Play ball!

My son Chris loves baseball and I mean LOVES baseball. He reads everything he can about baseball; magazines, books, stats. He watches everything from Little League through Major League on TV – even reruns of old games. His room is filled with stuff from his favorite team – I won’t go into who that is, I will just say there is an abundance of blue pinstripes! He wears team shirts almost every day. He is rarely without a ball cap and almost all of them are from a baseball team – one in particular! The amount of baseball cards in his room could wallpaper the entire room, walls, ceiling and floor. I think you get the idea.

He has been struggling with hitting this year. I mentioned this to the pastor of our church and gave me some advice to pass on. He told me to tell Chris that as he enters the batters box to look at the infielders, pick someone to be the recipient of a line drive chest high and laugh when then drop the ball as he is running to first base. I was skeptical but passed the advice on and Chris seemed to start connecting more. Chris isn’t a speed demon but he was knocking in RBI’s even if he wasn’t getting on base. The more he connected the more his confidence rose.

Last night though was a night to remember. His team was down 2 runs going into the bottom of the third inning. They managed to tie the game and held the other team scoreless in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of the fourth they loaded the bases and Chris was up to bat. This is the time when my stomach starts to churn, my palms get sweaty and my heart starts thumping. Usually I have a hard time watching.

A group of parents were sitting in the benches in left field for the best view of the game. I had just said to my husband that there was a huge hole between the left fielder and the center fielder and now would be a great time for Chris to hit the ball there. Just as I said those words I heard that unmistakable sound of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball. I looked up to see the ball heading right down the third base line, heard my husband shouting something about it being in there and watched the ball hit the top of the fence and drop just inside the fence. It was a base’s clearing double which put his team up by 3 runs. Chris came within 6 inches of hitting his first homerun and it would have been a grand slam! They went on to win the game 7-6.

What a hit! What a night!