WARRIORS! Mount up!

Maceo and Cassius, as you must know by now, love football. Maceo is signed up for flag football this spring, and Cassius, while he loves playing football, has thus far refused to join a team.

But in other sports news, I recently found out about a local sports organization, the Woodridge Warriors (we used to live in the neighborhood of Woodridge), which has lots of different teams in lots of different sports, was offering baseball workouts for free this winter. So, we went to the first one. I wasn't sure how the boys would take to it, so I conspired with a friend to include her kids, too. Her 6 year old Carter, like Cassius, can be less than enthusiastic about taking part, so we both hoped peer pressure would do the magic we know it can. Surprisingly, Maceo, Cassius, and Parker went right in to the drills and were enthusiastic without a shred of shyness. Yay, peer pressure. But Carter moped and sulked and didn't join in. Sad.

Warmups with Coach Gil.

After brief warm ups, the kids were separated by age, and since Carter wasn't taking part, I was worried because Cassius was not with Parker and Maceo. But he did great! He stayed in line and took the drills seriously and had fun!

Cassius learning about the "Ready" position with the other 5 and 6 year olds.

Maceo and Parker getting coached on how to field a grounder.

Yes, I am the parent who takes pictures when his darlings do their activities. And yes, I am the dad who watches Maceo make a throw and then shouts to him to keep his elbow up. But I only did that two times, and I was very nice!

Coach told Maceo, and Maceo breathlessly recounted to me,
that he swings "like a 15 year old." Ooooo, Maceo was proud.

After practice, all the boys came to my house for lunch and play. You know what they played? Baseball. Now, Maceo is interested in playing on a baseball team, too. And he still really likes soccer. He's becoming an expensive child, but we all know it will pay off in the millions when he goes pro.

A neighborhood gang forms as we walked Parker and Carter back to their house. We were
flashing gang signs and smoking cigarettes and doing graffiti all the way.