The One With All The Baseball

     Remember how every Friends episode was labeled starting with "The one with..." I have a bad habit of labeling my life with such episode titles and today's would definitely be "The One With all The Baseball." We signed up our eldest for baseball recently this is important to me because I am not a fan of sports. Or really physical exertion  of any sort. This I know to be a very bad thing, it as just never been my cup of tea.
 

Soffe shorty shorts of my nightmares

   In elementary school I dreaded P.E. with all my heart. Always being picked last, never quite understanding the rules of the game. My chubby thighs chafing as I was forced to run the mile.My peers jeering and yelling at me when I failed to do something correctly in the sport we were playing. To me P.E. was hell on earth. It only got worse as I got older, in Middle School we were forced into co-ed P.E. which I think is extremely cruel. At the beginning of each P.E. class we were made to do stretch's and invariably I had some boy behind me as I was doing my toe touch's and back bends. Some boy who was sniggering as he watched my size extra large nylon basketball shorts give me an unsightly wedgie. Some boy who would much rather be behind one of my willowy neighbors whose pastel Soffee shorts are not currently riding up her ass, and looks less like a hippo and more like a gazelle doing the stretches.This hatred came to a head in High school when I started flatly refusing to "dress out" for P.E. and would walk the track or even write and essay to get out of doing the sports unit we were on.
 
  So suffice it to say I was never on any sports team growing up. Organized sports is one of my knowledge gaps and I did not want this for my children. My hate of sports should not be carried on to my three boys so I enrolled Colton in baseball. This is not the only reason either his occupational therapist said being on a sports team would help him develop muscle tone and the team atmosphere would help foster leadership skills. All very well and good but here is the problem, I am not 100 percent sure he is enjoying himself.
 
   Colton is basically just me who is small and a boy, we think and act very much alike. He is sensitive soul and a bit of a daydreamer. As far as I can tell the only enjoyment he is getting out of baseball is all the new accessories that go with it. Colton loves his new hat, cleats, glove and ball, he can not wait till he receives his baseball uniform. But out in the field he looks a little lost and lacks the enthusiasm that the other members of his team have for the game.

    He spent  good part of the practice yesterday chasing a butterfly with his mitt. When it was time for him to run the bases he stopped after each one asked if he was done yet. He did field one ball though and if you ask him if he is having fun he says yes with a look in his eyes that wants to please.

    It is just so ingrained that boys should like sports. The first out fit I ever received for him when we found out he was a boy was a little blue romper with two baseball bats embroidered on it with a matching little cap. Most of children s layette was sports themed because that is whats available for boys, you got sports, dinosaurs, jungle,or bugs (but that is a different rant for a different day). Ours boys are just expected from birth to love sports,
 
My husband loves sports both the playing and the watching of them ESPN is on frequently in our house. So lack of interest is not from lack of exposure. Maybe I am worrying prematurely maybe getting him into sports will foster a lifetime love of them.