I just heard from a good friend today and it reminded me of a first in my life. For all you out there who have never hit a ball out of the ballpark, the significance of my accomplishment will be lost in your ignorance.
We were playing softball for our weekly P.E. class at Frankfort Covenant Academy (shouldn't you have P.E. more than once a week?) and things were going well. Any of my friends from the Frankfort days probably remember my competitive streak. I always wanted to win, whatever the cost. I always tried to finangle the best team possible. Somehow, my best friend Jonathan and I got on the same team, which rarely happened. Our principal, Mr. Campbell, usually made us captains.
Whatever the case, I was playing shortstop and Jonathan was at first base and defensively we were clicking. But that glorious moment happened when I stepped to the plate in the first inning. When we were able to be on the same team Jonathan normally batted third, while I batted fourth. For some reason we switched numbers that day, so I was batting in the 3 spot.
Stacy Griffin was on the mound for the opposing team. She was one of those sporadic pitchers. If she was on, it was always over the plate. If she was off, you never knew where the ball was going to end up.
This day she was on. The first pitch was a ball, but the second pitch was perfect. Is there any better feeling in the world than the slight vibration caused by hitting the ball with the fat part of the bat? I knew as soon as I hit the softball that this one was different. It took off like a rocket. I'm a right-handed pull hitter. Normally, I'm going to hit to left or centerfield. Well, this day the ball rose loftily (is that a word?) into the air toward right-center field at Green Street Park Lions Club Field. Matt Sullivan was playing right field that day and I remember watching him (as I churned towards first) run to the fence, stop, and gaze as the ball landed on the other side.
The euphoric feeling erupting on the inside can't be explained. I had done it! I was officially now part of the Bash Brothers club.
The next batter, Jonathan, cranked it out of the park, his first ever home run. I ended up hitting one more home run before the game was over.
Jon and I were riding on cloud 9 the rest of the day. It didn't matter that Stacy got mad and screamed at us as we rounded the bases. We had done it! We were men!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Ahhhh...I don't remember if I was on your team that day, but I would've either been screaming for joy and jumping up and down, or sighing in resignation (knowing the inevitable was happening before my eyes).
Yes, I can hear the kids yelling, "Keithie's up! Back up, back up!" Hmmm. I never heard my name interjected in there, but that's no surprise since I frequently popped out (good hit or not).
And I can remember the sinking feeling of despair when I happened to be picked for the other team, and then the glimmer of hope to think that maybe this will be the day that Keithie's team doesn't win (I'm not recollecting that it ever happened, though...sigh)
And then the grouchy feeling that once again, Keithie was playing short stop. Why didn't I ever get to be the short stop? (ok, I never really wanted that position, since I thrived on pitching, it was all based on the principle of the matter.) Keithie, the short stop hogger--it was a very grouchy feeling.
Weren't those the days? :)
Carrie, I think I'm going to post the FCA All-Star softball team. We thought we were awesome.
I did always try to get you on the team. We always needed a good pitcher.
We WERE awesome! I guarantee you we could beat any other Christian school in town! :)
Funny thing about pitching--I never realized at that point in time that I needed to pitch to try to strike the batter out. I was too focused on pitching the "perfect pitch" (if the person batting hit it out of the park, I knew I had succeeded--weird, huh?)
Ilove these school day memories,when you'd get on the phone & round up all the kids for a game after school. That was in later years, tho'. I knew you all were having a good time.
Post a Comment