Baseball memories

When I was growing up my parents got me onto a softball team, and my older brother played baseball. I did not enjoy it at all--one of the main reasons being that it was so boring that I had to do cartwheels out in the field to make the time go by faster. I lasted one season, and can't remember much more than the cartwheels. My brother, on the other hand, loved playing baseball and was naturally good at it. That passed on down to my two younger brothers, and my sister as well. I was doomed to a life of watching baseball game after baseball game (and softball, too). I really didn't enjoy watching baseball games, and was even more disgusted watching professional baseball on TV. When we moved to Bear Lake, Idaho, my brother played on the high school baseball team, and my attitude immediately changed. I was a freshman, and all his studly friends that played baseball were very entertaining to watch. Not to mention that I had a crush on Lance at that time, and he played on the team as well. Needless to say, I have boys to thank for finally opening my eyes to the amazing sport of baseball. It really is an awesome sport, and I have sat through the games of all three brothers playing baseball from Little League to high school (two brothers went to Junior College to play, but I didn't get to any games). Lance's family is no different. All three brothers played baseball, and were very talented. His dad has coached countless teams in Little League and Pony, and has put a lot of sweat into making the baseball fields at the high school look as great as they look today. I don't know if I should mention this since we do live in Milwaukee, Home of the Brewers, but the Cubs are both our families' team of choice.

To show you how devoted our families are to baseball: we had to plan our wedding around the baseball schedule. I will admit that with Corby, Chase (my brothers), and Chase (Lance's brother) playing and my dad coaching JV, it was quite important to work around it. We did end up getting married on the weekend of Districts, which wasn't very popular, but it was our only option. We also went on a trip to Boise (5-hour drive) two weeks after Jaycee was born to watch those same brothers play in the State tournament. It was quite painful for me (if you want to know the truth), but worth it since they took the championship. We even had the principal of the school ask if we had brought Jaycee right from the hospital after she was born to the games. I felt like a terrible mother, too, because Jaycee ended up getting heat rash because it was so hot.

If you know Lance, you know he's got baseball down to a science, and knows every trick, every rule, and every play, etc.. Hence, the video. He's already taught Jaycee to tap the plate with the bat (the coke bottle is all we have for a bat), to bat left-handed (which is apparently better in baseball) and run the bases. At the end she says, "Safe!" if you can't tell. She enjoys playing this game, and Lance is, of course, a very proud father. He claims he doesn't want a softball player because he hates softball, but he might change his mind eventually. Sorry for the novel, but I liked reminiscing about the good old days.