There is no crying in baseball

It's January 8th and 40 degrees with no snow. So it must be baseball season. (I'd like to point out that we sat through 2 games last May that were 32 - 34 degrees and sleeting, so it really isn't so far off.) Actually, it's baseball camp time. And I screwed up. I signed him up for this camp that is supposed to be really spectacular. He was all excited for it. But what I thought it was (a different baseball camp than he'd been to before that came highly recommended) was not what he thought it was (the camp he'd been to last year that was sponsored by HIS Little League and knew people from his own team participated in.)

The result was that we got to the camp in a suburb north of us sponsored by a different city's Little League with a couple of hundred kids and their dads (no lie - I was the only XX in the whole gym), and there was not a soul he knew. And he started to get upset. And then he broke the cardinal rule of baseball - the tears came. And then I got annoyed, because seriously, it's baseball which he loves and has been begging to do, and he's crying?!? And then they called his group to get together, and he was fighting back the tears. And I alternated between being incredibly annoyed I'd spent all this money on something he loved and was being a jerk about it and feeling totally awful that I put him in this situation because not being with friends is about the worst thing in his 6 year old life. And then he missed a grounder and started to cry, and 2 coaches came over. Clearly, they thought he was hurt. He wasn't. (I later learned the coaches asked him if he wanted to go over by his mom, and he said he would stick it out. I'm guessing he figured that would have been way worse punishment.)

About half-way through the hour, they had to get into groups of 4, and 2 boys immediately grabbed him to be in their group. And then all was well. He fielded every ball and was talking to other kids.

So now, he happily went back at the hitting portion of the day with his brand new bat and his dad - 2 things which are infinitely better for him in these types of situations.