Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Pathetically Sad Baseball Fans,
Lend me your ears. I have waited yet again until the very last moments of May to submit my monthly piece for the NVTBL because I didn't really have any riveting thoughts on the Korean Baseball League. I have already whined and poured out my busted up heart in this space detailing all the things we desperately miss about baseball. Many of us have spent weeks slumped sadly in front of our televisions, watching replays of games from lo so many years past, eating bags upon bags of potato chips, and wondering with great shame and sadness if we'll even fit into our brand new Washington Nationals World Champions tshirt when this whole thing is over. Maybe, just me? Anyway, I come to you today with tidings of great comfort and joy. Of course, the details are a little sketchy and information seems to change on the daily. However, it appears that some of our area baseball fields will open starting this weekend. Even better, some hard-working heroic folks in the Northern Virginia baseball community have just drafted eight teams for the first ever Northern Virginia College Baseball League set to start up in a few weeks. I took this news in with cautious optimism and in a stoically calm and reserved manner. Kinda like this: Now if you're like me, you've done a lot of thinking during this global pandemic. I daresay, perhaps a little soul-seraching. You've recognized that you didn't appreciate all the ordinary routines and obligations of your one precious life until they were taken away. Maybe, you've even pleaded with the Lord to forgive you - bargaining, cajoling, and negotiating the terms of the return to normal life. You've promised that you'll be a better person after all of this is over. You've admitted that you've been a spineless clod of grievances and you understand now that you should have been more grateful. Again, just me? Well, y'all. It looks like the time is now. Baseball is going to be back maybe even in the next few weeks. It's time to make good on all of these promises. This is where the rubber meets the road. It's push come to shove time, put up or shut up, gotta make hay while the sun shines, etc. Your list might be different from me, but here's mine. Let's do this. Jenn's 2020 Return of Baseball Resolutions 1. I resolve that when my kids strikes out looking on a pitch that was very clearly a ball meaning that the umpire has made a gross misjudgment, I will react with the utmost respect and maturity, understanding that he is a human being who possibly, perhaps, maybe, just might have seen something I didn't see from my vantage point. 2. I resolve not to complain about sitting in the metal bleachers on a steaming hot day and will look forward with glee to all games even if the forecast looks like this: 3. I resolve that when the game gets intense and that fan on the other side is yelling her fool head off about some nonsense or God-forbid utilizing some kind of noise making device (Lord, deliver us from the cowbells), I will remain calm and collected, recognizing her as a fellow child of God with reasonable thoughts and feelings who is just doing the best she knows how to do. 4. I resolve that I will accept the challenge of all baseball laundry with gratitude, joy, and a servant heart, relishing the Shout, Fels-Naptha bar, and 28 gallon tub of Oxi-Clean as undeserved gifts of immeasurable worth. 5. I resolve that even if we're losing by ten runs in the 9th inning and even if our team looks like they forgot how to swing a bat and even if the ball just went between someone's legs, and even if it's about to start raining or the wind is brutal or the sun is blazing or my back is breaking, I'll remain full of joy and hope and remember this: Take heart, Northern Virginia Baseball fans. It looks like maybe, just maybe, our long national nightmare is almost over. We can do this. We can be better and we can do better. Make your resolutions list today, my friends. For more information on the Northern Virginia College League, check out @_NVCL on Twitter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jenn Skinner
Jennifer is a Texas-native living in Northern Virginia with her husband of 25 years, Steve. A free-lance writer, most of her musings recount her 17 plus years as a baseball and basketball mom to her three sons, Joe, Kyle, and Drew, on her blog, The View from Behind Home Plate. Outside of racing between basketball courts and baseball fields, she spends her time as a Women’s Bible study leader, childhood cancer advocate, and rabid Texas Longhorn fan. Her writing has also appeared in columns for Arcola Methodist Church, the Northern Virginia Travel Baseball League, the Dadvocacy Consulting Group, Dysautonomia International, and the pediatric cancer advocacy organization, Kyle’s Kamp. Archives
October 2021
Categories |