Day 196: Watch Out For That Fastball...

Since Calen got drafted up to a higher division of baseball for fall (10u), we've moved on from the pitching machine to exclusive kid-pitch. Calen is itching to be a pitcher on his team, but since he's the youngest (by far), he's going to really have to work on it to get a shot. So (almost) every day we go into the yard and he throws enough pitches to get 3 imaginary batters out. Which could be 9 pitches or 30 (my personal max for a 7 year old to pitch a day), depending on his accuracy. I crouch behind our plastic home plate and he squares off and throws me his best. 

Until he throws me this heater that bounces just before the plate...

I'm a softball player so I'm pretty good with a glove, and I played catcher quite a bit this summer. But I'm not a crouch behind the plate, take it to the face kind of catcher. So when it took the weird hop, I gauged it wrong, and that sucker bounced off the plate and straight into my eyeball socket.

Instant karma for all those line drives I've thrown at him that he's "missed" and gotten hit in the face with. 

So if you see me around tomorrow and notice a black eye, or a bruised eyebrow, I didn't get in a bar fight, it's fastball abuse from my 7 year old southpaw pitcher. 

Maybe I should invest in a catcher's mask.

In Calen's defense, he apologized like a million times. I think he thought I was going to ground him for throwing one into the dirt (shit happens, kid. I should have caught that one).

Look out for Calen's heater!

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