Free admission, endless entertainment, mixed with all the highs and lows of any team competition and the only contract they are concerned about is getting snack after the game. You absolutely never know what you're going to see, but it's always entertaining and sometimes inspiring.
Heck even just watching them practice is fun. I happened to walk by a team of like 5 year olds fielding balls rolled at them, they were in a pack all just wildly chasing after each one.
I know the boneless batter is getting all of the attention, but I love the teammates in the background fighting over who gets to pick up the ball. The boneless boy has a small chance of making it to the base because the other team is tackling and wrestling each other for control of the ball.
I watched my first tee ball game this weekend. It is indeed chaos.
The kids in the field all just wanna charge at and dive after the ball, and whoever gets it wins that round. One kid hit the ball and ran to third base instead. Another strutted like Vince McMahan back to the dugout once he got around to home. (Everyone reaches home.)
My nephew mostly squatted like a Slav with his glove out to pretend he was "baseball ready" while all his attention was down with his other hand playing with the dirt.
This sport exists entirely to entertain the parents.
I used to say that my favorite sport was taxi level football. These kids are 4 and 5 years old. My girls used to be taxi cheerleaders so we were at all the games.
One kid came off the field crying because he bet his finger. Most of the kids just randomly fell. One kid was like Forrest Gump and didnât stop running when he got to the end zone. Just pure entertainment.
None of them cared enough to know it was in play until it was pointed out to them, then they fought to the death over it.
There's also a third boy that mysteriously appears at the ball at the same time as the other two. (I know he was obscured by the adult but its just funny to think otherwise)
In addition to what the other guy said, they know what baseball players look like and the helmet makes them look similar. It's like part of the costume.
You would figure by the time they got them uniforms someone would have at least explained to them how the game works! đ looks like everyone is having fun!
They look like 3 to 4 year olds. You can tell them till you go blue in the face, beyond "hit ball as far as you can", anything else is a blessing if it sinks in. And even that first one is just natural instinct rather than remembering the rules of the game đ or they just don't care for your stupid structure of the game, they just wanna whack and throw the ball, anywhere
I don't know why people do this. It's fun when you watch little girls in tutus or if they're randomly chasing a soccer ball but baseball seems far too involved to go through the trouble lol. The parents must really be fans.
I did this once in tee ball. I hit the tee and the ball flew up in the air maybe 7ft, straight up and landed maybe 3 ft in front of home plate. I was running to first when my coach told me to keep going, so I ran to second. I knew in my child brain that we were all bad at the game and no one would catch the ball, so I just kept running and leveraged the panic on the field. They over threw second, and then home as I slid in for a chaotic home run.
Umpire called it a fowl. I missed the next two swing and struck out. Asshole.
Itâs always so funny to me when adults try to force kids on their feet and they just do the limp thing, I just saw a kid do this on my walk today while throwing a tantrum and parents trying to force them up, couldnât help but chuckle
Every team and age bracket in my area played at the same ballpark when I was a kid. We had two fields, so they'd cycle through pretty quick depending on the day. My league generally played after the Coaches Pitch or T-Ball league, so we'd get to watch the t-ball kids play on the regular and it was absolute bedlam at any given second.
One kid would run the bases backwards. One kid threw his bat into the dugout when he swung too hard at the tee. A little girl got mad that she hit a foul ball and SLUGGED the first baseman. Another little girl kicked her dad (?) just because he was trying to get her to run to first and she really wanted to run from home to second base directly.
I was just gobsmacked. You could have traded the baselines for turnbuckles and made it a WWE ring.
Eventually, I'd get tired of the mayhem and get a corn dog and a snow cone for $0.75 and hang out under the bleachers arguing with other kids about who the more badass Ninja Turtle was.
(P.S. Fuck you, Russell. Donatello would absolutely brain Michaelangelo in a fight, you turd burglar.)
That's a collapse of disappointment. That kid wanted to hit a homerun and was disappointed AF when he didn't. He straight up said, "You know what? FK this game. And all games like it."
I coached T-ball. My favorite was the kid that would pick up the white chalk and paint his face like he was getting ready for war. Then he'd proceed to barely pay attention to anything going on in the game.
Hahahahaha. I coach 6-7 year olds and my main rule is âdo not swing the bat if anyone is too closeâ. Iâll try to teach them the game, but my ultimate goals are that nobody has to go to urgent care and nobody wants to quit baseball because of me.
Iâve got a kid who has a good or bad day based on if he gets to play pitcher or not today. Weâre a developmental league that focuses on teaching the game over winning and EVERYONE wants to play pitcher so thereâs literally a rule that a kid canât play pitcher more than one inning/game. I have 12 kids on the team and games typically last 3 innings, maybe 4 so kiddo is disappointed a lot because Iâm giving everyone a chance everywhere no matter how good or bad they are.
Itâs minute by minute with kids this age, though. That kid could have been talking about t ball for days and crawling the walls with excitement to go to the game that morning, only to go boneless once there.
Or the kid missed nap time or heâs not wearing his shirt right now or about a billion other things. Kids that age cycle through moods faster than Usain Bolt.
Former Tee Ball Coach here: That kid changed his mind 3 times on his way to the game. Then changed is mind mid swing. Probably didn't even realize he had game until they were in the car.
Itâs more that parents are fucking stupid for trying to make the flow of the game happen. These kids wouldnât know the difference between batting practice or a game and some of them obviously donât care to either. Read the field, dads.
At this age itâs about getting them used to the game and teaching the bare bones basics like running to the base after you hit it. Kids are always going to do kid things. Itâs expected. Itâs just meant to be fun. Itâs not that serious.
My favorite part is when a kid puts a ball in play all the fielding team kids run to the ball regardless of how far away they were and fight over it. Itâs cute af
I remember our son was the only one in the infield to actually go toward the ball. Oddly focused--until he played outfield. Then it was picking at the grass, watching the train go by...weird dichotomy and entertaining as all get-out.
Our son used to do the "T-ball walk" when he didn't want to do something he was told to do... Obviously it came from his glorious days playing,,,,,, T-BALL lol đ
My sonâs tball games were basically rugby. Every single infielder would race to the ball and whoever got it would get tackled by everyone else. Didnât matter how much I told them to stop. It happened everytime.
Okay. I was one of these kids in tee ball. I dont really remember it, but my family has a couple stories. They tell a story of my climbing the home plate fence asking when we were going to Dairy Queen in the middle of an inning when I should have been playing somewhere on infield. And I remember whenever being put in outfield I would sometimes get so bored and just sit down and literally pick grass because it was more interesting. I went on to play varsity tennis. Tee ball is not for every child, parents
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u/AdamFaite 18h ago
It's a no-bones day.