My son Spencer is 9 and quite an athlete, which makes me extremely proud and yet at the same time it sometimes surprises me as I watch his skill level excel past many of his friends (except his best friend Cam, of course, who was born to be a professional athlete). It shouldn't be that much of a surprise, I guess, because I'm an athlete as are both of my brothers and we grew up as a family always doing sports or something that required physical exercise and some skill. We all became and still are exercise junkies.

It's a surprise, to me, because I never came into my own in team sports until probably high school and college. As a kid his age I was just not aggressive enough. In fact, in sports like baseball I was downright timid (I was small and got hit 14 times at the plate my first year of little league). So when I watched some of the ways he did and approached things when he was very little, I just assumed he was going to be the same way. .... because Spencer is in many, many ways just like me.

Except in sports. Particularly baseball.

I love playing baseball now particularly with Spencer. What I love even more though is when I'm watching Spencer play with his team, I'm reminded not to assume you know things about people, even those you think you know really well.

Because while just like me, Spencer is also one of those kids that intimidated me when I was 9.

One of his coaches calls him "wheels"

welcome to the bench... I spent some time here in little league

Here's Spencer's friend Cam. He also knows more sports statistics than your average bookie.

Then there's lacrosse... I wish we had had this sport in my town growing up

Spencer is in the blue #10

I love this shot of Spencer and Cam: focused and 9