Tampa Day 4: To the ball game

After the exertions of Saturday, a much quieter and easier Easter Sunday. The girls’ day started with a Pilates warm-up, hosted by chaperones Jacqs and Lisa from a plan derived by Narelle at Body Tailored Pilates. The girls’ physical fitness has come along impressively in the last couple of months, with specialised running training and Pilates sessions every week giving them the strength to give them confidence on the ball.

Next there was a team meeting on a few matters: a quick warning about the perils of off-target golf-balls and encroaching alligators, then a considered debrief on the previous day’s defeat against Tampa Bay United. The tone was upbeat: these were very good opponents, Teddington have learnt lessons and on Tuesday will get another chance to measure themselves against Tampa’s U13 Elite team.

But today was a whole different ball game. Specifically baseball. The tour party was off to the George M Steinbrenner ballpark, home of the Tampa Yankees and spring-training home of their parent club, the mighty New York Yankees.

The Yanks and their visitors the Minnesota Twins whiffed a fair few balls behind the foul lines, and though nobody in the crowd seemed able to catch the ball, their eye was certainly caught by the Teddington players and coaches in their matching tie-dye T-shirts, made by the right-back Anna Kauffmann to raise money for the tour. 

The girls’ chaperone Amy turned increasingly American as the innings (or is it inning?) wore on, culminating in impressive solo renditions of God Bless America and Take Me Out To The Ball Game. For their part the girls were somewhat nonplussed with baseball (although to be fair spring training is the equivalent of a football pre-season friendly), but happily joined in with the scoffing of hot dogs.

And Ruby, who had spent the entire game screaming for the players to throw her a ball, was (along with Doddsy) presented with one on the way out. So that’s good.