DAY 136

This just in: I still know how to pitch, throw and catch a softball.
If I could run, I would look for a team to join. 🙂

Today was fun. Just – FUN! I put on my Detroit t-shirt and my daughter’s discarded knee-length PMCA gym shorts, and arrived at a Livonia elementary school to be the Phys. Ed. teacher. (Well, first of all I went to the wrong school, and secondly, the “right” school said they already had someone, but then the other Phys. Ed. teacher wasn’t feeling well so they decided she would go home and I would handle her 5 classes of 5th and 6th graders.)

I pitched for five 45 minute periods, to both teams. The teacher’s request was that I do the pitching, with the intention of ensuring success for each batter. I threw, caught, coached, umpired, encouraged, settled disputes, kept kids from climbing fences, and put more than one of them in their place, so to speak. It was a gorgeous, breezy day – absolutely perfect, and I enjoyed every minute of it – and got paid. 🙂

Highlights:

Every play at first was called safe by the batting team, no matter what happened. Sometimes they argued with me when it was ridiculously inaccurate, so it didn’t bother me a bit when the play was a close one and they questioned my judgement.

I yelled to a boy to get down off of the high fence. He jokingly said, “Yes, Mom.” I replied, “Hey, I have four sons, so I have no problem with that.”

A smart aleck threw a handful of gravel at his classmate just as we were leaving the field. I said, “Sit down!” and pointed to the ground. The rest of us walked to the building and just before I rounded the corner out of site I motioned for him to come in. This kid is fast (and a pretty good baseball player too – what an arm!) and he got to the door before we did, grinning all the while.

After the first period, wherein the boys from two classes vied against one another (girls on another diamond with the other sub), I decided thereafter to give each kid a number. This provided their batting order, and gave me an easier way to assign them fielding positions. 1-first, 2-second, 3-short stop, 4-third, 5-catcher – everybody else out in the field. Next inning: 6-first, 7-second, etc. There was less griping because they knew that they would get a chance to play a good position, and it worked for me because I didn’t know ANY of their names. “Hey – you – in the Captain America shirt – yeah, YOU – get off the base.” It kept all the cool jocks from bullying their way into the prime locations too. Usually the other kids are happy to get the opportunity, but if they wanted to switch, they had the option to give up their turn. Maybe one or two out of many innings and three classes.

Special ed. classes: A boy, runner on second base, saw the next hit coming his way – stopped to pick it up and hand it to the 2nd baseman and then ran to third. 🙂 The parapros and I had to be careful giving directions, because the fielders would all start running the bases too. It was all rather amusing. Every kid – some with assistance – got a hit of some sort (if the bat touched the ball at all, we counted it no matter where it landed.) 5 on a team – we switched after everyone had a turn at bat. One girl doesn’t have the use of one of her hands – the parapro helped her hit the ball and she giggled all the way to first base. I fielded the ball and threw it there very slowly.

A girl said, “You’re a really good gym teacher!”

I really enjoyed this day. 🙂