Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Our Little Left Handed Baseball Player

As many of you know Payton started T-ball this year. The last game is tonight, and I am very sad. It has been so much fun to watch him play. He loves it so much, which brings smiles to our faces! For those of you that know us, you know how long we have waited for this day. Aaron was a pitcher in high school, his team got 3rd in state Aaron's Junior & Senior year. They were heartbreaking losses....tear. Luckily for Aaron, I was there to console him his senior year after their loss :)! It was truly sad to watch him and his closest friends lose a game they should have won. They didn't come out of their dugout for almost an hour after the game. The friendships he had with those boys still goes strong. They get together for poker nights and still play softball and used to play Portland City league baseball until a couple years ago. They relived their glory days when they won the Portland City league 9 days after Payton was born....I have to say here that they beat a team with former SF Giants on it. I am a proud bragging wife I know!!

Now, when I say Aaron was a pitcher, I have to specify that he is a left handed pitcher....that is a big difference. They are more valuable, so I have a more valuable husband, just in case I want to sell him one day. Anyways, when I found out I was pregnant with Payton my dear husband who had just received Jesus said his first prayer. It went something like this, 'Dear Jesus, Please let us have a boy and let him be left handed'. This prayer continued all through out my pregnancy. After he came out everything he reached for was scrutinized. Aaron would say, 'Did you see that!!! He reach for me with his left hand!!'. Even though he was 2 weeks old and happened to flail his left hand. When Payton began eating he truly favored his left hand. I read that they are still ambidextrous at this young age, so I cautioned Aaron not to get too excited, even though I was certain we were staring at a future hall of famer stuffing green beans in his mouth. We sound like lunatics, I know. I have to say, people would tell us, 'You know he's going to hate Baseball'. What is that?! To all of you that said that, I say Ha Ha! He falls asleep watching major league games and wakes up at 6:30am on the days of his game. He loves it just as much as Aaron.

Payton has been hitting a ball that we pitch to him since we was 2. My dad once grabbed a hard ball and just tossed it to Payton in the backyard, not thinking Payton had a chance at hitting it. Payton hit the ball and nearly knocked my dad out. My dad has not pitched to him since!

Payton's first practice was very rainy, but all the kids wanted to keep playing. So they did a little hitting under the covered playground. I will admit that we were slightly disappointed that there was a kid better than Payton on the team. His name was Jack, and if he wasn't so cute I might want to trip him. Granted he is a first grader, so we let it pass!


This is Payton about to hit the ball. I have to give you a visual here. He waits for his pitch, hits it and proceeds to run to 1st base with a gigantic smile on his face. When he gets there he puts his hands on his hips and looks for me to tell him good hit. He will then find the nearest grown up and tell them how great of a hit that was, and then continue to smile and converse with the stranger until its time to run to the next base....smiling the whole way. Now, running down the 3rd base line he will look for Chloe and wave to her. One game she walked up to him on 3rd base and kissed him. I know!! Could they be any cuter?!
Ok, I am going to continue to brag, because I can....I mean really what are these blogs for anyways! Payton plays pitcher and 1st base, because being a lefty thats probably what he will play when he gets older. Here he is fielding a ball at pitcher.....

Here he threw it in for the out. The last 4 games he has gotten at least 2 people out a game. Is that bad of me to be excited that he got a poor T-ball player out?? He will pick up the ball at pitcher and tag the runner going into home. Who does that in T-ball?!?! The parents at the last game kept coming up to us and saying, how does he know where to go with it? I just say its divine intervention.

This is the last game he played. He had just hit the ball.

Aaron is usually 1st base coach. This is the two of them discussing the game. Look how intently Payton listens.....he never listens like this unless he is on the baseball field!!!

He got to play catcher last game too. He was so excited. Now, most kids stand behind the plate, but Payton crouched down. Aaron asked his coach if he told him to do that. He coach said no, he thought Aaron told him to. Payton said he just saw the guys on the TV do that, so he did to. He is just so stinkin' cute!

They got their trophies after the game. Payton went up to his coach and asked him,' So Coach, when do we get paid for this.'!! Maybe someday Payton, and don't forget you're Mama when you're making millions! Ha ha!

2 comments:

Melissa (5M Creations) said...

We had so much fun watching Payton play today. I couldn't stop smiling watching him run after that kid and tagging him with the ball. What a STAR!!! Great Game Buddy! Madison had such a great time cheering.
Love, Map, Lisa, and Madison

February Jill said...

How cute! When you were talking about the other parents coming up to you I thought for sure you were going to get some jerks who were mad that Payton was better than their kids and wanted it to be more "fair."