The things that warm a mother’s heart

May 10, 2006

Pardon the obvious bragging about my child… How many kids beg their mothers for a ‘cup’ for days on end and the question brings a grin to the mother’s face? The reason? So he could catch during his little league games! Now, you all know how fond I am of catchers, so I can’t even begin to say how thrilled I am that my son not only loves the position and wants to play it, but also seems to have more aptitude than his peers at manning the backstop. I even woke up with a smile on my face this morning. I’m so proud of my little guy!

Last night, my son’s team, the Mudcats, won their low A ball game against the Iron Birds by a score of 13-0. If you’ve ever seen low A little league ball, you can understand it’s both comedic and sometimes tedious. There are rules like if the ball is hit in the infield, base runners can only advance one base - two bases for outfield hits. Runners are very rarely thrown out at a base. My son seems to be batting 1.000 so far this season unless he didn’t get a hit during the one game I missed. Pretty exciting stuff.

For the inning he was catcher, he blocked nearly every ball. He hustles! He’s scrappy! He throws all the way to the mound on return. Seriously, his competence really helped the inning move along. I don’t think my pride in his ability behind the plate was entirely biasesd either - he was thoroughly cheered for his actions. In fact, he won the game ball for it! Wow! He’s so proud that he brought it to school with him today to share.

I’m so glad he’s found something in the game he enjoys and has aptitude for. On another note, he’s also thrilled to find out there’s a real minor league team called the Mudcats with the same uniform logos. Until then, even I didn’t realize the teams were named after real teams. I happened to catch a news report regarding the cost of gas and road trips, and one stop along the reporters’ route was at a Mudcats baseball game. Cool!

BTW, if you’re interested in making a pledge for Little Chatter’s little league hit-a-thon on May 20th so he can raise enough to win a jacket or something (and support his league, of course!), that’d be great! Don’t worry, he’s accurate but doesn’t hit for much power :-) I obviously don’t really expect anyone to take me up on this, but thought I’d throw it out there since I have no idea who to hit up for it aside from grandma, of course.

Kudos to my little guy! /endbrag

Posted in Baseball - General, Personal