Play ball!

Yesterday was Opening Day for my five year old niece and her T-ball team! It was also her first year as an "athlete" Believe me, Sydney is girlie-girlie so imagine how surprised we all were when she began to show interest in playing a sport! haha

Funny thing about going to her game yesterday. There were tons of children EVERYWHERE you looked! Parents tending to concession stands, crying toddlers, crying "players", dealing with the off and on again threat of rain! Overall it was a lot of fun, sitting in the bleachers, watching little ones attempt to be the "big boy/girl" and play their hearts out! Eh, there was the ocassional "injured" player... One of my niece's teammates was so appalled at being struck out and not being able to run the bases that she started crying, ran into the dugout and refused to come for the rest of the game! Then there were the climate conditions to deal with: a little girl on the opposite team was playing third base when in the midst of the a "play" yelled to her mom who was sitting a few bleachers away from me, "Mom, is it time to go yet? I'm hot!" -everyone laughed and the game went on...

Funny, while staring at all those kids, I was transported back in time...a time when my brothers were in Little League, and memories of nail biting games, and tournaments and the smell of cotton candy...came swirling at me like a the rain during a thunderstorm... I can still remember how my mom and her entourage (consisting of a few aunts and close friends) would heckle the umpire over a "bad" call... once, she and another mom were thrown out of THE PARK!!! lol OMG! I was 12 years old, and all I remember was my mom yelling at the umpire and then at the coach from the opposing team, then, she and her cohort were asked to leave the premises. My dad was there (one of his rare appearances) and told me and my sister not to worry. They didn't actually leave the park, just the field where the game was going on. Afterwards, my mom actually apologized to the umpire but it went something like: "I'm sorry for yelling ugly things at you but if you had made the "right" call I wouldn't have done that!" ---Be afraid of my mother. Very afraid! lol Hahaha, I recounted this story to my brothers when the game was over, and we took turns at heckling my mom as she threatened to disown us! Good times.

Back to the present: Sadly, the The Termites were beaten by a run in a very close and exciting game by the Ladybugs. Final score: 11-10. Never have I been as proud of my Sydney as I was yesterday. But nothing compared to the look of pride in both of my brothers' eyes.

Heartwarming.

Later that day, as we celebrated with ice cream with Syd, we asked her if she enjoyed herself, she looked at us, her cheeks a bright pink, her ponytail half fallen apart, her brand new uniform disheveled and dirty and exclaimed, "Oh yes! I can't wait to play again!"
My other brother Carlos, has a two year old son, and he is just itching for Casey to grow older so he can play as well! Both of my brothers are baseball fanatics and it looks like the apple didn't fall far from the tree! Casey has already mastered the art of "playing catch" with daddy...

Play ball indeed!