I have been a baseball fan and player since about the age of eight. Even now at 33 I still play in a wooden bat baseball league for players 25 and older. Naturally, I had an expectation that any son of mine would play little league, school baseball, summer leagues, as well as plenty of baseball with his friends. Suffice it to say, sports is just one of any number of areas where Curtis is happy to take my expectations and flip them on their head. Curtis playing defense on a baseball field, which often involves standing in one small zone for a lengthy period of time, seems pretty unlikely to happen, though I've learned never to say impossible when it comes to Curtis.

The sport pictured in the background....mini golf? Curtis has his own take on that one. For Curtis,  his goal in miniature golf is to take his ball and get it in the cup as fast as possible. He has been doing this for about the last three years with no sign of let up. Curtis lines up the ball to start his first putt, hits it, and immediately sprints to the ball to hit it again before it even stops rolling. His turn goes by in a flurry and then he sprints to the next hole and waits for the remaining players to catch up. You are trying to line up your shot? He isn't too concerned about that. He has a hard time understanding why you choose to play the game slowly. Curtis has almost no reaction when he gets a hole in one. He just grabs his ball out of the cup and sprints on to the next hole.

Basketball, soccer, street hockey, swimming, running, these are sports more his speed and where he gets the most enjoyment. His interest in baseball is relegated to the fact that he knows his dad loves it, so we have our occasional practices of hitting, throwing, and catching when he is up for it. We've barely scratched the surface of the rules of the game and his favorite thing to do on a baseball field is run the bases, in reverse order. He maintains a level of interest but the sport is far from his favorite and I'm fine with that. For my part, expectations evolved and I'm happy to play sports with him that he is comfortable with and that he enjoys. He comes with me to the batting cage and I run around with him on the grass with a soccer ball (despite consistent soccer bashing by me in the past). Who knows, he might well play baseball someday but I'll hardly be holding my breathe. Instead, I'm happy to toss previous athletic expectations aside and just let him do his thing, guiding him on the sports he enjoys. It's also a hell of a lot easier than trying to teach him to be relatively still on a baseball field.

Greg, Dad