Baseball and Boys!

My older brother Mike used to say, "taking 2nd is like kissing your sister."  As a bat boy for Kringlen's Rotary, he would run laps after the team lost- yep, as a bat boy.
  To say I come from a slightly competitive lot would be an absolute understatement.  Losing is never fun. But these boys held their heads high as they left the diamond, composed but sad.

I loved watching them play.  I grew to recognize their movements and identify them even before I could see their faces.  Who knows where their days on the diamond will take them.  Some will move onto high school ball, some college, and some to another sport altogether.  But they will always share the memory of the diamond in Washington.

These boys were most fortunate to have  been coached by 3 men of distinguished character.  I have been to a lot of games on all sorts of playing fields with all sorts of coaches.  And I have never seen three coaches that did so much to build boys.  There was seldom a moment if any where a coach raised his voice, cussed, or belittled a player.  Wowsers- it made the game truly about the boys.  I will forever be grateful for that, and I only wished all of my sons could have such experiences.

Unfortunately, the fourth inning was their demise... they just couldn't battle back on the mound and their bats were slow going.

I have known most of these boys for years and have fed a lot of them many meals.  I love the smiles of Colby White and the grin of Tanner Hardin- they are two of my favorites. And boy can they play ball.  Watching Tayson Wilcock on the field takes me back to my orchestra days  with his dad- he played the bass- me the cello.  Tayson looks so much like his dad.However, he is a much better ball player than his dad was on the bass.

After years of watching Jacobs and Zobell grow up right before my eyes, they are still a bit of a mystery to me- their toughness and focus  remind me of why I love baseball.

Williams and Dailey are my neighborhood boys and I am thrilled to see their growth as players and as men.

Rigby, well he is mine... he reaps the reward of the experience of his two older brothers.  When he is "on," he owns the field.

Raddatz and Whitehair bring authenticity and determination. They know how to "bring it."

I remember watching Halladay's Uncle Eric play ball with my brothers.  I love that I get to see the next generation play- boy can Renn run the bases.

And well Macinnis, I'll be watching closely-- from the stretch- the poise of a ball player.

My family left 2nd East nearly two decades ago, but it never left us.  Neither has Bill Kringlen or baseball.  My mom is now watching ball games with the women she sat with while cheering on her own kids, but now they are watching their grandchildren play ball together.


And so we wait for the next generation of ball players and hope for another shot at the diamond in Washington.