"Player of the Game"

It all begins today and how wonderful it is with this beginning. Today is opening day for my daughter's softball team along with being a practice day for my son's Little League team. My son has his opening game next week. In preparation we all took it easy last night after my daughter's practice. By taking it easy we had our dear friend's children over and I swear sometimes it is easier to care for four children instead of two!! The children were very good and any disagreements were worked out by them. My wife and I actually watched a DVD for the first time since we all came back from New Jersey.

Thanks to a very generous person we have a subscription to Netflix and we watched our first selection while the children watched the other selection. The children watch "Underdog" which apparently was a new movie based on the cartoon series when I was a child. My wife and I watched a few episodes of the second season of "Heroes". I did get hooked on this show while I served my sentence and was the only series I had watched in the past two years. I didn't have the opportunity to watch the second season and with my wife wanting me to pick one show where we could watch together I figured I would see what happened last season before committing to this season.

On the DVD were three episodes and I had to tap my memory bank as to what had happened prior to these episodes. I remembered most of the storyline and I am somewhat intrigued to the current storyline. I do think the earlier episodes which got me hooked on the series were much more captivating but I will be patient to see where the next 9 shows go. We watched two episodes last night and it was a very peaceful evening.

The morning came with me getting up very early so I could get in my workout. This is an "in between" week during the training regimen and thus there wasn't a scheduled long run today. This was just as well for me because my legs needed a "rest" week and this gave me more time to get home this morning before my son's practice. The run went very well and I was home very quickly so I could see my wife and daughter off. My daughter had her opening day ceremonies this morning which I could not attend because I was with my son at his practice. Thankfully there are two of us and I have no idea how my wife did this by herself for the past two years.

My wife and daughter were out the door and a few minutes later so were my son and me. My daughter had team pictures and the opening ceremonies while we were at my son's practice. My son's practice went very well and I think I found a position he really enjoys. I had been thinking about this for awhile and when the manager asked if I would take the kids who wanted to catch it all clicked. I asked my son if he wanted to play catcher and he jumped at the opportunity. He loved putting on the equipment and when the pitching machine threw him a few balls he didn't do half bad. Compartively speaking to the other boys on his team my son did very well. Some of the boys couldn't get the catcher's mitt on the baseball where my son even caught a few of the pitched balls.

My son needs to be in action all of the time and I think playing catcher would fit this bill. He was all over the backstop and when some of the boys couldn't take it after a few pitches my son wanted to catch a second time. I spoke with the manager and my son will split the catching duties with another boy; this made my son very happy and seems like a perfect fit. The practice went long because we were trying to give each boy the opportunity to catch and we finally finished with everyone 30 minutes later than usual. It was a very good practice and in spite of the very warm temperature (100 degrees) everything went well.

As the practice ended we had time to go home for some lunch and give my son a few minutes rest before departing for my daughter's softball game. We did depart and I went to my daughter's game while my son went over to the adjacent skate park. This has been the routine as my daughter had practice and my son occupied himself at the skate park.

It was opening day and the teams looked great in their full uniforms and wonderfully decorated banners. As I mentioned it was very warm but the girls didn't seem to mind. The game got underway and my daughter's team was having a difficult time getting the other team out. Thankfully there is a four run rule and the moment the other team scored four runs in the same inning that inning was over. Needless to say my daughter's team was down 4 to 0 before they even got a chance to hit. Unfortunately for my daughter's team they couldn't get any runs and before they knew it the score read 12 to 1.

My daughter's first at bat didn't go so well as she struck out with runners on second and third. Her second at bat went very well and with two outs she lined (and I do mean "lined") a single into centerfield. This was her first hit and the team's first hit for the season. She hit the ball so hard that the coach on the other team remarked, "great hit!" She did come around to score and was all smiles as she crossed home plate.

The final score read 12-3 but this didn't matter and when it came time to give out the "Player of the Game" the coach handed my daughter the placard. This brought more smiles to her face and my daughter's coach also commented on what a great hit it was. I thought this was so cool and when I saw the placard with my daughter's name on it I had tears in my eyes. This may seem corny or a bit over the top but I had goose bumps. I missed the past two years and I missed these incredible moments but all thanks to recovery these moments are here to stay and I will savor each and every moment. It truly was a fantastic day.