Monday, June 13, 2011

All Star Girl

This past weekend was Sonya's last T-ball game.  This is good and bad.  Good because I don't have to spend at least one evening a week packing all three kids in the van, complete with a peanut butter and jelly dinner, only to head home and chaotically try to put them all to bed by 8pm.  That was even more fun when the practices lasted until 8pm. On the other hand, it's bad because I love watching Sonya play baseball, and she likes to play.  I mentioned before that I thought she was pretty good and had some talent in this area.  For a girl or boy her age.  Her coaches must have felt the same way, because she was picked as one of four kids from her team, to participate in the T-ball all star game they had on Sunday morning.


Saturday, Sonya played the best game I've seen her play yet.  She made three outs and had a couple of really good catches.  Her hitting has gotten better as well.  I wasn't sure how well she was going to play on Sunday though, because Saturday  night she had a sleepover with all the Girl Scouts.  I knew they wouldn't get much sleep. I was right.  However, in true- suck it up I have to play anyway-athlete fashion, she did great.


First they played her out between first and second base, where in T-ball the ball almost never goes.  She didn't do too much those innings.  Then one of her coaches, helping with the all star game, must have mentioned that putting her in the pitcher position would be a good idea.  She proved herself  more than once, and even managed to make two outs in one inning from there.  For those of you who aren't familiar, the pitcher position in T-ball, just tries to keep the ball from getting past her, possibly catch it and make an out. (There is no actual pitching, since it is T-ball.) Sonya managed to do this a few times.  Luckily, we got one and a half of those times on video, thanks to Melinda and her iPhone.  I've posted it here on You Tube, so you can take a look.  It's a little faraway, but you can definitely see what's going on if you pay attention about 45 seconds in.  Check it out now.


The beginning of the video that you miss was Sonya stopping the ball, it bouncing up, and hitting her in the chin.  She didn't miss a beat though.  She immediately picked it up and threw right to first base.  After that you can probably hear in the background one of the mom's from Sonya's team ask, after seeing her get hit and shake it off,


"Does Sonya ever cry?"


Then of course there was my husband's humorous and oh so true response.  There is also an appearance by Lana and then the awesome play Sonya makes.  Every time I watch it, I get teary eyed.  Stupid, I know, but I can't help it.  When I was there in person yesterday, it was all I could do to keep from crying, I was so proud.  Although, I think my proudest moment came later on in the game.  I believe it was the second time she went to the "mound".  She got out there and the batter walked up to the tee. To my left I heard a man yell,


"Come on Sonya!  Let's go!"


I looked and realized the man cheering was someone I had never seen.   He was not a dad who had a kid on the team Sonya played with all season.  This was a dad of one of the other All Stars on the team she was playing for.  He just knew her name from what she had done so far that game, and cheered her on. 


After the game ended, we went out and got something to eat in celebration of how well Sonya had done that game and all season.  We talked about how great she was in the All Star game and Melinda showed her all the videos she had taken.  


I'm sure there are plenty of kids her age out there who play just as well, if not better than Sonya.  Although, after watching different kids play this game for the past four months, I'd say she is up there with the best.  Of course I might be a wee bit biased, but there is no denying, she does have talent.


How soon until I can call a Red Sox scout?



In the dugout.





One of the All Stars
(I plan on keeping this picture, because any one of those three boys, or all of them, will end up in the Majors someday. ) 




Thanks again to Melinda, Melissa, Scott and baby Kennedy for coming and showing their support, and to Melinda for recording the awesome play.  



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