Sports are valuable for kids to play

Riptides 12 U team wins Districts in 2017

This past weekend, my daughter played six games of softball and four of the games were played in one day. Yes, softball is in full season. Both of my girls play softball and they are on two teams each. One is recreation softball and the other is an extreme team, which is a travel ball team. It is quite a commitment. I know a lot of families who are on travel teams travel all over the US. We are fortunate our travel team plays within a few hours radius from home.

Randi and Graci started out playing tennis when younger.

My two daughters’ have been playing sports since they were 4 and 5 years old. The first sport they wanted to play was tennis. I think they started out with tennis because their cousins played tennis. The next sport was soccer, then T-ball, baseball and it eventually lead to softball.

Being in sports has helped my girls in so many ways. They learn how to win and to lose. They learn how to play as a team and as an individual. They learn how work for a goal. They also learn camaraderie and sportsmanship. Another benefit is they are exercising and in today's world of electronics it's important to get them some physical activity.

Since my girls have been playing softball for the past four years, it's amazing to see how their skills have developed over the years.

My husband and I always try to encourage out kids.  Sometimes they get upset if they strike out, don’t get a hit or make a bad play. When we go to baseball games or watch on television our favorite teams the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs, we can show the girls even the professionals strike out and don’t get hits every time.  We tell them even their favorite players make errors, but they don’t let it get them down and get right back in the game.

I know from my own experience that when I was playing sports and going to school, I didn’t have time to do much else. I played soccer, basketball and softball. I wasn’t good enough to go to college on a scholarship, but I still enjoyed playing.

I think it was even more important for kids to play sports in middle and high school because those are the years that kids seem to get into trouble, if they don’t have anything to do. When you are involved in sports you don’t have time to be bored and get into trouble. The other good thing is you have to keep up your grades to play sports. Most kids like playing sports, so they get good grades.

Parents try to help your kids find a sport they like to do, whether it’s a team sport or an individual sport. It can make a big difference in your child’s life and who knows they may even end up receiving a scholarship for college.

Randi and Graci at a softball game.

Family fun at minor league baseball games

Looking for something to do with the family that is fun and won't cost you a lot of
money? Recently my family went to a Clearwater Threshers Baseball game on Friday
night and paid $32 for tickets which included four fantastic field box ticket, four shirts,
four sodas, four bags of chips and four hot dogs. There was also a post-game country
concert included the night we went. You really can't beat that for a night out.

This deal is every Friday night home game during the season. It's called the Tampa Bay
Times Family Pack. You do need a coupon and can find it in the Tampa Bay Times
Newspaper.

We went with a group of 18 people and had a great time cheering on the Threshers team.
The Threshers are the minor league team for the Philadelphia Phillies. We are so fortunate to have not only the Clearwater Threshers, but several minor league teams right
here in the Bay area including: the Dunedin Blue Jays and the Tampa Yankees. We've
been to each team it's stadium and have a blast.

What my kids love with the minor league teams is being able to get autographs from the players after the game! They also like the contests during the innings throughout the
game. There are races on the field, shirts thrown into the stands and lots of other crowd
interaction.

Minor league teams are great because the teams do all sorts of promotions throughout the
week to get you to their games and the tickets are very reasonable. Most ticket prices around $8 for adults and $6 for kids and seniors. A lot of the minor league teams even have a day when kids get in free to the game and some have fireworks after the game. The Threshers have fireworks every Saturday night home game.

Check online to see what kind of promotions each team is running. If your kids are on
little league teams and you want them to have the opportunity to take the field with the
pros, call the team. It's a great experience and one your kids will remember. My girls
have done this the past two years with their teams and it is a great memory.

What's nice is there are a lot of games and the games will run all summer long. Most
teams play until first week of September. No matter what age your kids are, it's a great
time for the whole family!

Family fun at minor league baseball games

It's summer and what would summer be if you didn't go to a baseball game? My family loves baseball. Of course our favorite team is the Tampa Bay Rays! But we also like to support the minor league teams in our area: the Dunedin Blue Jays, Clearwater Threshers, Tampa Yankees and Bradenton Marauders. 

These teams are a lot of fun for the family. Recently we went with our girls softball team the Riptides from Gulf Beaches Little League to the Clearwater Threshers game and bought tickets for $14. The price included admission plus all you could eat and drink from select concession items including hot dogs and hamburgers. We had a blast that night because the softball team was honored at the game. 

Our girls team was announced prior to the game, given a baseball, had a chance to meet all the ball players and get a picture with Phinley the team's mascot. The kids had great seats and even caught a few foul balls. Some of the girls from the softball team were in the races the Thresher's play during innings like spaghetti dodge ball and riding small bikes around cones. One of our coaches, Darren McClellan even won $300 by throwing a baseball through a very small hole! The Thresher's made it a memorable night for both the kids and their families.

Minor league teams are great because the teams do all sorts of promotions throughout the week to get you to their games and the tickets are very reasonable. Most ticket prices around $8 for adults and $6 for kids and seniors. A lot of the minor league teams even have a day when kids get in free to the game and some have fireworks after the game.

My family had the opportunity to attend mascot day at the Dunedin Blue Jays game a few weeks ago. We went to the game because my youngest daughter received free tickets from her golf camp because Largo Recreation's mascot Captain play was going to be at the game. It turned out to be a pretty inexpensive night. We even got parking for free because at this stadium parking is free. The only money we ending up spending was on concessions and the prices weren't too bad. Drinks were $3-$5, pizza was $3.50 and hotdogs were $3. The kids were so excited because they even got a free bobble head of the Blue Jay's mascot D.J. There were tables once you got inside of all sorts of fun things to do with the kids.

The girls got their faces painted, a person made balloon animals and there were games. My oldest daughter even won a free Blue Jay's shirt with a $10 gift card to Rally. We had great seats too right down the first base line. The only sad thing that night was the Blue Jay's lost. We will have to go back again to see them win.

If you get a chance head out this summer with your kids to a game. Check online to see what kind of promotions each team is running. If your kids are on little league teams and you want them to have the opportunity to take the field with the pros, call the team. It's a great experience and one your kids will remember.