Reflections from Another Little League Season
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The Un-Natural hangs up his cleats for another year
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Yesterday was the last day of my son’s little league season. The playoffs were similar to the National Hockey League’s: everybody is in (even of you’re a girl’s soccer team) and you have to lose 2 games to be eliminated. With the full-shouldered help of my son, his team met that 2 game requirement quickly. If I said I dropped to my knees in thanks when the last out was made and the long, sometimes agonizing, season was over, I would not be exaggerating that much. And then, like one of the 7 stages of grief, came a flood of reflections:
- My son may not know the baseball diamond well, but the tree-line beyond the outfield has got to be burned into his memory; he stared so much at it.
- Related to prior, the coaches could recognize my son’s back from a mile away.
- The Natural is a 1984 film starring Robert Redford which recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great “natural” baseball talent. Like me, my son’s Little League experience would be best titled The Un-Natural.
- 8-year olds on a baseball diamond are like a bunch of cats performing ballet.
- Marriage requires patience; coaching little league requires extreme patience.
- This year’s missing-in-action: baseball glove: $35; aluminum bat: $45; leather bag with 6 baseballs: $50; 1/2 of daddy’s stomach-lining: priceless.
Unlike Lou Gehrig who had to leave the game prematurely, the North Howell Little League concession stand should be relieved to know that “The Un-Natural” will be back next year for another record-breaking season of candy and hot dog consumption
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For a 90-minute little league game, are 2 beers too little? 4 beers too much? Do the answers change if the game is played in the afternoon or evening?
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All too often, it seemed like the only reason my son went to the games was to eat hot dogs and consume candy from the concession stand. In fact, he set a single-season record for polishing off 21 ring-pops in 17 games. His dentist and the concession stand hopes he eclipses such achievement next year. My money is with him, and ultimately the concession stand.
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For some who step to the plate, the coach yells “make contact and get on base!” For others it is “knock it out of the park!” And for a select few, who shall remain nameless, the best the coach can muster is “survive.”
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The manager of my son’s team mastered the art of delivering his “there were bright sides to our loss today” speech and sometimes he even delivered it before the game was played.
-I.M. Windee
