I realized that so many of my blogs were negative. Opening day is here and all the excitement and kids in their new jerseys and parents with new swag created an electric feeling for all parties involved.
I love cheering and the little league in the park home runs. I forget how much this time meant to me. I was thinking back to all the convos with the kiddos whether I was coaching or just watching. The pure excitement, the new cleats, new pants (these will never be as white as they are today) and new bags.
The team names and colors are also changing. I don’t remember such vibrant colors or cool designs but I was all in. As I walked around it was a reminder that time has flown by and I really need to enjoy this. Similar to when I was in high school and people would tell me to enjoy it..Like we are always looking forward to the next best thing. IT feels like lately I am always excited about what’s coming and not what’s happening. Yesterday was a great reminder to embrace all the at bats, errors, victories and defeats.
I can tell the blogs are being read as friends from all the teams reference some of the great topics and this has been awesome. From “Are you really going to sit right behind home plate?” Or hey “pocket radar dad how fast is she throwing”. Keep ‘em coming folks this is a blast..
Well the day started out with Sav on a new team this summer and playing our old team that I coached. It was a great game and a fun matchup. I know this will sound cliche but I truly was happy that all the girls I coached seemed to have gotten better. I still feel like a part of me is coaching them and watching them progress and get better but an absolute highlight. THe girls were all great to me and Sav as I was a bit hesitant to how that might be. Parents were great too and that was a plus. After spending countless hours and time with people and kids you grow fond of them and hope that when you leave that isn’t tarnished or diminished and it was not.
We lost 1-0 and got into game 2. We played a team I had never played before. Seemed like a good group of girls with a decent pitcher. She had this very odd grunt similar to a Wimbledon match, not trying to knock her as she was effective. It just caught me off guard. It was about 7 pitches in when my wife brought up she knew this game was going to be chirpy. I thought she was being sensitive but then realized what she meant. We had the pleasure of a few moms from the other team who decided to come sit behind us even though we were downtown the right field line and our team was on the first base dugout. Their positive echoes just kinda wore on you after a while. Then there was Serena Willaims mom in the stands. She would woo shaaa every close pitch and complain about anything her daughter didn’t get. To the point of obnoxiousness. I was 137 feet away from her and knew she was the pitcher's mom no doubt. Long story short we lost 2-0 to Serena and all was not going well for day 1 on the new team.
Game 3 was a little later and seemed to be easily in hand. I had decided at some point to walk closer to the stands to watch Sav swing as I wasn’t sure why she had not had much success that day. She was 1-4 with a nice hit and a few lazy pop ups. I thought perhaps she was not adapting to the current pitching or something. She started the game off with a very nice ball back up the middle and all was right in the world. Then came her second at bat. I was standing in the stands so admittedly I was not parallel to the home run fence but the pitch was delivered and Sav crushed it. Line drive to right center that appeared she knew it was gone also as she threw her bat down a little gingerly and started her trot. The right fielder was so close to the fence as it went over here that everyone started cheering. Our runner at second barely got halfway to third before it was out. As people were cheering the field umpire was motioning to the girls and it caught my eye. He started to raise his hand in the peace sign. Peace! No chance bro that was gone. He mutters that it bounced over. I sort of laughed it off like ok whatever, like I said that game was mostly in hand. People started to hymn and hah so the plate ump turned around and stated “Not my call guys sorry”. Seemed like a nice fella…..
The dust settled and Sav was on second and our runner from 2nd was now on third. The pitch was getting ready to be delivered to the next batter and I blurted out “The runner from second scores on a ground rule double” Yes I said it sarcastically as I felt my child had been robbed of her glory but I was in fact correct. The ump throws up his hand as if to call time out and turns to me and says “Not another word out of you and you’re gone. That’s your warning!” Well I couldn’t let this cute little umpire challenge all of my manhood in front of all 37 people in attendance so of course I said “Blue the runner on second scores.” He responded by “tell your coach not me”. So they continue to play and I tell our coach who goes up and asks the ump. Ump says yes you are correct however we can’t correct it now as a pitch has been thrown!!!!
All I could do was laugh as I recalled on all my blogs and experience what a funny story this would be for everyone reading. Just goes to show that even though I put this stuff into print I am still human and when faced with a difficult solution like remaining silent I can not… Best of luck to all of you out there and best of luck to me today with day 2 of the season. Hope I Don't get booted.
Comments