That’s what I’m gaggling about

It’s hard to believe that it’s already June. The school year is wrapping up and summer plans need to be made quickly. Along with the end of the school year, another baseball season comes to an end. I think back to the beginning of the season and remember how YaYa found it difficult to return to baseball after taking last year off to play soccer. His skills were noticeably behind those of his teammates and he didn’t want to go to practice.

After watching him struggle on the field, and behind the plate, I asked W if he wouldn’t mind working with YaYa a bit. This was before I had any hint of W’s feelings toward me; perhaps it was before he even had any feelings toward me. Of course, W was very willing to work with YaYa on catching, as I requested. He and YaYa went down to the local school to work on YaYa’s skills. Even better, W made it FUN — playing catch and even using a ball-wall, at one point, to throw the ball against for fielding practice.

A few weeks later, W brought over a load of various training equipment including a Ken Griffey trainer, tee, net, and a bucket of balls. He worked with YaYa, showing him how to use the stuff and working on correcting his form. And YaYa got jazzed. Before long, I had to pull him away from practicing. Naturally, his skills improved.

Around the same time, YaYa’s team began to come together. They started out the season with brutally painful losses. As the team came together, however, the games ended awfully close to winning.

The Mom’s Section came together as well. We looked forward to each game and the way that hanging out in the stands together energized us in a new way. We even named ourselves “the gaggle,” like in a gaggle of geese, with W as the gander.

Well, on Saturday, we had our first playoff game. Not only did the team play well together, they WON. And what an exciting game it was…

That’s what I’m gaggling about!