Kade played on a little league T-ball team this spring. Little League in Palo Alto is a big deal – there are over 1500 participants each year, and the League owns its own ballpark on Middlefield Road. At the kindergarten level, things are a little less grand – the team was drawn from his school’s kindergarten class and played other kindergartens at various parks and elementary schools. Each team’s uniforms are based on a major league team – he was part of the Mariners. (Obligatory Coleridge joke: “No Ancient Mariners on this team.”) Games are typically three innings, with an inning ending when a team scores 5 runs (the usual) or makes 3 outs (once in a while). Emphasis is on sportsmanship and fundamentals. Score isn’t really kept, except to determine when an inning ends.
There was a surpising level of improvement between the beginning of the season and the end. The first game was really hopeless – nobody knew the rules or could throw the ball. By the last game, they managed to record 7 outs. Kade’s progression was particularly interesting – he started out playing left handed but switched to rightie in the second or third game (you can see both gloves in the pictures). His control throwing and catching seems mucn better right handed, though he still writes left.
In addition to the baseball pictures, there are also a few pictures from the Stanford saplingathon triathlon.