Toddler-Ball

I've always been the indoorsy type, so The Roc's recent obsession with games involving balls took me by surprise. (Although Daddy is a veritable Olympian in comparison to me, he is also European, which means he can do cool tricks with a soccer ball and understands the rules of cricket but has about as much aptitude for baseball, football, and basketball as The Roc does.)

Wanting to be supportive, I enrolled The Roc in a toddler sports class at a local park, which promised to teach him the basics of kicking, throwing, catching, and hitting. While skills like running in a straight line or throwing a ball up in the air and then catching it may seem instinctive, I can assure you that they are not.

The class started today with the great American pastime: T-ball. Lesson 1: running the bases. Again, it sounds so simple until you try to get a pack of toddlers to do it. First they ran the wrong direction. Then they forgot to touch first base. Then, instead of turning and heading to second, they kept running straight. And so on.

Lesson 2: hitting and tagging out. You'd think it would be impossible to strike out at T-ball; apparently not. The Roc succeeded in making contact, but as soon as he saw another little boy chasing him with ball in hand, he stopped running and politely waited to be tagged out. Then he resumed his meandering circuit of the bases, forgetting to touch home plate in his eagerness to high-five each and every one of his classmates.

Because beyond kicking, throwing, catching, and hitting, the most important sports skill toddlers can learn is high-fiving. Their extremely patient coach made sure they all got high-fives after every play, however poorly executed. And what toddlers lack in athleticism, they make up for in sportsmanship, camaraderie, and cuteness. They were as cute as a bunch of kittens, if not nearly as good at T-ball.