by BabyCenter Guest Blogger posted in Parenting

By Steve Calechman
?Dad, my stuffed squirrel wants to bat.?

"Sure. Go for it."
The squirrel got a single.
My son, Milo, was 4 when he said it during last spring?s T-ball season. He played and I coached, and I put both those verbs in quotes. It was a first for both of us. I thought it would be good to do something organized and a chance to meet people in the neighborhood.
I talked to friends and was briefed on what to expect ? the swarming to the ball, the lying down on the field, the running after dogs. So I came in with two goals. The kids have fun. No one gets hit with a bat. I have no clue about whether they had fun ? 4-year-olds aren?t big sharers. I don?t even know how Milo felt. He rarely talked about the game and had no interest in ever wearing his uniform, but he never missed a week.
Check on Goal No. 2. I came in wise to another reality ? the tedium of being a spectator, or to quote every parent who has done so, ?Ugh.? I avoided the pain since I was always busy either throwing balls into the outfield for kids to chase down/stay awake or ensuring that Goal No. 2 was achieved.
Still, I could see how the action might be described as somewhat ?ploddy.? If I was ever unsure, parents actually thanked me for ?making things go so quickly,? a winning line on any resume. But here are a few words that I never heard put together. ?T-ball. Awesome.?
With no excitement ever expressed by anyone ever in the history of t...