MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- As spring comes to an end so does the 3- to 4-year-old T-ball season for the Yankees.
The Yankees played their last game of the youth T-ball season at Penny Lake here Saturday where they took on the Athletics.
The purpose of Saturday’s match up was not to win or lose but rather to go out and have a good time.
T-ball allows male and female players who are too young to participate in baseball to enjoy a game with the same challenges but without the pressure to win.
“Everybody gets a turn to have fun,” said Oscar Fuentes, Yankees assistant coach.
T-ball is intended for young children to learn and develop the fundamentals and skills of baseball but also to just have fun.
T-ball is very similar to baseball but it is played on a much smaller field. “We teach the basics of sports and how to play baseball to get them ready for the next level,” said Fuentes.
The scores of the T-ball games are not kept in an official score book because the object is to maximize participation.
Every inning, each player is allowed to bat once.
When the last player on the batting team is up, his hit drives all the base runners home.
Parents and coaches are out on the field to help encourage the young ball players how to field the ball and teach good sportsmanship.
Most rules of T-ball are the same as baseball with a few exceptions.
One exception is the balls are typically softer so injuries can be reduced.
Although no score was kept Saturday, it was still an exciting game to watch. The random uncertainty of where the
ball was going to be hit and how it was going to be fielded kept mothers and fathers on the edge of their seats.
“They did great. Everybody had fun,” said Fuentes.
After the game, the teams congratulated each other and both ran off to the sides of the field as if they just won, proving that T-ball is just fun.