Giants Vs. Titans

 Spring is here!  I don't need a calendar to know that.  The dogwoods and redbuds are abloom; squirrels are acting squirrelly, and with the stunning green of the new sod comes baseball. No,not the multi-millionaire businessmen going about their assigned duties while ingesting ‘roids and chewing ephedra laced wads of tobacco to enhance their skills, I mean the game where little kids race aimlessly about heaving balls to left field as their opponents are rounding third.  The game where, to the players, it must seem a good mile and a half from home to first if they are lucky enough to be swinging the bat just as the pitcher gets one over the plate on the first or second bounce.  That game.

I was out riding my motorbike yesterday when I happened upon a heated battle between the Giants and the Titans over at New Monia Municipal City Park over there behind the East New Monia Courthouse. I always stop whenever I wander up on a real baseball game. Approaching a mother of one of the little lads  locked in mortal combat I inquired as to the score and inning of the contest and was informed that it was the middle of the third inning two out and the score was (unofficially) 17 to 12, bases loaded.  As it was her son that was at bat I left her alone to scream " Wait for your pitch…make him pitch to you…keep your eye on the ball…come baby, come baby" and so on.

 There wasn’t much bat-to-ball contact while I sat there, which was okay with me as I'm not a big fan of the plinking  of aluminum bats, but there was a number of occasions where the ball made a thunking sound as it was thrown into bodies and helmets thereby providing runners on base.  I believe that at the skill level of 8 year olds they should just aim for each other when the ball is tossed and there would be less injuries than I saw out there in just a couple of innings.  I know those boys must have slept well after their game was finally over. If, indeed it ever actually concluded. 

 I ended up staying for about an hour, which was the end of the third with the score tied 29 all and wandered on up through the woods on the back roads thinking about how seriously I considered those games when I was their ripe old age.  I would work all day mowing and doing yard work or picking beans that had to be shelled that night (that's another story for another time, man how I hated shelling beans and peas) then go play ball until it was so dark that we couldn't find the ball when it got hit or thrown into the weeds surrounding the "baseball field."  It's funny how work makes you so tired but playing baseball for 4 or 5 hours doesn't.  I hope that when those boys are old men they will remember some part of the day the Giants warred with the Titans out behind the courthouse. I certainly will.