Right around his second birthday, he starting watching "The Sandlot" over and over again. Little did we know he was looking for a way to do what he saw on the screen: knock the crap out of a baseball. So one day I'm sitting there and he walks up to me with a foam ball in one hand, and a swimming pool squirt toy in his other. It's the kind that you pull back one end to fill with water, and push it forward to spray out. Looks like this:
It looks a little bit like and bat and you can certainly swing it like one. Since the idiots who watched over him didn't bother to buy him a real bat, he would go ahead and make do with whatever would work.
He handed me the ball, and I didn't know what he wanted. Then he stood back and got in his stance. How cute. He wanted me to pitch to him. Amused, and just knowing he had no chance at making contact, I tossed the ball at him.
You can imagine my astonishment when he connected on the first pitch he ever saw in his life. Pretty hard, actually - enough to ricochet off the wall and make me duck a little. And I swear he stepped into it and everything. The kid was 25 months old. Was this normal? I grabbed my phone to get this phenomenon on video:
He even seem to surprise himself when he made contact:
It was time to get him an actual bat....and guard your face!
This one hit me directly in the left eye:
Phone took a beating, too:
lso threw the ball extremely well, due to a perfect throwing motion:
More highlights:
ng he never fails to do is "run the bases" after he connects with a pitch. He drops the bat and does a lap around the kitchen, ending it with a slide on the rug. This particular video shows a great example of him taking off for first base (the wrong way).
He's worked on his pitching, too. Out of the blue he starting lifting his hands above his head and lifting his leg like Dennis Eckersley. Here he is actually shaking off the catcher before a pitch!
In 25 years when he's playing in the MLB All Star game, these videos will be shown on TV. He still holds the bat cross-handed and needs help with his footwork, but he's still 3 years away from T-ball. We've got time.
Discuss.