baseball

If you know me, you probably know that I like baseball. A lot. Specifically, I love the Detroit Tigers: we've been in a relationship since 1984 (which is the last time they won the World Series). SOMEHOW I've managed to pass the love of baseball onto my eldest son -- not sure how that happened.... Maybe it's because I have an MLB.tv subscription and have the Tigers on almost every night? And maybe it's because we go to at least one Tigers v. White Sox games at U.S. Cellular Field and I wear my Tigers shirt and cheer really loud? It's hard to tell. </sarcasm> It certainly doesn't hurt that the Tigers have been good (save last year) for pretty much the entire time he's been alive. Caroline also plays on a Park District team and if Elias knows what's good for him he'll play too :)

I've already posted on my feelings about youth sports and now we find our calendar filled to the brim with practices and games. I might as well just stop writing in my kids's practices and games and just write BASEBALL over the weeks in June and July. I'd be lying if I didn't say I loved it though. I love watching my kids play. Ben has a natural talent for it, but he puts an inordinate amount of pressure on himself to perform and I'm not sure how to get him to ratchet it down. This year he is playing on an official Little League team as well as a Chicago Park District team (don't ask). He's part of the Garfield Park Little League 12U team and they're currently tied for first place. He's batting second and playing 2nd base and the outfield and he's almost always the youngest and smallest kid on the field on either team.

We really like this league: the competition is superior to the Park District, as is the instruction. Garfield Park is located on the west side of the city in a mostly African-American area and so the majority of kids that it draws are of course African-American. Ben is the only non African-American kid on the team and it is one of the things I love best about this league. The precipitous drop in the number of African-Americans in baseball is well-documented which is a dreadful loss of talent from the game.

I am very happy to support baseball in the inner city with black coaches who teach and set a good example, demand discipline and the best effort from the young men in their charge. The winning is just the icing on the cake!