GC Jr. played his first real baseball game ever on Saturday (he is 8 now).  He has played basketball for the past few years and played football last year as well, but hasn't picked up a bat since he played T-Ball almost 4 years ago (for a variety of reasons baseball just never worked out).  

The league he is in is a rather strong recreational league filled with kids who have been playing since they first could, so he is definitely behind in terms of skills.  That said, we're fortunate enough to have wonderful coaches who work very well with young children in terms of teaching them skills, but also always being encouraging and supportive.  Truth be told, he is clearly the least skilled player on his team (but is catching up) and he is much better in the field than at the plate.  His swing at times looked like Barkley's golf swing, but his coaches (and I) worked with him patiently on his technique and although he still didn't enjoy much success in the batting cage, he definitely improved his form.  Most importantly, he is enjoying it all.

On Saturday, in his first at-bat in a game (coach pitch) he smacked a double on the second pitch that drove in a run.  Overall he went 2-4 on the day with one out being an absolutely amazing catch by a kid on the other team.  In reality several of his teammates had better days at the plate (hit the ball much harder, etc.) but his coaches awarded him offensive MVP because of all the progress he made from the first practice three weeks ago to the game.  Like I said, he is working with a great group of coaches who get kids.  He was on cloud 9 the rest of the day and weekend.