Baseball Widow

The Sports Widow Catches Baseballs - Really!!!

April 30, 2007 10:55 PM | 0 Comments

Today 7-year-old Caroline had her second baseball practice. My 12-year-old daughter Kit, 9-year-old son Austin and I all trooped over to the practice to accompany her since Bryan was at a dental appointment. This is an aside, but we have our dental work done at THE quintessential dental practice in Seattle - Espresso Dental. They offer late hours, lattes to order and freshly baked cookies, along with the usual cleaning, fillings, and whitening - HEY, between the sweets and the coffee stains, you don't think they're trying to gin up business, do you? You don't think it's a masterful plot to create unhealthy teeth that require constant dental work? Hmmmmm. I HAVE had a lot of cavities, but this is the only time I get to watch Ellen or the Food Channel.

Anyway, I don't like to write the script for anyone, but my daughter Kit exhibits all of the signs of a Sports Widow in the making. She would much rather read a book than play a sport, so she usually sits in the stands with a blue and black patterned Mexican blanket wrapped around her. You know the one everyone seems to have inherited from their mothers in the 70's when a large shipment of blankets from Mexico arrived?

While Caroline was practicing running the bases, capturing the ball and swinging at the T-ball stand, Austin asked me to play catch with him in the adjacent field. True confessions: I am still a bit gun-shy after my mishap in April 2006 in which Austin gave me a gigantic shiner during our annual Wapato Point trip and I had to return to work under a cloud of suspicion regarding the health of my marriage. This time, however, I insisted on something that has changed my life.

I asked Austin if I could wear one of his gloves, instead of wearing one that is at least 3 sizes too large for my tiny, dainty hands. WHAT a difference the right equipment makes. For the first time in over 40 years I could actually catch the ball. It was amazing. I even caught three "snow cones," which according to Austin are the kind of catch in which the ball is precariously held at the tip of your mitt, resting on top of it like a snow cone. WHAT a heady experience. Maybe, just maybe there is hope for me.

As for Caroline, she loved the practice, particularly the banner the coach gave her to decorate with stickers and the letters of her name. During practice, Caroline alternated pretending that she was batting a pinata and her swings would produce a candy shower with pretending that she was pummeling one of her siblings. Now that's motivation, Mr. DeMille. Once Caroline made contact, she ran to First Base with a big smile on her face and her long, honey-blond hair streaming behind her.