Baseball? ⚾

[nelsonic]

For some reason, our 👦 has been obsessed with Baseball ⚾ for the last few days. 🤷‍♂️ So I'm opening this issue to (a) capture it. (b) discuss what we should do (c) consider buying him a bat & ball.

Discuss

If our child(ren) suddenly become obsessed with something they learned about from someone else (not their parents), what should our reaction be? Does it depend on what it is? In this case I think a sport that gets them outdoors is a good thing. But if it were something unhealthy like passively consuming content on a digital device, not so much. I don't think 👦 will be playing "league" any time soon, mostly because there isn't one in PT ... But that shouldn't stop us from training his hand-eye-coordination and speed perception.

Options

Decathlon has a "JR" baseball set:

https://www.decathlon.pt/p/taco-de-basebol-em-madeira-crianca-ba180-conjunto-24-azul/_/R-p-328833?mc=8604661

But it's made of wood. It's an actual "starter" set. Not a toy. The ball is a "soft ball" but it would still hurt to get hit by one.

There are "soft" versions if we are concerned about him hurting himself or other children: https://www.amazon.es/-/pt/dp/B010S4FL88

But my preference is always to buy the "real" one not the "toy". @iteles what are your thoughts?

[iteles]

100% at this stage, I think we need to get the 'toy' version, for 2 reasons:

• This is for now, an interest based on something that he doesn't actually understand yet - he doesn't know what baseball is, he just wants to figure it out - once he understands what it actually is, then we can consider real equipment
• He's at a phase where I don't really want to give him a heavy wooden bat to pick up and swing at will because he'll want to use it for everything 😅

There are also plenty of mitts available on Vinted if we want to give him an idea of that portion of it (very little available in Portugal because as you said, it's not really a sport here).

Even juniors mitts: https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/3221735883-junior-nike-baseball-mitt

https://www.vinted.pt/items/3390813557-gant-et-balle-de-baseball-enfant

[nelsonic]

@iteles will you place the orders for the bat + ball and mit? Or should I?

[iteles]

Got the ball and mitt on Vinted, will source the bat next 👌

But I think this one is worth going to check out and potentially buy (I like that it's wider so more surface area to contact with the ball): https://www.decathlon.pt/p/taco-de-basebol-kipsta-ba100-big-hit-espuma-em-borracha-esponjosa/

They also have a few tees, but these are more expensive:

https://www.decathlon.pt/search?Ntt=tee+basebol

[iteles]

Baseball mitt has arrived and we can pick it up today.

[nelsonic]

1️⃣ has thoroughly enjoyed playing baseball these last few months. zero regrets. ❤️