Diamonds, dirty knees and Slurpees

Some of my favourite childhood memories have happened on a ball diamond.  I played for a few years as a preteen, in my cobalt blue uniform and giant white hoop earrings.  The coach, Wayne, was a friend of our family, and I in all my brevity hollered at the team introductions "Can I call you Wiener?!"  The look I got from my mom and stepdad, I thought I was dead meat.  The kids all laughed, but of course, they are 10-year-old kids.   I didn't think he would mind, heck that's what we all called him, off the diamond of course.   Lesson learned, just because your parents do something, doesn't mean you get to.   We spent months on the bleachers, getting candy and hotdogs from concessions, running in knee-high weeds that show up as an allergy so bad your eyes are swollen shut; me being the team babysitter for all the runts the parents wanted out of their sight. 

I was decent, if I recall correctly.  I wasn't scared of the ball, so I could hit, and catch, but I was bored.  I spent a lot of time in left field, and once I started doing cartwheels in the outfield my mom pulled the plug.  I don't remember playing ball after that.

My husband wasn't as fortunate as I was growing up having played on teams, and watching siblings play. His baseball skills were more around playing catch with his stepdad here and there.   Although he watched a lot of Blue Jays on TV when Mike was growing up, he never had the chance to see them live and didn’t have any interest in playing minor league ball as a kid.  So, a mitt and a ball were his experience. 

The princess in our house has been playing all kinds of backyard baseball since she was a toddler.   One of her first travel souvenir gifts we ever got her was a kids baseball bat and ball from Yankee Stadium when she was two.  She spent the better part of three more summers smacking that soft ball against our fence.  The bigger she got, the further the ball went, and before we know it, she's cracking this ball over a fence, a backyard or two away.   Grandpa bought her a T-ball stand to practice on.   Grandma was dragged to the yard to throw her pitches every time she was over.  "Look Mom, watch this!"  "Mom, can you throw to me?" "Dadddddddyyyyy the ball is in Sean's yard..."   We signed her up for Sportball, the company that offers the most basic introduction to many sports, ran by teenagers trying to make money.  She was playing Tball behind the school once a week for 8 weeks, and every Tuesday night was excited to go.   We marched over, rain or shine, and watched this 7-year-old girl hit the ball further than some of the boys.   Even her teenage coach brought it up to me that she's very good and should be well past T-ball.    That settles it then, Fish Creek Little League is our next journey. 

Registration is in February before the spring season begins, and I was very quick to sign her up- I sure didn't want to take the chance that they filled up.   I paid the fees, read all the welcome emails and shopped for ball pants.  We got a new glove, a new ball bag and a new bat.   And then I see that she must go to evaluations!   This is much bigger than I thought it was.   You see Maddy skipped over the FCLL Tball, and the Coach Pitch program and started at the Minors.  New to us, we drive her up to the field, and leave her to impress the snot out of these coaches and league reps.  Well, she did, but not how we thought I suppose.   She took a hard ball to the chin from a line drive another kid hit.   She shed a tear and then kept right on going.  Took out her anger by cracking a ball to the roof of this indoor ball dome.  What a kid.  She is rostered on the Orioles, a team of 13 kids 8-10 years old with all kinds of baseball skills.  A few ringers, a large handful of kids who have never played before, and the few middle of the road kids.  What we don't account for is the emails that follow.  

WE NEED COACHES! 

FCLL is in desperate need of coaches for your kids’ league. 

TIME IS RUNNING OUT - NEED COACHES!!! 

YOUR KID CAN'T PLAY IF THE PARENTS DON'T STEP UP!!!!!

Mike and I had many talks about what coaching would mean, whether he signed up, or I did.  What do we do with Ellie, how can we coach a sport we know zero about (granted I had a small leg up on him).  If they fold the team, what can we put Maddy in instead?   We even asked Maddy, who jumped at the chance for her dad to coach her.  I came home from work one day and he told me signed up to be the Team Manager.  I was shocked, but I needed to clarify that he knew that meant Head Coach.  (See aforementioned lovely husband didn't know squat about ball. 😏) He was under the impression it was more of a backup coach/make the schedules/enter details on the app.   No sir, ‘tis full on coaching these kids.  We waited patiently for other parents’ names to pop up on the team app, hoping someone else has signed up for any coaching position, but specifically Head Coach.  Luckily, in the eleventh hour, a bunch of dad’s names pop up, including a Coach Bill.  This guy practically becomes famous in our house. 

We spend 6 weeks learning, playing, watching a lot of baseball.  Ellie is learning some independence by being allowed to go to the small playground across the grass.  She’s meeting new friends and playing in the sandbox.  I’m watching, usually with my mom, Grandma or Mikes stepdad Grandpa Doug beside me, cheering on the Orioles, two nights a week.   We get rained out a lot in the end of June, right when playoffs are starting.  Can’t change the weather, so we sit, cold and wet behind the bench, hoping these kids have what it takes to win each game.   The playoff weekend is finally scheduled with no rain in sight but its double headers to make up for the lost time.  Coach Bill is that perfect coach, earning respect from the kids, while teaching and encouraging them.   Always a smile, a great job, a high five.  His knowledge of the game was passed on to everyone around the diamond, including to Mike.  I don’t know if he had secret YouTubing habits of how to coach kids little league, but I know that Bill was important to Mike and how comfortable he was on the diamond.  Madison learned a lot about baseball from the four dads that stepped up to coach and I couldn’t have asked for a better team for her first season.  He doesn’t like this type of praise necessarily, but I am very, very proud of Mike stepping into a role that he normally wouldn’t have, for putting himself outside of his comfort zone to help his daughter, and for leading the Canadian Orioles to the Championship game.  Which we won.  It's crazy to me that a motley crew of little kids can come together in their first season together and beat out all the other teams.  I cried when the coaches handed out their championship rings, and these little dirty kids beamed ear to ear.  I still cry when I remember the joy on everyones' face that hot summer day.  

Turns out, I’m a baseball mom.  

And also a sucker for punishment, because spring 2025 saw us signing up Maddy for her minor league team and Ellie for her first experience with T-ball.   And that is about the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.   Although Madison is our backyard baller, Ellie isn't shy either and always wants to do what her big sister is doing.   We've thrown her a few balls and she's busted out the T stand a time or two.  But she's never owned a glove or caught a ball coming right at her.  This should be interesting!   I have to go shopping, because she needs to wear a cup, needs white ball pants and I have to find a glove knowing full well I have no idea what hand she throws with.  Even though she is a lefty, like her sister, she wants the glove on her left hand and throws with her right hand.  Maddy is the same way- she says she needs the control of the glove with her dominant hand.   Sounds good to me, I find a pink and purple Disney Princess glove and think I'm all set.   Maddy goes to evaluations and luckily this time doesn't take a ball to the face.   We wait for team assignments in our email and instead receive:

WE NEED COACHES! 

FCLL is in desperate need of coaches for your kids’ league. 

TIME IS RUNNING OUT - NEED COACHES!!! 

YOUR KID CAN'T PLAY IF THE PARENTS DON'T STEP UP!!!!!

We have many, many conversations about Dad coaching again this year.  As much as I enjoyed it, I have reservations this time... I don't want to be the only parent to take Ellie to her games, I'll miss most of Maddy's because they play at the same time.  His reservations include missing out on Ellie's games, but also a bit of a fear that he's not going to be paired up with Coach Bill this season and he would like to be.  We asked Madison thirty-seven times "do you want Dad to coach you this season?"  To which she said thirty-six times "I don't know, I don't care".  Finally she admitted that she would like him to coach and he ran to the website to sign up.  Anything for his baby girl.  

Now that we have teams and coaches we're off to the first games of the season.  And because it's April in Calgary Ellie's first game is miserably cold.  5 degrees, windy, cloudy and drizzly.  They meet their coaches and new teammates with awkward hellos and cheers from the parents to go to the field to warm up.  Praise those two brave dads, Coach Dan and Coach Chris, trying to arrange 12 five year olds into what resembles a baseball team.   In T-ball here not all kids play at the same time, so 6 of them go out to the field to practice while the other six take their places on the diamond.  But none of them know where to go.  Cue the first bit of hilarity.  We are fielding first and after a long time getting kids settled into their positions the other team is up to bat.  The kid hits the ball and it is CHAOS.  Pandemonium.   ALL 6 kids on the diamond rush to the ball.   The kid who hit the ball also runs towards the ball!   What is going on?!?!😂😂😂.  There are parents at first base hollering for the runner to touch the bag, our first base coach is hollering for the kid to throw the ball to his teammate.  Parents are crying laughing, children are fighting because they all wanted to catch the ball and I'm filming it.  I can't let this go undocumented.  

We are so cold though and about halfway through practice these small children are cuddling their parents on the sidelines, wrapped in blankets and wanting the after-game snacks they spot in the coaches bag.  But we still have more ball to play kids, get back out there!   No one is into the game anymore and little fingers are frozen.  We wrap up this game and are curious if Ellie enjoyed herself.  Hard no.  She liked the game play but was so cold she didn't really get into it.  Luckily we warm up in temps as the season continues.  

Ellie is a full head taller than most of her teammates, save for a few of the boys, and she gets right in the thick of it.  She plays shortstop a lot, and is usually very attentive.  As soon as the batter hits the ball she is running for the play.  She skins her knees, grass and shale stained pants and I'm pretty sure I saw her go to throw a punch when some bigger boy came and grabbed the ball from her.  I definitely saw her yell at more than one kid, that the ball was hers.   As the season progressed, these tiny children started to get the hang of the rules.  I joked to Coach Chris that if our season ran until September they'd have a great team by then!  

The logistics of two kids in different age groups meant many conversations around who goes where, what diamond is she at, can Uncle Gary take Ellie, we can drive Evin.  The Toors are our best family friends, Mike and Gary go back 25 years roughly and we've got 5 kids between us.  They are all great friends, and about the same ages, so when we signed Ellie up for ball Evin was right there with her.  It was a relief to have a set of friends who can pick up/drop off Ellie so that I could watch Madison play.  It takes a village and they are our village. 

I know for sure that one of the reasons Ellie would willingly go to baseball was the promise of a Slurpee at the end of the game or the practice.  They raced to the 7-eleven across the street and tried to con us into buying the bigger size, or the flavour full of caffeine.  Heck no kids, it's home for bath and bedtime.  

For Spring Ball of 2026 Ellie says she doesn't want to play.  Even bribing her with Slurpees wasn't enough.  She's full on in her acting era, and baseball is just not creative enough for her.  Maddy though is in, and very excited as she moves up a league level this season.  I'm sure its going to be a great season - less rules than the league below her, more talent as these boys and girls are older, and more experienced players.   Watching the Blue Jays playoff run last year also gave Maddy a bit more love for the game 💙.   This upcoming spring, sitting on a cold bleacher, watching her as the only girl on the team, just can't come fast enough.   Or will it come at all?  I just got an email from the league:

WE NEED COACHES !!!!

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