"I don't want to go to FOOTBALL!"

If you've been following my blog recently, you know that Imma has just started playing t-ball. I say t-ball, it's actually called softball here because she gets three chances to hit the ball thrown by a coach and if she doesn't hit it, she gets to hit it off of the "t".   Last night, the girls team scrimmaged the boys team. Let's just say, it went about as well as I thought it would, which wasn't very well at all.
She spent at least 30 minutes begging me not to make her go to "football."  (I don't know why she thinks it's football, maybe because the field is near the high school football stadium.) I finally got her changed and in the car.  She was fine when she got there and saw her friends.  She was actually doing alright warming up and listened to her coaches, sort of.  When the scrimmage started, the girls were batting first. Imma was last in the line-up.  She had her helmet on, ready to go.  Except, there are way too many girls on her team for her to actually get to bat in the first inning.  The rule is, one team can only score 5 runs per inning.  That happened pretty quickly and then it was time to take the field.  Unfortunately, Imma did not read the rule book in advance and she completely flipped out when she didn't get to bat. She ended up having to be carried to the outfield by her coach. Eventually, Brian went out on the field and held her by the fence so she could talk to me. She cried for about 15 minutes, sobbing, "I wanna bat!" She finally calmed down enough that she could go stand by her coach and kick dirt and spin around.
The second time around, she did get to bat.  And she hit the ball!  She had to hit it off of the "t" but we were really excited that she hit it.  She didn't have any idea what to do when she did hit it so her coach took her hand and ran her to first base.  Luckily, she drove in run number 4 so there was only one more batter after her so she didn't have to try to navigate all of the bases.  For the second inning, she took the field and spent the whole time kicking dirt and spinning.  But she wasn't crying.  I do need to remember not to put pants with pockets on her for practice.  She kept putting her hands in her pockets!
I talked to one of Imma's teammate/classmate/good friend's mom today and she said she thought it was fine. She wasn't worried at all that Imma was confused, crying, kicking dirt.  She said, "This is her first scrimmage.  She didn't know what to expect.  She wanted to bat. It happens."  I was relieved to hear that because I have no idea what "normal" kids do.  I saw other kids crying, spinning, kicking dirt, falling down, getting completely lost, running the wrong way, etc. but it looked to me like Imma was much more lost than the rest of them. But I'm her mom.  I wanted to know how it looked to the other parents and this mama gave me new hope that maybe the other parents aren't talking about "that girl" and embarrassed and outraged that Imma is ruining sports for their children.  This is, of course, my biggest fear--that she will be chastised for her behavior and that the other kids will be angry at her for messing things up.  So far that has not been the case and hopefully it will stay that way.
She is doing better each time.  She still says she doesn't want to go but I heard other parents say they had to drag their kids in, too.  I am hoping that she at least enjoys it enough that I don't have to bribe her or threaten her.  And that she keeps her hands out of her pockets!
What do y'all think? Shall we stick with it??
I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures last night. I was too busy bribing Imma and chasing Lucy.