—Baseball—
Confession.
I’m not big on Baseball.
You have to understand, though. I was born with Spina Bifida.
As a kid, I couldn’t do things a lot of the other kids could do.
I still played park league ball, though. Yes.
I wanted to be like the other kids. And I could run back then.
Mom talked to all the coaches and made sure they knew my situation.
Which also meant that I took my place in Right Field. You can’t get hurt and sue anyone from there. Trust me. Not in Little League, at least.
When I went up to bat, the coach always gave me the “Bunt” signal.
I’ll admit, I could bunt the ball right down the third-base-line. And, It would never go out of bounds either.
Fifty Percent of the time, I’d be safe at first. The other fifty, I got thrown out.
The guys on base would always make it to their next base, too.
I didn’t think that I was any good at Baseball, though.
If some kid managed to hit the ball to the right field, it would catch me off guard. I’d have to throw the bug down that I was playing with and run towards the ball.
I’d usually run right into one of the other players.
One time, I did catch a ball that was hit straight to me.
I just grabbed it right out of the air.
I later found out that that was a very important play, and the coach gave me the “Game Ball.” I was so happy.
I don’t remember if the bases were loaded or not, but I remember that there were people on base. The other team had two outs already.
The ball got hit to Right Field, and I ran and caught it. Three outs, and the game was over.
I can still see the coach’s face when he gave his big speech. He looked right at me and then tossed me the game ball. He said, “Lynn, you saved us from losing. Here. You deserve this.”
Wow!
Truth be told, I probably didn’t even know if we were winning or losing.
I just caught the ball that got hit to me.
I never played any ball outside of Park League.
So, I grew up not to be a big Baseball Fan.
I do know this, though; In this house, we root for the Braves.
