Draft Eligible

We are in the midst of the 2010 MLB Draft. Held via conference call among all 30 clubs, the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft occurs every year in June. After missing the call for the past eight years, Dad has decided to hang ‘em up – passing the torch to his young sons.

Search appears to be taking this responsibility very seriously. We know he will not be called to the show any time in the near future due to his current ineligibility – given his age and recent steroid use. But it’s never too early to start practicing.

My little athlete has been super active from a very early age. He started running drills in the womb (a game his brother didn’t necessarily enjoy). During one ultrasound, he managed to contort himself into seven different positions. He would try to outrun the heart rate monitors – watch out for this one once he gets on the base path!

The night the twins arrived I called the NICU to see how they were doing. (Because of my own major league surgery I wasn’t able to visit and I was desperate for a status update.) Search’s nurse shared that he wanted nothing to do with his bunting and was exerting all his energy trying to get it off. Well, if nothing else, I knew she was telling me about the right child. That sure sounded like my son – and I hadn’t even properly met him yet.

These past few days, Search appears to be trying to escape the NICU entirely – or at least attempting to scale the walls of his isolette. I thought babies would be much older before they started moving so much. I was wrong. Several times I’ve found my son solely focused on getting his legs up underneath him. It seems he may be trying to go from his tummy to his back to get more comfortable. But really, he ends up sleeping with his bottom airborne. I am starting to think that asking his nurse if I should worry about a week and a half old baby somersaulting of his own accord would not be an outrageous inquiry. (His brother is already outfitted with knee pads.)

When he’s not trying to crawl at age 11 days, Search is grabbing items close to him. He has previously been successful at ripping his nasal cannula tubes out of his little nose. He’s often sound asleep while clutching at his feeding tube wire. My personal favorite is holding his hand. He employs a strong, vice-like grip around my finger; it seems to calm him. Today, we put his first jersey next to his bed bunting. When I looked back, he was grabbing the shirt and trying to pull it back toward himself as if to say, “I AM a ball player, albeit a very small one. Gimmie back my uniform.”

Back to the feeding for a moment. As I mentioned in the last post, the little man is doing really well with his feedings. The doctors are upping his calories a bit. Hopefully this will help him grow quickly – in a non-banned performance enhancing method. And since he’s tolerating his food so well, he has not been particularly active in the more despicable baseball standard of spitting.

Both boys are tiny (that’s actually been a diagnosis – “he’s tiny”) and very young. They still face a lot of challenges – from remembering to breathe before they can come home to navigating the baseball scholarship college decision after high school. Regardless, they are already my little all-stars and will always be.

But you heard it here first: look out for Search Stream starting with the 2030 MLB Draft. I’m guessing first round; from birth he’s not been one to wait around…

Search, my little All-Star, warming up.