Friday, July 15, 2005

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

My family and I attended a minor league baseball game last night. My husband and I are not baseball fans but because it is the chocolate in my son's life we try to go once every summer. It was a pleasant evening for sitting in the bleachers. The high was in the upper 90's yesterday but by the time the first pitch was thrown there was a slight breeze and the temperatures had cooled into the lower 80s. We had sprayed enough deet on ourselves to keep an entire army of mosquitoes away. We even splurged and purchased six $4.00 glasses of pop.

I could not help but compare what I was watching to my son playing in the little league. He loves baseball. By the first part of January he has begun asking when sign ups are going to be and will ask almost everyday until he is signed up. Once he is signed up he will ask everyday when practices are going to start and if the coach has called. This year on the first day of practice he got up, got dressed, put on his cleats, grabbed his glove and waited all day for practice to start. When friends stopped over to see if he could play he told them no because he had baseball practice. I tried to explain that he had time but he did not want to miss practices. There were several times this year where games and practices were rained out and I hugged him while he expressed with tears how he just wanted to play ball.

From the minute his little cleated shoes touch the ball field my son's entire face is lit up like the fourth of July. His smile stretches from one ear to the next. His whole body is energized. He is shouting encouragement to his teammate, he is down and ready for every hit. He is excited to be on that field. It is that kind of excitement and joy that makes watching his games fun and the lack of it that made last night game so boring. I think the players were even bored. I hope my son never gets paid to pay baseball and I hope it always brings him the same level of excitement that I see in him now.