Little League first games in the book

The first games for my sons and daughter's teams are in the books. One thing that I am excited about is that the schedule has worked out so that I not only can manage my sons' team but also I will only miss about a half hour of one of my daughter's games this year. Great opportunities to spend time with some awesome kids and their families. The other cool thing is that both jerseys are red so I dont have to get a bunch of different shirts and a worry about multiple hats!
Both teams are 1-1. My daughters team, the Dolphins, (I know that strikes fear into an opponent) lost a heartbreaker the first game to an in park rival but then went on the road and beat a team that was picked to be quite good 20-8 on their field. They are really looking like a team!
The boys' team (Reds) did kind of the opposite. We went on the road for the first game and managed to scratch out 6 runs on 4 hits and sneak out with the win. The second game was a 17-15 loss on our field. We got the lumber out but too wany walks and a couple key errors did us in. I was so proud of the way they kept fighting back, three innings in a row, and almost pulled it off. They are learning and accomplished my goal that I put before them: get better as a team each game. We are young and without a major pitching ace and I'm sure be in a lot of these scraps. My prayer is that I keep a healthy balance between competeitveness and witness. I love coaching, and I love baseball. I love being at the ballpark period. Counting a trip to Wrigley on Thursday I'll be making at least 5 trips to a perk. And no one has called for an ump yet!! Good times.

Practice game

We had a practice game on Tuesday night. I was pleasantly surprised with how we played. The guys were a little more aggressive at the plate than they haev been and we didn't make any major snafus on defense. We do have a ways to go but I need to be reminded that they are doing some pretty good things. It's is real easy as a coach to only look at the things that need imporovemnt and not gove praise where it is due. Baseball is fun, kids are fun, haveing an opportunity to create relationships with people is important. Focus the key. Opening Day is Saturday; hope my perspective remains in tact when they count for real...