Play Ball!

Last Saturday Fred and I rode the Harley down to Merrill to watch our grandson Joshua play in a baseball tournament. It had been years since we'd been to a ball game, the last time being when Erica played summer softball in junior high. She gave up softball for track in high school--which was probably a good thing. (One of our basement windows didn't survive her pitching practice.) Katie dropped the sport after T-ball. She played an outfield position, and not too many balls get whacked that far by first graders. Since she spent most of the time being bored out there, she preferred to sit down and pick flowers instead of paying attention to the game. One time a well-hit ball went sailing past her, and everyone was yelling, "Katie, get the ball! Throw the ball in!!" Katie looked up from her daisy chain like, Huh?! Another parent said, "Whose kid is that??!!" Eek!
We learned Saturday that the sport has become more sophisticated than it was when the girls were younger. These were 8 and 9-year-old boys, and they had uniforms with their names on the back! I was impressed with the quality of their fielding and pitching at that age. Of course there were overthrows and wild pitches, but for the most part they were focused and and accurate in their fielding. I couldn't get over the way these kids pitched overhand and actually struck batters out on called strikes!
We weren't there for the first game of the morning when Joshua hit an inside-the-park home run. His defensive positions included catcher, third base, and shortstop. In game three he made an awesome over-the-shoulder catch that I wouldn't have been able to do in a million years! We were sitting in lawn chairs right behind home plate, so were able to see how good/bad the ump was at calling strikes. On the last ball of the last game, the ump called Josh out on a called strike. Grandma wanted to tell the guy to go buy a pair of glasses, but I refrained.
Caleb and Gabriel, Josh's brothers, are also in summer baseball, so Mom and Dad--Heidi and Ryan--have spent the past 2 months running in different directions for games and tournaments. Caleb had a 3-day tournament in Nekoosa over the weekend, so we only got to see half the family Saturday. (5-year-old Cora is into ballet and Barbies, not sports!) Heidi is probably already looking forward to Caleb getting a driver's license in 5 years!!
As for Grandpa and me, we plan on seeing them play more ball games in the future. We will have to get to Illinois and North Carolina to catch Luke, Rachel, Christian, Courtney, Drew, Jake, and Dani playing soccer and basketball. Have Harley, will travel.