Baseball Blues

Baseball season at our house is coming to an end.  It never really seems long enough.  Just about when a team begins to play well together, the season is over and they're handing out trophies.  Of course, our son is in a league where the coach pitches, they don't really keep score and everyone "wins".   It has it's exciting moments but mostly it is about the kids learning the rules of the game and everyone having a good time. Baseball is changed a little into a game of folly and there are a million errors.  Half the time, the kids are spinning in circles instead of watching the game, or bent over playing in the dirt.  Batting is their time to shine and they take it seriously, but the rest of the time, the coach is trying to keep them from playing tag in the dugout.  Our guy's last game is Tuesday night, followed by a celebration at the local pizza place, handing out trophies and saying goodbye to kids we may not encounter again.  It is a little bit sad, really.  For a kid like ours, who makes connections with his team and loves to play the game, it will be hard not to be involved in something for a little while.  It will be hard for him to wait many months to sign up to play again...the game he loves.  He has made a lot of progress this year.  It is awesome to see him take a swing at the ball and make contact, to watch him run full speed around the bases, to see the joy and the intensity of his game face.  There really is nothing like it.

Something else has me contemplating the Baseball Blues but it really doesn't have much to do with baseball at all.  It is the baseball pictures that we got last week.  I bought the smallest package, partly because it was the cheapest but mostly because we have a dwindling number of people to give them to.  When our oldest daughter was born and we had various portraits made, we had to get a bigger packet.  Most of the great grandparents were still alive, there were grandparents and other extended family who would enjoy displaying a portrait on their fridge, or even put it in a frame and display it prominently for all to see...for them to brag about.  Fast forward just thirteen years...we have no more great grandparents.  The last one standing was my Grandma who passed away in December.  My kids have one Grandad, a Granna and a Gram.  They have a few uncles and aunts, very few people to send pictures to.  It is a little bit sad  (albeit cheaper when buying pictures) to think about how few people my kids have to call "family". Most of our family lives far enough away that we rarely see one another. Many of our family members will never see him play the game. So, we try to "make family" with the relationships we develop, but I've found that it really is not the same, no matter how hard we try.  I wish it were different for them, and for me.