Athena At Bat
Posted on April 29, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 4 Comments
Athena’s doing pretty well on her baseball team; she catches and throws pretty well and is good at the plate. She can switch-hit, which I suspect will be useful one day, although less so at the moment: she’s playing coach-pitch baseball, so it’s not like they’re really trying to get it past her. Still, not a bad skill to have and develop.
I’m gonna pretend that’s a Boston “B” on her helmet. Unless it actually is.
It’s for “Bradford.” But I don’t mind you pretending.
That’s pretty good form at the plate – most kids can’t pivot their hips while still keeping their feet in place. If you haven’t already, you might want to show her some pictures of major league hitters and what their feet do from stance through to follow through – she’d probably get a kick of out seeing them doing exactly what she’s already doing at age 6.
Here are some examples:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/photo?photoId=1135316&team=nyy
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/photo?photoId=1130461&team=nyy
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/photo?photoId=1129064&team=nyy
(You’ll notice none of these players have a “B” on their hat).
Speaking of which, it’s a shame they make the kids where football helmets when they hit these days. The other thing Athena’s doing really well in that picture is watching the ball hit the bat (which only gets tougher as the pitches get faster). Her helment, though, seems to be looking directly at you…
Mutt Mantle famously taught his son Mickey to switch hit. If your daughter turns out to be as good as Mickey, I assume the odds of you turning out the eleventh book in the OMW series will drop to near zero.