Baseball, Munchkin-style

The Munchkin loves “playing baseball.” The Captain and Belle’s Mommy gave her the Fisher-Price tee ball and bat set for her first birthday, which every kid who has come over to our house absolutely loves (and fights over). The set is currently on a break at the moment in the garage, but will probably make it back in when the weather gets bad. Plus the Munchkin is getting old enough that this particular toy isn’t a challenge to her anymore, but that won’t stop her from playing with it once Tad discovers it again.

We bought her a plastic bat and wiffle balls at Target recently, with the idea that she was getting old enough to “play” baseball – i.e., actually hit a ball with the bat. So, after dinner last night, the Webmaster took the Munchkin into the backyard to play with her new bat and the wiffle balls, while Tad and I finished eating (he finished eating his sister’s dinner for her).

The Webmaster tried to show the Munchkin how to hold the bat (he played baseball in high school), but she was having none of his help. This was HER bat, and she KNEW how to use it. He gave up, and walked a few paces away, then gently underhand-tossed a wiffle ball toward her.

She stared at it, and watched it hit the ground. Then she looked at her father indignantly. “Daddy, you supposed to hit the bat!” she told him.

We really couldn’t help it. We were laughing so hard that the Munchkin had to tell us to calm down. I called my mother to share the joke. “Oh, so that’s what I’ve been doing wrong all these years!” my mom exclaimed. “It wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t hit the ball, it was the pitcher’s!”

Of course, we couldn’t convince the Munchkin to take a swing by herself, so I helped out a little. We both held the bat as Daddy pitched to us, and we hit the wiffle balls a couple of times. Then Tad came outside and the Munchkin ran after all the wiffle balls so he couldn’t touch them. Ahh, sharing. Then she refused to throw a ball to the Webmaster so he could hit.

So, according to the Munchkin, the pitcher is supposed to hit the bat with the ball, and she is the only one who can bat.

We’ll have to get this straightened out before putting her in T-ball someday.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 12:08 am and is filed under Children, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.