Day 144 The Circle of the Softball Life

Did you feel the earth shake on this day? You probably didn't, but I sure did.  Today was the day when my daughter expressed interest in softball.  No prompting or prodding from me.  Just out of the blue, she wanted to find any softball or baseball equipment we had and go out in the back and play.  I have never even suggested this as an outside activity for her.  She has watched me play church softball, but that was over a year ago.  She knows I played when I was growing up, but I have rarely talked to her about it.  My softball team gave her a little kid glove and baseball when she was born so we found that.  I dug out my mitt and some softballs.  I have a bat I used when I was a kid, complete with my name my Dad burned into the bat.  I went to wrestle it out of my closet.   "Come on Mom, mom come outside let's play", I kept hearing from the backyard.

Now a word about me and softball.  I played starting at age 7.  It was actually T-ball (baseball) for 2 years mixed in with the boys.  My parents say I approached them about playing.  I have no recollection of that.  At age 9 I moved to softball.  I played through high school and from then on it was college rec leagues or church softball.  In my earlier years I was mostly out in the outfield.  At some point, I was moved to pitcher and that was my position from then on.

The girls and I are outside now with the equipment.  What should we do?  We start out trying to toss the ball to each other, but quickly realize that this isn't going to work.  The mitt is small and awkward on Hannah, it is too big and awkward for Haley.  We decide the softball is too big for them to safely catch in the mitt and go for the baseball.  I give the girls some instruction on throwing, turn to the side, take a step, throw over hand.  Haley has some nice throws but gets confused about the stepping forward thing.  The sun was low in the horizon and shining right in my eyes, I can't see the ball coming and I'm not sure where it is going to end up, they are having trouble catching too.  Maybe we should try the bat . . . more akwardness.  How do you describe to someone who has never hit a baseball, how to hold the bat let alone make contact with the ball.  All these terms come flooding into my head shoulders back, elbows up, choke up, keep your eye on the ball, swing level.  I can see I'm starting to overwhelm them with details.  OK, let's let them just try.  Hooray, Hannah hits the ball a few times and we're all jumping up and down excitedly - nice swing.  Haley's job is to retrieve the ball and throw it back, great strong throws.  Daddy comes home. We take turns lobbing the ball to them.  Hannah's luck changes and neither of us can get the ball to her consistenly enough for her to hit it anymore, though we both keep insisting that we are the one parent who can lob it correctly.  I decide we'll need to go out and buy a T-ball set if we want to do this in the future.  Next, it's turn for Hannah to try pitching and Haley gets to hit with some help from Daddy. Will softball turn into a passion for them as it was for me?  Will they be any good at it?  Who knows.  For the next few days, Hannah asks, why can't we go out and play softball again - sweet!