The top pictures represent a lesson I have learned all these years later. Let them play everything that is fun. If your left handed kid wants to play catcher then go ahead. I remember the arguments over Joey catching I would have and the anxiety it would produce for me. I don't think I allowed him to play catcher after this pic was taken and he was 9 years old. He loved doing it but I knew it wouldn't ever happen in "real life" and why bother.
That's the thing! "Real life " will come soon enough. There is no reason to speed up their childhood. I had a good buddy explain to me recently that his son was going to skip his little league this year so that he could play on his travel team. I was bummed for him. A lot of my best memories up to this point with regards to baseball have been from Little League. It's from ages 6-12 and has some tremendous ups and downs but it is a time for your child to grow. Yes there will be kids who don't know how to tie their shoes or kids who don't want to be there but that was a rollercoaster. For those 6 or 7 innings your child had to play within the lines of what their team was. You could not draft another player from a neighboring team. You can not get upset mid season and go to another league. They had to learn to deal with adversity all at the same time just having fun.
My buddy who I coached LL with just was talking about the year that never happened. It was his 12 year old season and two of the boys decided to skip LL in lieu of playing travel ball. These kids were awesome and at the time it seemed like an understandable position since these boys were enrolled in school early so their classmates were already out of LL, however it was their years to be "The man". 1 of these kids just graduated and is in college for football which is awesome so he for sure could have played LL one more year lol. Joey was still 11 and at the time the idea of playing in with the 12 year olds was crazy so we stayed on our squad with his buddies but the what ifs during our conversation were fascinating. In fact as I am writing this the irony is all too glaring.
After that season we would move to Rocklin and Joey would become friends with 2 of the biggest Little League legends in Northern California. We would end up at the LL where in fact the 11 year old who had played up the previous year with the 12's had made it all the way to 1 game away from the Little League World Series. The year he was 12 his other buddy over in Granite Bay would again make it all the way to Southern California but come up short from the World Series. Crazy to think what if we would have bought that house in Granite Bay or what if we had moved sooner. Anyhow sorry to get off topic but all this only stems from playing with your friends and having fun.
Recreation softball was the exact same thing. Sure there were girls who were advanced and could do more but so what. Travel ball will be here sooner than you think and those 4am wake up calls to be in Modesto by 6:30 am will be here. Take advantage of the beauty of playing in town for 1 game a day and not 3, 4, or sometimes 5. Once the game is over you can have the day to hang as a family or watch their friends play. Remember that everyone in the league is from your hometown. It will be their friends at school and the people they hang out with during lunch.
If I am to apply my new line of thinking after having been a parent for the last 16 years I think I should start to try and adapt my feelings toward college. All my parenting life I have assumed that I want my kids to go to college and poof "Be gone" but if I am being honest I don't think I feel that way. I hope that in actuality it can be a place of safe harbor. A nest so to speak. Go fly and get out but also understand that if you fail I am still here. So go ahead and play shortstop as a left hander, who cares. This will be your time to try and reinvent the wheel. That 9-5 is coming and trust me you will wish you had fun before the "real world" started . Yes the "Real world" is out there and Angel and I have done everything we can to prepare you for this but the world I know can be brutal, it can be difficult and if you try and don't succeed it's ok, we are still here for you.
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