Josh's 2017 Baseball Season

Josh and his team had an amazing season! It was so neat to watch them really work on their skills and show visible improvement over time. They had a really rough start to the season - really rough. Add all those losses to all the rainouts, and things looked pretty bleak. Josh started really resisting going to practice and such. But about halfway though the season things turned around and they started winning - a lot! All the games, in fact! It was like a light clicked and they just got it.

They entered the league tournament ranked second - AND WON IT ALL! It was so exciting! The last game was especially exciting because it was against the team they played against in their very first game of the season - and lost to, 20-2. Ouch. So winning was especially sweet. Josh also batted in the winning run, which was great. He's become a pretty consistent batter.

There was lots of applause during the awarding of the trophies.

Coach Bob took the opportunity to give another pep talk - as he was wont to do all season. (He and Miss Paula really were great coaches.)

The mighty and triumphant Breakfast Optimist team!

This team was down a player pretty much most of the season, making their wins all the better! (You're supposed to play with 10 players - 4 in the outfield - but they usually only had 9. Two players quit coming at the beginning of the season, and sometimes people just couldn't make it to games due to prior obligations.)

Number one!!

This boy was so happy! But cool as a cucumber about it.

Waiting to get victory snow cones and to listen to one more pep talk from coach.

Coach Bob really did a great job with these boys. I really wish he were coaching Bronco league next year, but he's moving down to Pinto. Dang.

I really, really wish we could have ended the season there. But this weekend the county tournament started. The boys did great and won the first two games on Saturday. Josh even got injured during the first game, getting hit in the chest pretty hard by a ball he was trying to catch. He toughed it out and even helped get the last two outs of the game! And the second game was just as exciting, with Josh getting a great triple and helping with lots of defense.

Unfortunately, the next game was today - Sunday. And we just don't do sports on Sunday. We believe and try to keep the Sabbath day holy. This was really, really hard on Josh. He wanted to play in that game so bad! He cried, and was pretty grouchy on the way home, but to his credit he never asked to play. I tried on a couple of occasions to talk to him about it and why I know he'll be blessed through this sacrifice, but he wasn't that interested. (Mostly just mopey about the whole thing.) But that's just how he coped, and that's okay. Other stuff has been going on, and if he needs to cope this way, that's okay. I prayed all morning that he would be able to realize the blessings of this some time soon, or at least remember this day when he's older and see how keeping this commandment is a good thing. But I have to admit there were times today when I just wanted to say "Suit up and get in the car - we're going to the game!" Just because it made me sad to see him so sad.

Where am I going with this? I can't remember, mainly because it's bedtime and my kids are running around and interrupting me. I guess what I want to say is that sometimes it's just as hard to be the parent as it is to be the kid. But that I know if we do what we should we'll be blessed.

**Update: his team lost their first game on Sunday, making them come in 3rd place in the county. Not too shabby! Josh, of course, was upset and certain that they lost because he wasn't there. Ever humble, that Josh.**