Play Ball!

The players have practiced, trained, scrimmaged and warmed-up over and over again. The necessary players and coaches are in place, the field, equipment and uniforms are on, the season opens.

The smell of  baseball includes fresh air, freshly cut grass and wet dirt. The ball smacks the leather of the glove, the bat cracks with the swat, the competitors mean business, focused and ready to roll. Who will hit the hardest, run the fastest, yell the loudest, catch the line drive and fly ball, time the play just right, according to what might happen next?  Who might steal a base, strike-out or hit a home run out of the ballpark? Who will earn the most hits, runs, errors and sacrafices? Who will trot off the field happier after all the innings have been played out and line-up to exchange high-five's and a mention of the "Good game!" with the opposing team? 

 

Another season begins and is as fresh as the budding tree's surrounding the field, the bleachers and chair backs await their rightful occupants. Everyone is excited to hunker into a brand new season of several games of skill, strength, speed, overall athleticism, the great outdoors, fun competition and experiences that will be remembered for a lifetime, perhaps even thought of as the glory days for a lot of people, young and old, fans of the sport in the dug-out, on the field and out in the stands.  ☼  Batter up!

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Simple Summer Fun

During the long hot day's of summer, Mark and I devised different way's of competing with one another to test our agility and our fine and gross motor skills. Fist-a-cuff's sometimes ensued when we got carried away and too competitive.  We enjoyed turning anything into a contest; who could drink a glass of water without taking a breath, who could stand on one leg the longest, who could go the longest without blinking. We were always attempting to better our personal records in such things as tossing the baseball, mush ball, football, birdie, Frisbee or whatever, without dropping it. An easy toss often turned into a hard throw at close range, to make it more of a challenge, back and forth, volleying the object in the air. We were typically disgusted with the one who dropped the ball but quickly started another round again to see how many times we could keep it alive and in the air.
Many a summer we set-up an obstacle course in the backyard. The mostly harmless friendly matches of stamina, agility, strength, balance, hand to eye coordination and over all athleticism kept us occupied for good little chunks of time and if anyone else wanted in on the action, we would turn the  games of speed and endurance into tournaments, with brackets for elimination rounds and all.
Those were the dog day's of summer which also included tremendous fun at Johnson Gym, The YMCA or some other public or private swimming pool, a few season tickets to watch Albuquerque Dukes Baseball was a treat and if the game was a sleeper, we could usually count on some knuckle head(s) in the crowd to provide us with fodder for our colorful commentary and mocking purposes, not insulting to their face or looking for trouble in anyway, merely material if you will, for our own inside amusement and entertainment.

We hung around the house foot loose and fancy free enjoying the summer's off from school, happy to create our own activities after doing chores, maybe get lost in playing cards or board games if it was too hot outside. Whatever we did, it usually included plenty of malarkey, sass and good laughs. We tried to squeeze out every drop of summer vacation we could during those long day's of summer, simple stuff, goofing off, thinking of fun things to do until the days seemed to close-in on us, the minute the advertisements for school supplies began surfacing.
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