All-Star Baseball

Jacob has played baseball since kindergarten; he has played t-ball, coach pitch and 3 seasons of minors. He loves it and is naturally good; he thinks he's great! This season he did really good. His primary position was first base, but he also played catcher, third base and even pitched a few innings throughout the season.

He tried out for All-Stars last year and didn't make it, so this year he really wanted to be on the All-Star team. He tried out last Saturday....and Sunday morning we got the call - Jacob made the 10-11 year old All-Star Team! He was very excited, but there was a glitch. He planned on going to Cincinnati with PaPa and DeeDee the week before the tournament. Jacob had a huge decision to make - either go to Cincinnati, visit family, see a Reds game and not be a starter on the team or stay here, go to practice every night and have a possibility of being a starter on the team.

Jacob has never been a great decision maker. Basically, he wants it all....but don't we all? He is afraid he is going to make a wrong decision and miss out on something great. He and Michael talked it over and he made his decision to stay and practice with his team, prove himself to his coach and have a shot at being a starter.

I'm fine with Jacob's decision, although I know that he is very disappointed that he will miss out on a fun trip. Will he be upset if his team loses the first game and is out of the tournament? 3 hour practices everyday for 2 weeks, possibly all for one game. Makes me think of Thanksgiving Dinner....days of planning, shopping, cooking all day - all for a meal that lasts 30 minutes. I guess it all comes down to 'the experience'.

I hope that the All-Star experience is great for Jacob. If nothing else, he will have learned a lot. His All-Star coach has taught him more than he has learned in the past 5 seasons of baseball...well, that might be an exaggeration...but you get the point.