Take Me Out To The Ballgame – But Don’t Throw Me Out!

It’s baseball season.  It’s that time of year when little league moms and dads start to get a little bit crazy.  I’m one of those moms, so I was sympathetic when my sister Janie told me about the recent drama at her son Joey’s high school baseball game.

Joey is in 11th grade.  Simply put, he’s a stud.  In fact, he’s such a stud that he’s on his way to breaking my husband’s high school baseball records.

(Yeah, Doug was really that good in his day.  I’m not allowed to embarrass him on the blog, but let’s just say he still holds several baseball records at our high school alma mater.)

Joey was getting ready to score, headed for home base.  The catcher was standing in the way, so Joey gave it his all and leaped over the catcher.  Unfortunately, the ump called him out.

But that’s not the end of the story.  Next, the opposing team’s parents started to go wild, complaining that Joey didn’t slide into home base.  (Apparently, it’s a high school rule that a player has to slide into home when the catcher is standing in play.)  The umpire caved under pressure and threw Joey out of the game!

Joey has never missed a game in his life.  He was blazing mad as he headed into the dugout.  Then my brother-in-law, George, started to spar with the first base coach.  Pretty soon, George had called the coach an “idiot” and dad and son were both thrown out of the game.  Together.

More bad news.  Joey’s team lost in 10 innings (Joey was the relief pitcher and third man in in the batting order).  But he had to stand out, unable to help his team escape defeat.

Sometimes life isn’t fair.  Which means that baseball isn’t fair.  I’m still routing for Joey to beat Doug’s record.  You can do it Joey!

For all you baseball fans out there, have a great weekend!