on with a farm league any day now!) struck out three batters in a row. My two friends who came to watch with me and I were making jokes about how many batters would be walked, how the other team seemed to have so many players on the field (that's because we only had eight players total) and at what point will the "mercy" rule be invoked. Well our team began to play better the last two innings. Maybe that's because they had their semi-professional 10 y/o pitcher sitting on the bench. So in the bottom of the last inning Jay was up and got a double - because of a fielding error, but we'll take it. He tried to high five the other team's second baseman, but he looked confused. Then the next batter hit a fly ball into the outfield (that in and of itself is amazing for our team!). Jay ran to third where the third base coach was waving him home. Only Jay wasn't paying attention so he slid into third. Then got up and ran home (sliding there as well - sliding is very important in baseball!)!!! We were all cheering and high fiving Jay - this was a dream come true for our little guy! The game ended, because it was getting late, when the inning was over and we discovered, to our amazment, that the score was 5-5 and Jay brought in the tying run!

Go Jay!!! You're in the big leagues now!!!