Baseball

I don’t remember learning to play baseball; I just remember playing. Starting in first grade, the teachers would divide the class into teams and we would play baseball. There were enough kids for three teams – two to play each other and a scrub team. The teachers would let each kid have a turn at being the captain which meant we got to pick the name of the team and make other important decisions. When it was my turn to choose a name, I remember choosing the Dodgers. The other kids were disappointed in my choice, but we won the playground series for that week.

We also played baseball in the back yard. Craig would bring all of the neighborhood kids to our house, and they often played baseball. Sometimes he let me play – sometimes not. After all, I was a girl and his little sister (I’ll save that gripe for another blog). When we moved to Red River, the school did not play baseball, but the RR kids would get together and play whereever they could find grass. Usually they played by the Little Red SchoolHouse (I was horrified when they hauled rock in there because they thought the kids would get muddy at recess). I even remember playing in front of the Community House, but that was a small grassy area for a real game of baseball. In my grown-up years we played baseball in an empty field in the middle of town. There was a river for the boundary of left field and an old sewer/creek down the right field boundary. We always put the "new guy" in right field. Toby was the "new guy" at one time - just ask him about it.

When we moved back to Texas, there was even more baseball. I played on slow-pitch teams as well as fast-pitch. I played on church teams and Girl’s Club teams. My brothers both played on teams. For all of that playing, I do not remember watching major league baseball until I was married (then I watched football, baseball, and whatever sport Toby was watching). Last night while Toby was flipping channels from the MLB to Monday Night Football, I realized that I really like baseball much better than football. My dream is to go to a major league game. I would even like to see a minor league game.

We have been watching the championship games this last week. Jesse has been very entertaining with her show of interest and her questions. I have mentioned before that she does not know much about baseball although she has played on a slow-pitch co-ed team for the past two summers. She has really gotten into the games this week. She asks all sorts of funny questions about the rules and such. Her lack of baseball knowledge always amazes me. I guess I just take for granted that everyone knows how to play baseball. I think she has learned a lot form this series (she tends to pick her favorite team by their looks saying the Angels had better looking players than the Soxs). It has been good family time for us and probably been good wifely training for her. Her future husband will appreciate her knowledge of the game, and she will not have to interrupt him with questions during the middle of a game (someday).