{"id":1473,"date":"2013-05-19T17:39:38","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T21:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2013-06-09T18:22:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-09T22:22:10","slug":"little-league-musings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/2013\/05\/19\/little-league-musings\/","title":{"rendered":"Little League Musings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"003\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had the honor of attending my friend Daniel\u2019s Little League game the other night and it was so reminiscent.\u00a0 The beautiful green field, the dust, the bugs, the bleachers, the parents (Yogi said it best, \u201cLittle League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets\u201d) and the bench.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t been to a game in about a hundred years, probably not since himself was coaching, and really not much has changed but then again so much has changed.<\/p>\n

The bench was filled with all manner of equipment.\u00a0 The usual bats, balls, helmets, protective equipment for the catcher, and Gatorade bottles.\u00a0 One of the things I remember about going to the games with himself was lugging the big orange cooler with the spout everywhere we went.\u00a0 We\u2019d set it at the end of the bench with a stack of waxy Dixie cups and the kids would go through gallons of water laced with Gatorade at every game.\u00a0 Who knew plastic bottles filled with the stuff was in our future.<\/p>\n

And then there was a girl on the team, not only on the team but on the mound, oh was that fabulous. \u00a0Hadn\u2019t seen that before but how would I, not having kids of my own, there was no way for me to know the progression of girls in sports.\u00a0 My understanding is that girls were formally permitted to join the teams in 1974; we didn\u2019t see it in 1977 when we were attending the games it was far too early.<\/p>\n

My friend Daniel was playing first base but he would later find himself behind the plate catching.\u00a0 The kids were moved around, everybody batted and even though they took quite the beating the coaches were supportive and patient and the kids looked up to them.\u00a0 To this day, I\u2019m sure that many of the kids who played under himself remember him fondly.\u00a0 He was a hell of a coach, the wonderful mix of discipline, educating and fun.\u00a0 They might not remember me, I just kept the book, but I know like I know they remember him.\u00a0 It never failed that we would be having dinner somewhere and one of them, all grown, would come up to us with wonderful and thankful greetings for himself.<\/p>\n

In all the games I attended in the \u201cold days\u201d I don\u2019t ever recall hearing the kids being told it\u2019s still a live ball.\u00a0 Of course it\u2019s a live ball, what else would it be?\u00a0 Well apparently a few of the kids get easily distracted.\u00a0 The live ball thing was a given back then.\u00a0 Maybe because the kids had only one or two extracurricular activities not the nonstop schedules they have today.\u00a0 Maybe because the prevalence of ADD\/ADHD (or recognition of ADD\/ADHD) was pretty much unheard of the kid\u2019s heads were in the game.\u00a0 And there was practice, there were the endless drills, there were consistent coaches.\u00a0 \u00a0Dads weren\u2019t working the perpetual over time hours that are needed today to make ends meet.\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever the reason everybody knew the ball was live.\u00a0 Could not stop chuckling about that all through the game.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s funny how it all comes back to you.\u00a0 Just watch the ball hit the bat, just hit your cutoff man, don\u2019t try and be a hero, just get on base, singles.\u00a0 The barrage of baseballisms came back in a flash and so did my Jersey girl.\u00a0 I can get loud, no surprise to anybody, so when things were really looking grim and everyone got quiet I don\u2019t have to tell you what happened.<\/p>\n

I did notice there is now a covering behind the plate so you can\u2019t stand behind and see the pitches coming in.\u00a0 Oh that used to be fun to second guess the ump, gone are those days.\u00a0 You can\u2019t yell \u201cswing\u201d now when the pitch is coming in to spur the opposing batter on.\u00a0 Sorry, I couldn\u2019t help it back then.<\/p>\n

I had my camera with me and got some wonderful shots, all easily downloaded and up on Pinterest http:\/\/pinterest.com\/slc1toby\/a-night-of-little-league\/<\/a> , no such thing as Pinterest then and the film from my Nikon FE had to be developed.\u00a0 Oh boy\u2026<\/p>\n

I must say I had a moment\u2019s hesitation about going to the game, not knowing what might be stirred up in my still adjusting head after my divorce.\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad I decided to go, for Daniel\u2019s sake and for mine. \u00a0Even though there is a K in the book for my marriage,\u00a0 the further from the later years I get the more I am able to appreciate the wonderful person himself was back then and how his legacy will be cemented for those boys.\u00a0 I know like I know they were good times worth savoring again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the honor of attending my friend Daniel\u2019s Little League game the other night and it was so reminiscent.\u00a0 The beautiful green field, the dust, the bugs, the bleachers, the parents (Yogi said it best, \u201cLittle League baseball is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[266],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pause-points","tag-little-league"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27hQ5-nL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1494,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}