Pickup Baseball

The other day, I asked Jasmine whether she was interested in taking tennis lessons. Without hesitation and with all sincerity, she replied that she pretty much is up to learn or play anything that involves a ball and running around. That's our athlete. And while she's had her go at basketball and soccer for multiple years, there's one sport that we've intentionally been keeping out of reach: Baseball.

Can't do it. Four or five practices a week. Plus games. Nope. In my mind, it's just not that crucial. That's a colossal time commitment. But here's the thing: she's actually really good at it (surprise, surprise). And so, as a compromise, my pledge to her was that we'd go old school Brooklyn stickball with it and reinvent pickup baseball. Hey, nine players per team is overkill anyway. All you really need is eight total.. four on each team: one person to bat and three more to run the bases. Hey, our family bring five players all by ourselves (well... when Venesa comes... but we were short one this time). Grab another family, a few gloves, a bat and a ball, and boom... there you go. Welcome to hood baseball.

First up was the Lewis family. Dad played baseball in high school and college, and coached at the high school level. So, naturally, both of their kids play league baseball... which means they pretty much mopped the floor with us (we made them bat lefty for most of the game)... but we still had a blast. And Jasmine got her baseball fix without dragging the whole family through the ringer for an entire season. We definitely have to do it again some time soon... either with a different family... or with the Lewis kids batting lefty again. And blindfolded.