Shetland land

By Ed Piper

I was chuckling last night, thinking back to the opening practice of my grandchildren's Angels team in Shetland (tee-ball) baseball yesterday, Sept. 26.

My granddaughter Violet, five years old and wearing new baseball pants and a brand-new pink batting helmet, and T.J., a lefty classmate from preschool, and another child ended up in a pile in left field going after the same batted ball.

When I commented on that to Eliza's parents (Eliza is the other girl on the Angels, which has a 12-player roster), Eliza's dad said, "Last spring it went beyond that. The first baseman ran out to left field and fielded a ball that should have gone to the left fielder. Fielders tackled other defensive players before they could throw the ball, and took the ball away." I was laughing when he told us this.

Luke, Violet, and their teammates, some new to baseball, some like Eliza and T.J. who played last spring, were kept busy with two batting tees going (one at home plate run by Mark, one of the coaches, the other tee down the left field line run by Brendan, my son-in-law), fielding, and running the bases.

Mark, who our extended family knows from day care--he's T.J.'s dad--looked over to the bleachers along the first base line early in practice and confided, "We may go till 6:15 (a 45-minute practice). That would be enough time herding cats."

It was all a lot of fun. Kristi, my stepdaughter, stayed busy attending to different kids' needs. Luke, our grandson, said he was hungry. She assured him she would bring him some food--but he also needed to be back on the field, taking part in something even though he was done with his turn at the batting tee.

A real blessing was the cooler weather. I was in shorts, but I would have been helped by a sweatshirt. Next Wednesday's practice will probably be attended by a sweatshirt.

My brother and I never had outfield fences when we played youth baseball growing up. Eliza's dad said the same for him. What a beautiful field and a beautiful setting: A hawk swirling above the brush in the canyon-like area behind left field. Way up the hill stood houses. Two giant trees made their presence known beyond the fence in right center field and center field.

It is a wonderful grass field, made to the specifications of the Shetland players (the next step up is Pinto--all horse names). The only drawback was the mud--third base was a quagmire. So was an area off the baseline next to it. Hopefully, that can be dried out for some of the games, which will be on Sunday mornings.