A Baseball Moment

Yesterday afternoon, my family was watching "The Sandlot". Probably one of the best baseball related family movies out there. Except for a couple of completely unnecessary curse words, it is a cute movie. After watching the movie, Gage went up stairs and grabbed his baseball mitt that we bought at a yard sale a couple of summers ago. He went outside to see if one of the neighborhood boys wanted to play catch. I went to help Joi make dinner and told Gage that I'd play catch with him after dinner. Joi told me that she'd take care of dinner and that I should go outside and play catch. So, I did. Gage's face lit up and he was so excited to be playing catch with his Daddy. Before long, Garrison wandered outside to watch. I told him to grab his glove and join us. He did. Unfortunately, the gloves that we bought for them at that yard sale are all made for right handers...so Garrison had to catch and throw opposite of his left-handedness. But, he did really well. Within a few more minutes, Gavin joined us outside with his glove. And then a neighborhood kid showed up with his spider-man glove and ball. Since they are all still fairly new at catching and throwing a baseball, I had them line up opposite of me and I took turns throwing it to them. The neighborhood kid that joined us beamed when he caught the ball with his mitt "for the first time". I saddened me that this boy got to experience that moment with me rather than his own Dad. But, I was proud to be the deliverer of that throw regardless. My boys did awesome for being new at the whole baseball thing. I think we will do this more often. Every boy should know how to catch and throw a baseball. My catching elbow is a little sore from over-extending it to catch some wild pitches, but over all it was a nice time. The look on my boys' faces when they caught a pitch in their glove or made a perfect throw back to me was priceless!