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Throughout the year we'll hear from eight bloggers as they share about their family's time in the brand-new Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience® and how it inspires them to explore these sports back at home.
This post was written by Children's Museum Blog Ambassador Matt Todd. Follow his posts on the blog and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @mattdantodd.
“Hey, batter batter!”
“Hey, batter batter!”
“SWING, batter batter!”
As I stepped foot on the baseball diamond at the Wiese Field Baseball Experience while my son was perfecting his swing, I couldn’t help but give him a little chatter while he was swinging for the fences. I mean, that’s what you’re supposed to do when someone’s up to bat. Right?
“Hey, batter batter!”
“SWING, batter batter!”
When my kids were younger, I was an instructional league baseball coach. I had the opportunity to teach them the fundamentals of the game, celebrate when they succeeded, and helped them get up when things didn’t quite go their way. We had a lot of fun together. And we made a lot of memories together. It was kind of magical.
The Baseball Experience does a great job of capturing that magic. The atmosphere, with the dugouts and the turf and the cutout crowd that’s always cheering you on, is amazing. It almost feels like you’re stepping foot onto a real playing field for a real game. The field is staffed with a team of players who do all they can to help, coach, and encourage the museum’s guests to do their best on the baseball diamond.
For a variety of reasons, I had never had a chance to coach my youngest in baseball. I kind of got to live out that experience on the Wiese Field. She learned how to swing the bat and run the bases as her brother “fielded” her hits.
She might’ve hit an inside the park homerun.
Or two.
It was like my instructional league coaching career had rounded the bases one more time. It was a beautiful thing.
After experiencing Wiese Field, we found ourselves wondering if we were in heaven. No, just The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. And that’s pretty darn close.
“Hey, batter batter!”
“Hey, batter batter!”
“SWING!!”
