And no, its not Spring! It is BASEBALL season. Baseball season was instilled in me as a little girl by my actively competitive ball playing father. As a child I always was really tough, and always wanted to be better than the boys. And for my first year of ball playing I was the only girl on my baseball team, and probably the only girl in the league. And since then, I have loved the sport.
Years later I continued to play the sport. But by this time, society added an all girl sport of softball. And, of course, that became my life. One of my fondest memories was watching Team USA on TV with my father. At that time, I had my heart set on one day playing on Team USA with my all time favorite softball player, Lisa Fernandez. I practiced hard, and took the game seriously when all the other girls were just there to check out the boys on the baseball field next to us.
During the off season of my junior year of high school, I met a boy that shared as much interest in the sport as I did. In fact our first conversation was about baseball. And we also just so happened to be pitchers for our high school teams. As time went by, we attended each other's games, and always had constructive criticism to give one another. Soon after that we were signing each other's initials and jersey numbers on each other's pitching hands. And although my father never mentioned it to me...I'm pretty sure that he was beginning to see his slugger daughter slowly turning into something that every dad dreaded...a young woman.
Eleven years later, me, along with that same baseball boy, are still together. And we still share the same interest...playing ball. This will also be the 4th year our son is playing the sport. As parents we never really pressure our children into playing a certain sport. But, lets just say, we are so ecstatic with how he has grown to love the sport. He is very much like his father. He is only 8 years old, and yet he practices how he plays everyday. He is the first kid at the field, and the last one off the field. He hates when other kids goof around at practice, and he is the first one to give his younger sister pointers during her t-ball practice. I only wish his father could be here to see how much difference a year makes. It seems like only yesterday he was rolling around the dirt field after his father's Navy Hospital championship game. And I always thought he liked being at the field because of the running around, and snack eating. But I'm beginning to believe that he was silently watching what joy it brought his father. And then I think of myself as a child again. And the feeling I got when my father's face lit up as I rounded third to get home. I guess it does run in the blood. <3
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