Dad's Life 3D: Baseball, dirt bikes and knowing when to say no to slosh ball!

I have managed both of my kid's Little League baseball teams since 2011. My first "baseball" coaching experience was assistant coaching my daughter's T-Ball team. A dad from her pre-school at Little Village organized the team with kids from her class. It was awesome! I had so much fun. I was so inspired by the energy of the kids that I decided to start a team the next year.

Yes, it was T-Ball. And yes, it was more like herding cats than coaching, but I loved it! Why? Well, for one, because baseball is one of the only things that kids do where there is no instant gratification. Think about it. All other youth sports. Instant gratification. Technology. Instant gratification. Parents. Instant gratification... Baseball is the only activity where nothing can happen... Or anything can happen in a split second. They have to pay attention 100% of the time, and make a play in the game about 6% of the time. And 5% of that is offense... That's T-ball.

In T-ball they don't actually pitch, but they do have to play the position on the field because that's about as far as most of the kids could hit the ball! I remember one fine Spring game where my pitcher could not keep the ball in her glove. I couldn't understand it. She was great at catching, but every time the ball would roll to her, she would reach down with her glove to pick up the ball, and plop, the ball would drop back out. After about 5 times of this, I called out to her, "Kerala, what's wrong with your glove?" She sheepishly opened her glove to reveal that she was hiding a stuffed animal in it. I called out, "No, there's no stuffed animals allowed in baseball...!!!" I ran out to the pitchers mound, as baseball managers do, and took her stuffed animal safely back to the dugout. This, of course, much to the enjoyment of all the parents watching!

I hadn't played baseball in years before I started coaching, but as a kid, it was always one of my favorite sports to play. I couldn't play the infield very well, but I could hit, so I usually found myself on a somewhat decent team.

Over the years, I have played softball for fun, but even that was many years ago at this point. In fact, I think the last time I had played softball was a "loosely organized" slosh ball game. That's right, slosh ball! In our 20s, we would play soft ball with a keg on 2nd base. In order to advance past second base, you had to slam a red solo cup of beer! We played slosh ball a lot in our 20's, and we did attempt to resurrect the experience in our 30s. But within the first two innings, we sent two players to the ER for injuries sustained playing slosh ball. Yes, it would appear that our slosh ball careers were over. So we turned to adulthood, and eventually parenting, where you can live vicariously through your kids. You are only as good as you were. Or something to that effect!

Luckily, both of my kids like a lot of the same sports as me. Including dirt bike riding. Both kids could ride a bicycle without training wheels by the age of 3, so dirt bikes by age 4 seemed like the natural progression! Well, that was the story I used for the ex so that I could clear the way for "Santa" to bring them a Honda 50cc dirt bike for Christmas one year!

That was five year ago. Jaden has now moved on to a 65cc KTM with a clutch, but Mazzy can still huck that 50 like it was a BMX bike! Hmmm. Christmas is just around the corer. I wonder what Santa will bring this year?

We have a lot of fun riding out in the desert together, and we've shared many beautiful moments out in that desolate, but beautiful part of the earth. Dirt bike riding gives you a sense of freedom, but also gives you a sense of responsibility. Both on the trail, and in life. It's not just about twisting the throttle and going fast. It's about respecting the machine, the terrain, your own instincts and following rules. Once you get all of that, it's a lot of fun!