For three springs now I’ve been a baseball mom. From the time Jon was little and my dad and a family friend took him to a few Detroit Tigers games, he was hooked. It’s not a surprise that when our local homeschool sports group started a team, Jon was in, first on the junior high team, and this year, junior varsity.
As much as he loves the game, though, his commitment only extends as far as each year’s season. This means that while he’s a steady player, he hasn’t had the drive to greatly improve. He works hard during the season, and learns all he can from his coaches, but when the season ends, he’s done. He might practice some swings and catches out back, but it’s hard to do that alone, and none of the rest of us besides Kraig have much in the way of throwing skills.
I admit I’m not much of a sports mom either, or I’d probably be more proactive in getting him more practice, or even pushing him into another sport during the off-season. Honestly, though, I’m just happily surprised at how much I enjoy watching his games. I thought I’d spend the games lost in a book, or maybe a writing project. Instead, when the boys hit the field, I’m on the sidelines sitting on the edge of my seat. I’ve even been known to pace a little on the games that run close.
Whether this excitement of mine would transfer to watching a professional game, I couldn’t tell you. The only game I’ve ever been to was a Tigers game my fifth grade class went to for a field trip. I’m afraid that experience turned me off from every wanting to go again. It wasn’t that anything bad happened. Rather, it was that the whole experience felt like nothing happened. Context helps: my family had only lived in Michigan for a year at that point, so I had no appreciation or fan affection for the Tigers. We’d lived in the Philippines the four years before that, so I didn’t even have a framework for baseball. Add to that, I didn’t have close friends in my fifth-grade class; the one good friend I’d made the previous years had moved. So an hour drive to watch a three-hour-or-so game that I didn’t understand, with people I didn’t know, was a pretty good recipe for putting me off of baseball. In later years, my youngest sister’s passion for the game,1 not to mention one of my uncle’s deep love for it, and even my dad’s enjoyment, were merely humorous to me.
I’m not sure how different my experience of a professional game would be now, but I’m thankful that I like watching Jon’s games. There’s something exhilarating in seeing the perfect pitch, hearing the crack of a ball hitting a bat, in watching a white ball sail out over a green field and wondering if it will be caught out of the air or bounce, giving the batter and basemen a chance for a mad dash. Most of all, I love seeing my little boy play, and I love watching with wonder as he stretches toward manhood. This is worth any hours.
1 If you go to Carrie’s website and plug “baseball” into her search feature you’ll find a number of baseball related posts, including one that describes our baseball-loving uncle and sons :-) .
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This is fun! I'm not a huge consumer of sports, but I do like watching high school sports. :) Probably because it reminds me of the happy moments of my high school years playing volleyball and basketball.
I have many fond baseball memories from my childhood, including backyard games and visits to the ball park to see the local minor league team play. It would be such a treat to watch a loved one play!