Ben has discovered baseball.

At five, he’s come to his new interest a bit later than some of his friends. One of his preschool buddies last year wore a San Francisco Giants uniform every day, complete with eye black. Another close friend plays ball with the passion and determination of a boy who might really make it one day; he does his own play by play, with real players’ names but details of his own life: “Here comes Reyes to the plate; he’s had three bowls of Puffins this morning and he’s feeling good.”

Ben has a tee, some balls and a bat (he even has a pair of batting gloves, a birthday gift from his uncle), all of which he does play with, but for the most part, despite going to a game last month (the impetus behind this new interest) baseball is not really a ball-oriented activity for him. Instead, he colors in pictures of team mascots that he prints out from the Major League Baseball kids’ site (for the record, Lou Seal and Mr. Met are his favorites). He draws intricate diagrams of baseball diamonds, labeling all the different elements of the field. And today, he and Tony turned the train track into the Giants park (can you see how the megablocks spell out AT & T?), found some felt to cut into bases, and fielded a strong team of plastic animal players. He spent a long time this morning, playing in his room by himself, just announcing players coming to bat, and right now he’s singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to Eli.

Time to get the boy to some more games!