It was opening day of the baseball season today: Julia is playing her second year, and this is Joe’s first time. Both kids ended up on American League teams this year, Julia on the sadly politically correct Rays, and Joe on the significantly less so Indians.

Julia’s game started first, at 10:00, and she got her season off to a fast start by smacking a clean single into right field on the first pitch she saw. Things went a little bit downhill from there, and she broke into tears because no balls were hit to her when her team was in the field. Her coaches handled the situation graciously, however, and made sure everyone got a chance.

Julia went on to get another hit her second time at bat and somehow, despite her earlier histrionics, got the game ball for the day.

After Julia’s game ended, there was an hour before Joe’s started. Seeing as the fields are at the Primary Plus campus, about twenty minutes from home, we were pretty much stuck there for the duration. Had we a little more foresight, we would have packed a refreshing, healthy picnic lunch and relaxed in the balmy spring weather. We didn’t plan that far ahead, however, so we killed a little time on the playground and peeked into the classroom windows, since Joe will be attending Junior K there next fall.

Joe’s game started at noon, and he was very excited because two of his best friends from preschool—Mason and Joshua—are on his team. They managed to stop chasing each other around long enough to actually play the game, and Joe had a blast, though I think he was looking forward to the snacks after the game as much as anything else.

They don’t let the coaches pitch to the kids in Joe’s league, so everyone hit off the tee, and Joe managed to do so without serious incident. He had a little trouble getting onto the field to play defense, especially for the second inning—hats and gloves were thrown, and the words “I don’t want to” were uttered more than once—but when he did, he was all over the place, to the point that the coaches had to remind him that it would be really nice if he let the other kids have their turns getting the ball, and even more nice not to take it out of their gloves when they did.

When all was said and done, Joe got a game ball, too, so both kids received a nice reward despite displaying somewhat less-than-perfect teamwork. Mason and Joe then spent a good quarter hour poking at a tree with sticks, and told me that they were making owl cake. If someone could tell me what that means, I’d very much appreciate it.

Enjoy the photos from the long—but fun—morning.